Former House leader, prominent attorney are alleged victims in Twin Cities THC company fraud case

An Eden Prairie entrepreneur with a lengthy history of civil judgments against him has been charged with stealing $76,000 from the THC beverage company he co-founded with former Minnesota House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler and writing fake emails under the name of prominent Twin Cities attorney Chris Madel.

Christian Schenk, 46, is charged with theft by swindle and theft in Hennepin County for a series of illegal transactions related to Crooked Beverage Company.

“He is a menace,” Winkler said of Schenk.

Christa Groshek, an attorney who is not yet representing Schenk but appeared as a friend of the court for his first appearance in Hennepin County on Friday, said in a statement that “Mr. Schenk adamantly denies the allegations. The complaint has mischaracterized the ownership of the alleged businesses in question, making the allegations baseless. Mr. Schenk plans to fight the case and he looks forward to his day in court.”

The other founders of Crooked Beverage became aware of the case after learning that a Carver County judge had ordered some of Schenk’s income be directed to his ex-wife because Schenk owed her more than $300,000 in backpay for spousal and child support.

Shortly after being made aware of the court order, Winkler and other owners of the company received a letter, purportedly from Madel, saying to not worry about the court order against Schenk, and that it was being taken care of in a court settlement.

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Madel, a dogged litigator who has been rumored as a potential challenger to Gov. Tim Walz in 2026, told the Star Tribune he never represented Schenk but had met him previously in an adversarial role as an attorney.

“It’s oddly flattering that somebody wants to use my name,” Madel said. “I just wish that he would do it better.”

At this point, the founders of Crooked Beverage began looking into Schenk’s history with the company and found a series of fraudulent withdrawals.

“He refused to share basic business information and we started looking into transactions,” Winkler added. “I’m a lawyer, our CFO has significant experience in business, we have other entrepreneur partners, not a bunch of people he could easily fool. What surprised me, and I think the reason why he has been successful, is it was so obvious and audacious. It’s as if you wouldn’t think anyone would do it because it’s so apparent.”

The criminal complaint says that Schenk was in charge of a business account with JPMorgan Chase for Crooked Beverage and then created a Square account for online sales. He allegedly used those accounts for around $7,000 in personal transactions at Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co. and Amazon orders for items like sex toys, essential oils, kids’ toys and men’s and women’s underwear.

Schenk’s history in Minnesota has largely been associated with corporate growth and success.

In an interview with Forbes from 2020, Schenk said he was born into an entrepreneurial family in rural Ontario and built a number of successful companies in diverse industries including wireless, cellphones, banking, and fleet management before getting into cannabis in the late 2010s.

“My passion is to provide society with value,” Schenk said in the interview. “Whether in the form of innovation, disruption, influence or simply by contributing to a good cause.”

In 2016, the Star Tribune reported Schenk’s social media startup for the trucking industry, One20, had raised $38 million in capital. A year later the company entered into a partnership with C.H. Robinson to provide its app at discount to small carriers. The app automatically recorded driving time and monitored engine hours, vehicle movement, miles driven and location information for truck drivers. Before that business, Schenk had been senior vice president of product strategy and market growth for XRS Corp. before it was acquired in 2014 for $178 million.

Schenk doesn’t have a serious criminal history in Minnesota but has a litany of civil litigation against him in the last 10 years.

His most contentious relationship with the courts stems from his divorce in 2018, which has taken years to resolve and involved Schenk being briefly jailed for his failure to pay more than $380,000 he owed to his ex-wife from court ordered judgments. Schenk often claimed poverty, represented himself at trial and at one time requested public counsel.

The courts found that from 2020 to 2023 Schenk received $845,000 in payments from Bench Telematics, an Excelsior company he co-founded in 2014, and was moving money through other companies, including a successful marketing agency his current wife started. Schenk claimed he had nothing to do with the business but was listed as CEO in filings with the Minnesota secretary of state.

In April of 2024, Judge Eric Braaten ordered Schenk to the Carver County jail for refusing to comply with court orders in the divorce proceedings. Shortly after that, Schenk’s ex-wife informed the court he had paid her $142,198 and requested he be released.