Creditors of the former Ashby Farmers Cooperative Elevator are suing taxidermists for a half-million dollars, claiming they should have realized former elevator manager Jerry Hennessey was improperly paying for mounting trophies using co-op checks, reports the Duluth News Tribune.
The lawsuit asks taxidermist Marvin Gaston, his wife Betty Gaston, and their company, Taxidermy Unlimited Inc. of Burnsville, MN, to pay back $514,435.07 in unauthorized payments from the co-op.
The taxidermist suit adds some detail to an extraordinary grain industry fraud committed by Hennessey, 56, who is now serving an eight-year sentence at a federal prison in North Carolina.
Between 2013 and 2017, Hennessey wrote $416,245 in co-op checks payable personally to Marvin Gaston. The 12 checks internally were labeled as corn, soybeans or seed and were for up to $75,000 each.
Read the full report here.