Prosecutors: Minnesota suicide prevention nonprofit loses $220K to theft by executive director, relative

Prosecutors say a Minnesota nonprofit dedicated to preventing youth suicide lost nearly $220,000 to a long-running embezzlement scheme perpetuated by its executive director, who also is a close family member.

Ryan Gary Obermoller, 46, of Monticello, Minn., was charged Feb. 17 in Sherburne County District Court with two felony counts of theft in connection with siphoning funds from Dylan’s Hope Foundation from 2018 until this past August.

Obermoller was charged by summons and is due in court April 8. The Minnesota Star Tribune has reached out to his attorney for a response to the allegations. Obermoller declined an interview.

Dylan’s Hope was founded by the family of Dylan Aaseby, soon after the Becker High School junior died by suicide in 2013.

The foundation explains on its website that its mission “is to open lines of communication between young people and adults so that this tragedy does not happen to other youth and their families.”

Along with being the foundation’s executive director, Obermoller was also its treasurer. He also is the son-in-law of the nonprofit’s founders, Britt and Joyce Aaseby.

Jennifer Obermoller, Dylan Aaseby’s sister, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that she has taken over the duties vacated by her estranged husband.

“We started this to help kids,” Britt Aaseby said. “And to put himself ahead of kids … he’s taken a tragedy and tried to make it his game.”

Britt Aaseby said Ryan Obermoller “has been in our family for 25 years. [Accounting] is what he did for a living. How could you second-guess that?”

According to the criminal complaint:

In August 2025, foundation administrators alerted the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office to their suspicions about the thefts. The administrators doubted Ryan Obermoller when he reported that a charity golf tournament in 2024 raised $51,500.

The administrators reviewed the foundation’s bank account and saw that Ryan Obermoller had written a $22,000 check to himself. He subsequently admitted to more thefts, with one of them topping $40,000.

Jennifer Obermoller and Britt Aaseby both said they don’t know what Ryan Obermoller did with the money.