Tom Petters trial junkies and everyone capable of reveling in shameless schadenfreude over the epic fall of epic egos can rejoice. Denny Hecker is heading toward a criminal trial. All who have watched his proceedings in bankruptcy court, with sideshows over divorces, girlfriends, face-lifts, pricey dogs, $12 million compounds, crashed Range Rovers, Vegas and Hawaii holidays and purchase agreements for still more mansions, will be glued to what comes next. Dee DePass of the Strib files a report on Wednesday’s highly anticlimactic announcement. “The seven-count indictment was filed in U.S. District Court and charges [Hecker and his associate] with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud. Hecker, who used to have 26 dealerships plus large auto fleet and rental companies before filing for bankruptcy in June, was also charged with one count of money laundering.”
An “update” in the Strib includes the basics of the case against Hecker. Among the points, “With Chrysler’s money in hand, Hecker leased the cars to rental companies, including his own, which generated revenue for him. He also collected $17.2 million in incentive payments from Hyundai for the purchase of cars without telling Chrysler Financial.”
A piece by AP writer Amy Forliti for ABCNews.com includes some of the juicier Hecker material. She writes, “Hecker lived the high life, with a 52-foot yacht and private jet, fancy cars and multimillion-dollar homes. He traveled to luxurious destinations, hit Las Vegas casinos, and bought furs, jewelry and other extravagant gifts for friends.” She adds, “The indictment also alleges:
• Hecker and others covered up the fraud and Hecker filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying lenders.
• Hecker has concealed assets during the bankruptcy proceedings.
• Hecker kept vehicle sales proceeds rather than paying off lenders who were owed the proceeds.
• Hecker kept customers’ payments for sales taxes, vehicle taxes and license fees instead of forwarding them to the state.
On the money-laundering count, the indictment says that on Nov. 30, 2007, Hecker transferred about $500,000 — which was allegedly derived from criminal activity — from his business account into his personal account.”
Meanwhile, another Minnesota reliable, Michele Bachmann, is taking more heat than usual for a comment in St. Louis over the weekend in which she seems to be saying (you’re never really certain) that we should “wean” everyone off … Social Security. Jason Hoppin’s PiPress story includes her remarks and this unintentionally ironic response from her to criticism by her 6th District DFL opponents, “Now is not the time for political grandstanding. My political opponents will surely do their fair share of that as they attempt to contort my words and scare my constituents.” Uh, ma’am …
The Talking Points Memo story by Eric Kleefeld includes the same nut graph as Hoppin and most others use, with this addition: “So we just have to be straight with people. So basically, whoever our nominee is, is going to have to have a Glenn Beck chalkboard and explain to everybody this is the way it is.” Yeah, if we want clarity, our first move is get a Glenn Beck chalkboard.
The thing with Beck is that it was his original assertion — on his chalkboard — that we are looking at $107 trillion in Social Security and Medicare debt that got Bachmann going in the first place. Think Progress, the lefty site that broke this story, includes the opening lines of Bachmann’s “weaning” chatter. She asks, “Is the country too big to fail? No, the country can fail. We can, we’re not invincible. And we’re so close now to being at that point because the thing is, as Glenn Beck said last night, it is true. The $107 trillion that he put on the board. We’re $14 trillion in debt, but that doesn’t include the unfunded massive liabilities. That’s $107 trillion, and that’s for Social Security and Medicare and all the rest.” Oh hell, let’s just round it up to $107 bazillion. That’s a fun number.
Sarah Janecek at Politics in Minnesota is following fundraising in the gubernatorial race. She is intrigued by numbers posted by R.T. Rybak and Margaret Anderson Kelliher. “Kelliher supporters like what they see in the reports. One, she raised $117,738 more than Rybak. Two, she had $0 in unpaid obligations, while Rybak had $59,020. Three, net cash (cash balance less loans payable and unpaid bills) was $79,513 for Kelliher and -$34,247 for Rybak.”
