Desender faces $52M bill in Bixby Energy fraud case

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Desender faces $52M bill in Bixby Energy fraud case

Updated: November 16, 2012 - 6:19 PM

The government says about 1,800 investors in the alternative energy company were defrauded.

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Convicted fraudster Dennis Desender told a federal judge in St. Paul last July that he'd do his best to make investors in Bixby Energy Systems whole when he gets out of prison in about eight years.

It will take the 65-year-old a while to pull that off.

Prosecutors and his lawyer have tallied up the damages Desender and others caused as they rounded up investors for Bixby, a Ramsey-based company that tried to market technology in China that converts coal to natural gas.

Desender's bill, including judgments and restitution, comes to $52,269,945.79, according to a stipulation filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

Desender, a former financial consultant for Bixby and other Twin Cities firms, pleaded guilty in September to one count of securities fraud and implicated its former CEO, Bob Walker, in a conspiracy alleged to have cheated some 1,800 investors. Desender pleaded guilty earlier to tax evasion.

Walker is scheduled to go to trial in September.

DAN BROWNING