Hecker Hits the Road - Again

Denny Hecker was a Twin Cities car dealer who lived too high, lied too much, and got over-extended. His various enterprises came crashing down around him during Great Recession. It was a perfect storm of self-imposed calamity, compounded by the bad economy.

The perfect storm included bankruptcy and criminal fraud charges, as well as a drunken driving arrest. To engage in a rather bad pun, the wheels fell off for the former auto magnate who once tried to buy the Minnesota Vikings.

And yet even as his businesses ran on fumes and finally expired, Hecker kept digging himself into a bigger hole. This self-sabotage included attempts by Hecker and his newest girlfriend / wife to mislead the bankruptcy court about the extent of Hecker’s assets.

Prison usually provides a reality check for people as self-indulgently willful as Denny Hecker. And that is indeed happening. This week the Star Tribune reported on the dose of “diesel therapy” Hecker is receiving, courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

The bureau is relocating Hecker to a different prison, this time in Pennsylvania. It’s the fourth time Hecker has been moved since he started serving his 10-year sentence in February.

Outside the walls, Hecker broke rules with impunity. The consequences come quicker, it seems, for rule violations inside, such as disregarding limits on phone calls.

Minnesota: Land of 10,000 Ponzi Schemes?

For years, Minnesota styled itself as the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Not surprisingly, there were numerous humorous variations, such as Land of 10,000 Potholes or 10,000 Mosquitoes. But there really are a multitidue of lakes, and the slogan still signifies the abundance of water in this state.

Do we also have an abundance of financial crime? Eric Wieffering, an astute financial columnist for the Star Tribune, wrote a piece last month exploring the notion that Minnesota has become the Land of 10,000 Ponzi Schemes.

The names that came up, as Wieffering briefly summarized a dozen or so high-profile cases, started of course with Tom Petters and Denny Hecker, both of whom are now serving lengthy prison terms. But the list also includes Trevor Cook, Charles E. Hays, Kalin Dao and many others.

Is there really more fraud in Minnesota than elsewhere in the country, or does it just seem that way? Hank Shea, who led the U.S. attorney’s financial crime unit for many years, thinks not. In his view, the level of fraud in Minnesota doesn’t differ markedly from mo0st other places.

In fact, Wieffering concludes, our relatively clean image is what led out-of-state interests to set up companies called St, Paul Venture Fund, Minnesota Venture Capital, Inc., and Real Estate of Minnesota, Inc. Those companies are now facing civil charges brought by federal securities regulators. But the companies have to do with Minnesota in name only.

Denny Hecker Goes to Jail

Denny Hecker, the former Twin Cities auto mogul, is experiencing a perfect storm of legal needs. His businesses fell apart in the wake of the Great Recession, amid allegations of fraud concerning his dealings with lenders. His personal finances went Way South - resulting in bankrupcy proceedings. And his marital money matters took on the trappings of farce; last week, he faced lawsuits by his second ex-wife, for nonpayment of alimony, and soon-to-be ex-wife number four, for withholding key information and hiding assets.

Groucho Marx, Rodney Dangerfield, or any comedian worth his or her salt, take it away.

It's hard to find much empathy for someone who lived the high life for so long, and seems so unwilling to take responsibility for his actions. So it was perfectly understandable when Judge Jay Quam decided to give Hecker a taste of jail, to remind him of the importance of candor before the tribunal.

Four days in the Hennepin County workhouse left Hecker gasping for air. Sentenced to 90 days for civil contempt, after failing to comply with numerous court orders, Hecker was released after only 72 hours. The experience of jail for that long, he told the judge, was something "one would not want to experience in a lifetime."

If I were Judge Quam, I might recommend to Denny Hecker that he read Ted Conover's book Newjack, about working as a guard at Sing Sing prison in New York State. Connover recounts how, in the original prison building - built in 1826 by inmate labor and used until 1943 - two prisoners shared a 3 1/2 by 7-foot cell, at first with no central heating, open sewer channels, and little light.

Might Denny, by that standard, be a little pampered?