MINNEAPOLIS: Until the Bernard Madoff scandal broke, it was a Minnesota businessman who stood accused of orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme authorities could ever recall.

Tom Petters, 52, who seemed to have a golden touch as he built a small merchandise liquidation company into a diversified empire that owned well-known businesses such as Polaroid, goes on trial this week. The size of his alleged fraud: $3.65 billion.

Petters' world began to unravel a year ago when his trusted lieutenant, Deanna Coleman, walked into the US attorney's office with what prosecutors called a "staggering" allegation.