A lawyer for the $125,000 benefactor to erstwhile car king Denny Hecker filed a 10-page legal memo seeking to keep the person's identity a public secret, according to a court document released Thursday.
The benefactor provided Hecker with the money to replenish his 401(k) account earlier this year. Hecker took money from the 401(k) account last year as he was beginning his divorce from fourth wife, Tamitha Hecker. Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam determined that Hecker had illegally raided the account and threatened him with jail if he failed to repay the account. Hecker came up with the money at the last minute through a donation from someone who has not been publicly named.
Hecker avoided jail at that time. He landed in jail last week for three days after repeated failures to make support payments to Tamitha Hecker and his second wife, Sandra Hecker. Quam had him handcuffed and taken to jail for civil contempt.
The judge has repeatedly asked Hecker for an accounting of his financial situation -- a demand the car dealer has failed to fulfill. The judge is trying to determine whether Hecker can afford to pay his former wives or whether he's as broke as he claims.
As part of the disclosure, Quam wants to know where the $125,000 came from.
The benefactor's lawyer, Alan Eidsness, said the donor would be happy to provide information to the judge and lawyers for Hecker's former wives, but doesn't want to become part of the media swirl surrounding Hecker's divorce, bankruptcy and criminal trials.
He identifies the person throughout the memo as "benefactor," never conferring details or even gender.
Eidsness argues that the origins of the $125,000 are part of the fact-gathering process leading up to a civil case and that the public has no right of access to such pretrial exchanges of information.
Response memos for those who want to argue for the release of the name are due Wednesday. None had been filed as of Thursday.
In another development, J.P. Morgan will be allowed to keep a $142,000 brokerage account belonging to Hecker, according to a ruling issued Thursday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel.
J.P. Morgan becomes one of the first in a long list of creditors to secure funds from Hecker.
Last month, J.P. Morgan provided the court with several documents that Hecker signed in 2008, agreeing to let J.P. Morgan "set off" or keep brokerage or savings accounts should he default on his loan obligations.
Hecker has since declared bankruptcy and defaulted on his J.P. Morgan loans to the tune of $3 million, a paltry sum compared to the nearly $400 million he owes Chrysler Financial and the millions more owed to 103 other creditors.
Hecker agreed Wednesday not to have any of his debt forgiven after being accused of hiding assets from the court. He said he wanted to focus his energies on fighting the 25 fraud charges he is facing in federal criminal court.
The bankruptcy trustee will continue liquidating assets and eventually figure out how many pennies on the dollar each creditor gets.
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