The U.S. government charged Denny Hecker's friend and former employee, James Carl Gustafson, late Friday with mail fraud and lying to federal prosecutors investigating fraud charges against Hecker. Friday's charges were filed under what's called a "felony information," which suggests a plea deal may be in the works.
Gustafson's attorney, Fred Bruno, was not immediately available for comment. A hearing is set for Sept. 27. If convicted of criminal wrongdoing, Gustafson faces up to 20 years in prison.
The charges allege Gustafson knowingly lied about when he first learned Hecker had falsified loan documents to Chrysler Financial. The resulting loan was used by Hecker to secure a fleet of Hyundai vehicles in 2007. Gustafson reportedly told federal investigators he did not learn about the falsified documents until October 2008. Prosecutors, however, insist he knew about them nearly a year earlier, in November 2007.
Those documents were "intentionally submitted to Chrysler Financial in November 2007 for the purpose of defrauding Chrysler Financial," the charges allege.
The government also accused Gustafson of helping to mask the true identity of the owner of a 2004 Cadillac Escalade by applying to have the vehicle retitled in the name of Northstate Financial.
The court-appointed trustee handling Hecker's bankruptcy case previously asserted that Northstate Financial was a business entity used by Hecker to hide assets from the court.
Gustafson's efforts to reissue paperwork for the Cadillac "knowingly caused the state of Minnesota to deliver by mail ... a fraudulently altered title," the indictment said.
Gustafson surfaced as a person of interest in Hecker's bankruptcy case in February. And by April 2010, the bankruptcy trustee had sued Gustafson and his wife, Jamie, saying the two had been living in Hecker's former Crosslake compound. They allegedly refused to allow the trustee's attorney access to the property to inventory or retrieve boat lifts and other personal property belonging to the estate, the trustee said.
