A 62-year-old New Prague, Minn., man, already a convicted perjurer, has admitted stealing more than $640,000 from a benefit plan for employees of his company, which provided adult foster care as well as group-home and mental-health services.
Delroy J. Sand Jr. pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to embezzling from Hecla Inc. from February 2008 through September 2009.
Sand, trustee for the employees' retirement savings plan, potentially faces five years in prison. Sentencing has yet to be scheduled.
In his plea agreement, Sand admitted taking $642,166 from Hecla's employee benefit plan for his own use.
Between the time the alleged thievery began and his indictment in November 2010, Sand bought two new pickup trucks. One was valued at more than $38,000 and the other at more than $54,000.
Last fall, Sand pleaded guilty in Le Sueur County District Court to felony perjury and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, 90 days of home monitoring and five years' probation.
In that case, according to the Mankato Free Press, Sand admitted that he falsely claimed to be the widower of a Le Sueur woman who died in 2005. Sand had actually been married to another woman in Stearns County since 1969, the Free Press said.
Sand was charged with theft by swindle and perjury after he sold the Le Sueur woman's home and land to one of her sons, even though it wasn't his to sell, the newspaper added.