Northwoods Politics, the blog written by Bemidji Pioneer political editor Brad Swenson, includes thoughts after a talk with Mark Dayton, who is blowing by the caucus circus and focusing on the election … with his own money. Says Dayton, “I don’t buy this notion where the primary is destructive and, in fact, they’re the law. They’re democracy. I think the question has somehow been strangely turned on its head. I’ve got so many good friends in the DFL Party whose political theology – I don’t argue with people about religion and I don’t argue about political theology either, but I say why would a convention with 1,300 delegates, which is less than one-third of 1 percent of all the people voting in the DFL primary [make that decision].”
With Toyota losing millions of dollars and its vaunted reputational standing by the hour, Emily Gurnon of the PiPress has an interesting story about a 2006 accident on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul that killed three people waiting at a stoplight. The colliding vehicle? A 1996 Camry that exited the freeway and suddenly accelerated to nearly 90 mph. “Koua Fong Lee [the driver] testified at his trial in 2007 that he was returning home from a church event on the day of the accident. His pregnant wife, their 4-year-old daughter, his father and his brother were in the car with him. He had no criminal history and had not been drinking or on drugs. He said he was not talking on a cell phone or distracted by anything else.” The driver is serving a prison sentence.
The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of Boston Scientific’s big layoff/restructuring notes losses resulting from fighting with Johnson & Johnson over infringement issues (that’d be Boston infringing on J&J with a profit-destroying $1.73 billion pay-out as a consequence). But there are other factors at play. For example, “Analysts were anticipating restructuring moves. Boston Scientific gets roughly half its revenue from two markets, for stents and implantable heart-rhythm devices, which both face growth challenges and high levels of competition that can pressure product price.” Competition in the medical device industry? Now that has to be stopped.
We should show more restraint, really. But the story out of Baraboo, Wis., Wednesday about the guy repeatedly Tasing an in-home dance instructor is just too good to ignore. The Wisconsin State Journal didn’t. “A Dane County prosecutor said the suspect, 59, hastily arranged a dance lesson at the instructor’s Madison home and showed up with a stun gun and sledgehammer last Friday. The criminal complaint said the man told a detective that his church does not condone touching while dancing and that he was going to scare the instructor ‘and tell him to leave the women alone.’ ” For some reason, we think there might be a little bit more to the motivations here than sheer damned gallantry.
Calling Katherine Kersten! The former (regular) Strib columnist’s favorite whipping boy (other than the Flying Imams and sinful rock ‘n’ roll), Inver Grove Heights’ TiZA Academy, is getting sued by the ACLU for illegally promoting Islam. Sarah Lemagie reports for the Strib, saying, “The ACLU argued that administrators at the Inver Grove Heights school have intimidated potential witnesses or tried to dissuade them from testifying about TiZA, and asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeanne Graham to issue an order protecting them.” What we still want to see is Kersten and the ACLU lawyers entering the courtroom arm in arm.
Muse 1: If god wanted the world to drive pedal cars, he would have hired Toyota.
Muse 2:
Ode to “No Mota” (the latest model, Toyota)
Don’t want to crash?
Strip out the system,
Rip out the motor…
Save the cash,
Let your feet do the peddlin’…
Look man, no gas!
Koua Fong Lee is presenting a novel but desperate legal defense for getting out of his incarceration. Since his Camry accelerator was mechanically equipped with cable linkage the chances are minimal to nil that he suffered an engine acceleration lock!
The only ways the engine on Lee’s Camry could speed up was human physical usage of the accelerator pedal; as the jury surmised; or the accelerator cable or attached mechanical linkage malfunctioned; initial cursory inspections of such found the contrary.
The problems that Toyota is experiencing with their vehicles is mainly technological. When you integrate electronics, software, and mechanical processes all together for the first time without exhaustive real-life or abusive torture testing something is bound to go wrong. Murphy’s Law at its best!
Though humans are prone to make physical mistakes when operating their vehicles, when computerization and software applications are mated to mechanicals without proper back-up systems or human over-rides something will inevitably will fail. Toyota should have realized this.
