As of Friday afternoon, fraudster Denny Hecker remained in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., but U.S. Bureau of Corrections officials said the former auto dealer is not done traveling yet.

They declined to name Hecker's ultimate destination or say why he was being moved.

Hecker, once an omnipresent auto pitchman with ads on billboards, TV, radio and buses, is serving a 10-year prison sentence for bankruptcy fraud and cheating auto companies out of millions of dollars. He had been housed at the minimum-security federal prison camp in Duluth until he was relocated this week.

Hecker, 59, was first taken by bus to a federal prison in Oxford, Wis., on Wednesday and then moved to a prison in Terre Haute on Thursday.

Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke said Friday that it is common for relocated prisoners to be taken by bus to a few different prisons before they reach their final destination. Burke declined to discuss Hecker's case or say if misbehavior was a factor in Hecker's relocation.

But that's not stopping the speculation.

Hecker's former attorney Brian Toder said Friday that he didn't know why Hecker was moved, but he noted that Hecker got into trouble in Duluth for abusing phone privileges and may have been viewed as a flight risk. He added that the Bureau of Prisons sometimes transfers inmates around just to keep them "uncomfortable" and to remind them who is in control.

Toder visited Hecker in Duluth on Monday and said Hecker was worried that he might be transferred soon.

Hecker was separated from Duluth's general prison population in December and put in a "special housing unit." That happened just as his wife, Christi Rowan Hecker, was released from an Illinois prison for fraud and into a halfway house in the Twin Cities. Hecker's confinement also coincided with a bankruptcy trustee's subpoenas of Hecker's friends and phone records between Hecker and Rowan. Both have been accused of hiding cash, cars, jewelry and other assets from the bankruptcy court.

Dee DePass • 612-673-7725