Hecker Confidante Charged with Lying to Investigators, Helping to Hide a Cadillac

James Carl Gustafson, a 49-year-old former employee of auto mogul Denny Hecker, has been charged in federal court in the District of Minnesota for allegedly lying to government investigators about Hecker’s scheme to defraud financial lenders and others out of millions of dollars. Gustafson was also charged with assisting Hecker in hiding a Cadillac Escalade from creditors. Specifically, the Information, which was filed last week, charges Gustafson with one count of making a false statement and one count of mail fraud. He is scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court on September 27, 2010, at 2:00 p.m., in federal court in Minneapolis. He will appear before U.S. District Court Judge Joan N. Ericksen.

The Information alleges that on April 21, 2010, Gustafson made a false statement to agents of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He told them that in October of 2008, he learned for the first time that a falsified Hyundai Motor America document had been submitted to Chrysler Financial, one of the lenders from which Hecker borrowed money for financing the purchase of fleet vehicles. In reality, Gustafson learned about that submission no later than early 2008. In addition, on April 20, 2009, Gustafson submitted an application, by mail, to the State of Minnesota to retitle a 2004 Cadillac Escalade in the name of Northstate Financial. That company, however, was nothing more than a shell company, and the title transfer was merely a ploy to mask the car’s true owner, Denny Hecker, from creditors, including Chrysler Financial.

If convicted, Gustafson faces a potential maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the mail fraud charge and five years on the false statement charge. All sentences will be determined by Judge Ericksen.

Earlier this month, Hecker pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of bankruptcy fraud in connection with the scheme to defraud Chrysler Financial Services and other commercial lenders.

Co-conspirator Steve Leach is scheduled to go to trial for his role in the fraud scheme on October 18, 2010.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Minnesota State Patrol, the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division, and the FBI. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicole A. Engisch, Nancy E. Brasel, and David M. Genrich.

A defendant, of course, is presumed innocent until he or she pleads guilty or is proven guilty at trial.