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Hecker demands that documents be returned
He claims the documents were stolen by a former employee and improperly passed to Chrysler Financial, which says Hecker owes it almost $400 million.
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Former auto mogul Denny Hecker demanded in court this week that Chrysler Financial return thousands of internal documents that Hecker alleges were stolen in 2008 by his former executive assistant, Cindy Bowser, during her employment.
The motion, filed in bankruptcy court late Tuesday, said the electronic documents were obtained improperly, are protected by attorney-client privilege and that Chrysler Financial has no right to them yet refuses to return them.
Hecker attorney Bill Skolnick said Chrysler Financial's lawyers copied the 30,000 e-mails, attachments, spreadsheets, invoices and other electronic data Bowser had secretly copied and then sent it to the U.S. Bankruptcy trustee who is liquidating Hecker's assets.
The motion filed this week requests that the court disqualify Chrysler Financial's attorneys at Gray Plant Mooty Mooty & Bennett "based on their conduct in refusing to return stolen e-mail communications and documents" and failing to protect privileged information. Chrysler Financial received Bowser's electronic documents last month as a result of a subpoena, court documents said.
Chrysler Financial, owed nearly $400 million by Hecker, sued him in July, alleging fraud and forgery over loan documents he submitted to obtain Hyundai vehicles. Hecker has denied wrongdoing. That case is making its way through the courts.
Court documents submitted this week included a September e-mail from Bowser to Chrysler Financial's attorney Nick Nierengarten that said, "I will send along with the courier the file I have on hard copies of the Hyundai agreement."
Bowser, who worked for Hecker until April, could not be reached for comment.
In a phone call to the Star Tribune Wednesday, Hecker said the documents that Bowser copied onto a personal flash drive and personal computer last year amounted to "200,000 pages" of e-mails and documents that were mostly addressed to him. He added that she never had authority to distribute them. "They were stolen," Hecker said.
But in an affidavit, Nierengarten said Bowser never stole a thing because she was e-mailed directly on all correspondence to Hecker. He also complained that Hecker's attorney was immediately sent copies of Bowser's e-mails and yet Hecker's legal team never filed documents with the court stating what information was considered privileged.
Nierengarten insisted that no one in his firm has read the information sent by Bowser. A copy of the disc was only given to the trustee's office as a result of a subpoena, he said in a court filing. Court documents also included a letter to Hecker's former attorney, Bill Mohrman, warning that unless he took steps in court to quash the trustee's subpoena, Chrysler Financial would be forced to turn over the materials.
In his affidavit, Nierengarten said Skolnick became belligerent during various conversations about the matter and accused the Chrysler lawyers of receiving stolen property and of breaking a law, but he declined to identify the statute. Nierengarten also wrote that Skolnick told him and lawyer Howard Roin that they should hire attorneys.
In an interview Wednesday, Skolnick said the facts of the case were simple and that all the Bowser data should be returned to Hecker immediately. Skolnick alleges that Bowser likely violated the Stored Communications Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
"I know for a fact that there are hundreds of attorney-client privileged communications contained on that disc, including privileged documents pertaining to the dispute with Chrysler," Skolnick said.
A hearing is set on the matter for Nov. 25 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis.
Hecker has shut, sold or lost 26 dealerships and several large fleet and auto leasing businesses.
Dee DePass • 612-673-7725
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