Minnesota's Ashby Farmers Cooperative Elevator is closed for business but is talking with three other cooperatives in the region to buy or lease it, hoping to get one of the community's vital businesses up and running, reports the Grand Forks Herald.
Erik Ahlgren, a Fergus Falls, MN, lawyer, was hired by Ashby Farmers Cooperative Elevator Association to help in the wake of an alleged fraud by long-time elevator manager Jerome R. "Jerry" Hennessey.
Hennessey is alleged to have stolen some $2 million in at least the past 10 years, a time when he was known to go on safaris and other expensive big-game hunting trips.
Speaking to a member meeting of about 300 people at the co-op warehouse on the evening of Sept. 18, Ahlgren said he's unaware that a financial audit of the company had ever been done for the company.
Read the full report here.
