A U.S. magistrate judge told Twin Cities real estate developer Jeffrey Wirth to get a lawyer by Friday.
Wirth, charged earlier this month with tax evasion, showed up in federal court Tuesday in St. Paul for his delayed plea hearing but still didn't have a lawyer with him. Wirth indicated he was "close to retaining counsel," said U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Keyes before rescheduling Wirth's arraignment a second time, to Friday morning.
"You must have counsel by that time," Keyes warned him.
Also indicted in the alleged tax evasion scheme were Holly C. Damiani, Wirth's former wife, and their tax preparer Michael J. Murry. Both Damiani and Murry pleaded not guilty Tuesday. Trials were set for Oct. 24 before U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery in Minneapolis.
Financial shenanigans alleged
Wirth, of Plymouth and head of the Wirth Cos., a real estate company in Brooklyn Center, is best known locally as the developer of the Water Park of America in Bloomington and the Grand Rios Hotel and Water Park in Brooklyn Park. He also spent an estimated $54 million turning the old Minneapolis Athletic Club into the luxury Grand Hotel Minneapolis. Damiani was an executive at Wirth Cos.
Prosecutors have accused Wirth and Damiani of manipulating their finances in a number of ways in the alleged tax scam, including recording money spent on personal expenses such as trips to Hawaii and private school fees for one of their children as business expenses and eliminating income that should have been taxed by creating bogus management fees.
The two are also accused of diverting more than $2 million from Wirth's companies to the development of a mega-mansion they were building on Lake Minnetonka, without reporting the money as either personal or business income. Work stopped on the villa years ago.
