Minnesota Man Charged With Mail Fraud

The United States Attorney’s Office, for the District of Minnesota, says 56-year-old Jerome Robert Hennessey, of Dalton, Minn., has been charged with one count of mail fraud.

Hennessey surrendered himself and made his initial appearance Tuesday in US District Court in Minneapolis.

According to the criminal complaint, from 2003 through at least September of this year, Hennessey defrauded the Ashby Farmers’ Co-Operative Elevator Company (co-op) in Ashby, Minnesota, for his own expenses.

The criminal complaint and law enforcement affidavit allege that on January 27, 2017, Hennessey mailed a check via U.S. mail in the amount of $34,166.67 from the co-ops’ account for a partial payment toward the purchase of hunting property in Kanabec County.

According to the affidavit, after the co-op identified the suspicious payments, they requested Hennessey meet with them on the morning of September 10, 2018. Hennessey did not show up for the meeting and instead met a friend who ultimately drove Hennessey to Des Moines, Iowa. Two of Hennessey’s acquaintances who were interviewed by law enforcement indicated that Hennessey told them that he taken money from his employer and was in a lot of trouble.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kokkinen is prosecuting the case.