The 10 Most Unwanted
A rogues' gallery of swindlers, frauds, and fakes who preyed upon and exploited the innocence, kindness, good humor, and trusting nature of Minnesotans. Darn them!
By Tim Brady and Burl Gilyard
Photo by Liz Lomax (Sculptures)
(page 2 of 3)
No. 7
Denise “Dee” Henderson
beauty queen with a black eye
Though hardly in the league of big-time Minnesota swindlers, Denise “Dee” Henderson merits a post in the pantheon of frauds because few others would look nearly as fetching in heels and a swimsuit. In March 1999, Henderson was crowned Mrs. Minnesota International. Just a month before, however, the Mrs. was granted Social Security disability benefits related to a car accident that she’d survived in 1995.
Henderson claimed that she had suffered neck, back, arm, and leg injuries that prevented her from pursuing her career as a marketing consultant. Oddly, those same injuries didn’t stop her aerobics routine in the beauty competition; nor did they prevent her from lugging suitcases on her many trips as Mrs. Minnesota or scuttle her plans to participate in a dive class in the tropics. Unbeknownst to Henderson, all these activities were videotaped. In 2003, she was charged with taking $190,000 in fraudulent benefits from the federal government and, after being convicted, she got 48 months in the gray-bar hotel. No sash. No crown. No flowers.
The verdict: Insert dumb-blonde joke here.
Just deserts? Henderson began serving her time in Pekin, Illinois, in 2005. Supporters, including Senator Norm Coleman, have asked to have her moved to a Minnesota federal prison facility, nearer her family. The petition—as well as her request to ride home in a chauffeured stretch limo—has been denied.
No. 6
Dr. Eduard Friedrich von Rothkirch
My Resumé? It’s Academic
In May 1948, local newspapers got wind of plans to establish a new college in tiny Hillman, some 100 miles north of Minneapolis. They sent reporters to interview the founder, Dr. Eduard Friedrich von Rothkirch, who claimed to be a descendant of German nobility. Listed as head of the college’s political-science department was General Jonas Cernius, a former prime minister of Lithuania. At long last, it seemed, the world had discovered Minnesota.
Rothkirch’s claims of a noble background began to unravel when journalists discovered that he had been born Edward Tkach in St. Paul in 1919. Nonetheless, Rothkirch maintained he was who he said he was, claiming that his father had been a German spy during World War I, and that he had changed his name to avoid Russian assassins. Meanwhile, Cernius quietly slipped out of Hillman, returning to his former job as a factory worker in New Jersey.
The school never got off the ground, and when Rothkirch missed his rent, the land he’d had his eye on reverted to its former owner.
The verdict: Minnesotans weren’t quite so naïve after Rothkirch was exposed and his plans for higher-ed were debunked. Call it a teachable moment.
Just deserts? By the early 1950s, Rothkirch was doing time in the Wisconsin state pen for forging checks. At least the Russians couldn’t get at him.
No. 5
The Jerusalem Artichoke Swindlers
field of schemes, foreclosed dreams
Through most of its history, the Jerusalem artichoke was simply a big weed. For a moment in the early 1980s, however, this same plant looked like gold to thousands of Minnesota farmers. Thanks for this temporary transformation go to a trio of Marshall entrepreneurs named Fred Hendrickson, James Dwire, and Lowell Kramer. In the midst of the oil crisis, these guys hatched a plan to promote the Jerusalem artichoke as a profitable cash crop. Not only did the plant make an excellent alcohol fuel, they claimed, but its byproducts could also be used in sweetening agents.
Problem was that the business, American Energy Fuel Systems, was long on promises, and short on markets. With the help of a modified pyramid scheme, in which first-year artichoke growers were enlisted to convince other growers to join the party, the company sold $25 million worth of seeds to Midwestern farmers. Unfortunately, no giant agri-business companies showed any interest in the plant, either as food or fuel, which left a lot of farmers holding bags of worthless seed and gazing at acres of unsalable crops. Hendrickson, Dwire, and Kramer managed to extract a small fortune from the company to fund their extravagant lifestyles before the law caught up with them. Each served time for the swindle, and after just two year’s growth, the company died on the vine.
The verdict: As you sow, so shall you weep.
Best scapegoating: Hendrickson, a devout Christian, had trouble accepting responsibility for his crimes. “It was Satan who stopped the Jerusalem artichoke,” he claimed, “because of all the good it would do.”
No. 4
Gary Lefkowitz
the $100 million Tax Cheat
Gary Lefkowitz set a new standard for white-collar crime in Minnesota in the mid-1990s. Lefkowitz was a California real-estate guy, but his firm, Citi Equity Group, developed affordable and moderate-income apartment buildings in Minnesota. Many projects were built, but others remained pipedreams. Lefkowitz was charged with siphoning off money from investors to pay for luxury homes, cars, corporate jets, and European vacations—a lifestyle once described as a “Gold Card existence.” He was also accused of fraudulently obtaining tax credits from the IRS. Ultimately, the cheater’s tally was said to top $100 million.
In 1995, the 42-year-old Lefkowitz was found guilty on 45 counts of fraud. He is currently serving his 24-year sentence in a federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, with a projected release date in 2015.
The verdict: Like the bosses involved in Enron, Lefkowitz bilked dozens of people and hoodwinked the government, so most Minnesotans were happy to see him go south for punishment. In exchange, it seems, the Southerners sent us Skilling.
Sucker punch! In one case, a witness charged that Lefkowitz took a $500,000 investment for an apartment project that was never built. The investors? A group of Benedictine nuns.
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Reader Comments:
It seems that it is impossible to get a even handed story on most of your stories. Your lack of accuracy is amazing and your tongue in cheek attacks border on cruel in your Article of “10 Most Unwanted”.
Dee Henderson the “former Mrs. Minnesota is serving her time in Pekin Illinois with dignity. Your story contains no accurate facts about her case and trots out the tired old miss information