A U.S. bankruptcy trustee filed a civil complaint today accusing bankrupt auto mogul of conspiracy, theft, fraud and conversion in the bankruptcy case of his Advantage Rent A Car businesses.
The document, filed Tuesday morning, accuses Denny Hecker of engaging in a convoluted money diversion scheme that pumped many payments worth $148 million from his Advantage and Southwest-Tex auto leasing businesses into Hecker's other leasing businesses.
The trustee alleges that Southwest-Tex was basically an unprofitable shell that Advantage billed excessively in exchange for little or nothing in return. The suit says Southwest-Tex made excessive payments to Hecker and his various enterprises within a year of Advantage's bankruptcy petition.
"The payments were made with the actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud creditors of the debtors," the trustee said in the lawsuit.
Hecker's bankruptcy attorney Marsh Halberg, was reached on vacation Tuesday morning and said, "Wow. I know nothing about this."
He added that if the civil complaint winds itself into criminal charges that he is likely to get involved in the case.
Hecker put his Advantage business into bankruptcy court in December and filed for personal bankruptcy June 4, claiming that he owed up to 1,000 creditors as much as $1 billion.
Dee DePass • 612-673-7725