Koua Fong Lee has an uphill legal battle to prove his Toyota had acceleration issues related to the recent recall issues. Since his Camry’s mechanical accelerator linkages were subject to human preventive inspections and maintenance; when performed to ensure proper/optimum operations; then vehicle operator error is the only reason for the Camry to react like it did.
Toyota, if the Fong Lee Camry is exonerated, can’t be blamed for the fatalities in this tragic accident. Driver denials only go so far. Technology can’t always be the scapegoat for tragic human error.
People nearing retirement, that have not been taking steps to “wean” themselves of the notion they will be receiving anything more than pennies in return (hey, I’m an optimist)on the tens of thousands of dollars the government has been forcing them to “invest” are in for a very, very rude awakening a few years from now.
Me and my wife’s retirement plan doesn’t include the existence of SSI; if yours does I suggest a nice cold shower while there still may be time.
Rep. Bachmann is one of the very few politicians honest enough to level with her constituents. She will be standing tall when everyone else in government is scrambling for cover when at last the truth looms too large to cover up.
Bachmann may stand tall. But she’ll be standing tall in a six foot deep credibility hole or her own making.
Everyone under a certain age knows not to rely on SSI for their retirement that is as they say a no brainer. The trick is to figure out what to rely on. Their are a whole lot of seniors that had their retirement wiped out by the “market”. So don’t peddle that as a solution. Yes, there is going to be a problem. When the Republican have an idea, any idea, I’ll listen (and Rep Ryan’s is the closest to an idea they’ve got). Until then they deserve whatever mocking they get.
#1 #2 You cannot quite comprehend how tragic this case was until you sit in a courtroom for 2 weeks. I wish the prosecution, the defense and the judge well in this case. It was inexplicable, horrific almost beyond imagining.
My 1# 2# Muse post was bad timing considering the thrust of the initial tragedy involved.
I was addressing the ‘car’, separate from the crash, court proceedings. My apology.
Classic cars, old cars, be they foreign or American-made, could be the way to go, in order to ensure quality-of-product.
Then our highways will look like old gansta’ movies; cars with slinky long hoods and made of steel not from China. Way to go…who knows?
Car manufacturers…who do you trust nowadays?
I think Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachmann need better medications, too – but it doesn’t mean that everything they say is incorrect.
The unfounded liabilities they are howling about? See an analysis of the 2009 Social Security trustees report from Forbes, which supports the $107 trillion figure – in fact, it may be their source:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/14/taxes-social-security-opinions-columnists-medicare.html
When you say, “Oh hell, let’s just round it up to $107 bazillion. That’s a fun number.”, it would seem you think this $107 trillion number can be laughed off. But our grandchildren won’t be laughing as their quality of life declines because they must pay through the nose for our failure of public policy.
I know your column’s style is to give a humorous slant to selected news items, and I like it – usually. But today I am irritated with YOUR ignorance.
Stick to humor. That $107 trillion ain’t funny.
Thanks BJK I was a juror and I know other people still have nightmares from this.
When George Bush was pushing the privatization of Social Security, he used as a scare tactic that S.S. was going bankrupt and would have a $12 billion shortfall (which he neglected to mention would occur over 75 years). $107 trillion doesn’t seem like any kind of a true number.
In 1983, the Congress raised the cap on earnings by a small amount and slightly increased the withholding tax percentage in order to cover the baby boomers’ coming of retirement age. The lock box that Al Gore talked about not touching contained the money to fund (with continued revenues from younger workers) the retirements of the entire boomer generation. Enter George Bush, who had some wars to fight (but not fund) and some tax cuts for the rich to give (but not fund), and the lock box was raided again and again.
Saving SS again would be as simple as raising the income cap on which tax is withheld from $100,000 to ALL income from every source — which would not only save SS but every other budget problem we can possibly think of — or at least to $500,000 to wipe out any shortfall to come within the next 75 years.
NOTE to younger workers: Approximately one worker in seven is injured before retirement age and must rely on SS Disability Pay. Payments to the surviving parent when a breadwinner dies supports more children than other programs. And, so important, no older person is without health care and a moderate income in order to live in dignity instead of squalor.