They got Al Capone, by the Untouchables getting to his accountant. So, while this is not the full story, it appears to be the start of the public unfolding of the story.
Strib and PiPress both reported this development. This excerpt from PiPress:
Anoka County / Exec admits lying in probe
Ex-Town Center CFO guilty of role in altering records in separate venture
BY NICOLE GARRISON-SPRENGER
Pioneer Press
TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
The 51-year-old Heisel, of Lakeville, was accused in U.S. District Court last month of misleading federal agents about his hand in altering financial records that enabled the sale of the New Heights Development in Columbia Heights.
The charge stems from an IRS and U.S. Postal Service investigation into the now-bankrupt Ramsey Town Center project and its late developer, Bruce Nedegaard. Nedegaard, who died in November, also owned the New Heights Development.
The charges do not suggest any impropriety by Heisel on the Ramsey Town Center development, but many of the same players are involved in both deals.
Ramsey Town Center is a $1.3 billion mixed-use development planned for a 322-acre plot of land along U.S. 10 in Anoka County. A Pioneer Press series in July detailed the project's demise and its developer's questionable financing, Swiss bank accounts and cozy business relationships with his financiers.
New Heights was the company run by Nedegaard to develop the Grand Central Lofts condo project. One of the conditions of the loan for New Heights was that 25 percent of the housing units in the development be pre-sold, court filings show. Authorities alleged Nedegaard and others created bogus purchase agreements and provided earnest money to make it appear that the condition had been met.
Since at least early 2006, federal investigators have interviewed numerous people connected with Nedegaard, New Heights and Ramsey Town Center. In June, they executed a search warrant against Community National. The bank has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and an attorney for the bank has stated previously that neither the bank nor its officers have committed any offense.
[italics added]. Many of the same players? Bogus purchase agreements? Earlier, Strib reported and HighBeam Research online has this:
A new view of Columbia Heights; It's not the place you'd expect million-dollar penthouses. But two just sold, and city officials are banking on future buyers of upscale housing to help revitalize the first-ring suburb.(NEWS)
From: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
Date: September 5, 2006
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
Byline: Darlene Prois; Staff Writer
Wealthy investor Tom Kurak is something of a visionary when it comes to assessing real estate potential. The man who sold $14 million worth of industrial land to the city of Ramsey for its new town center several years ago now believes he sees the next hot value on the horizon: the aging, first-ring suburb of Columbia Heights.
That's where he and his wife, Patti, recently invested $2.7 million. Their purchase of a pair of custom-designed penthouses in Grand Central Lofts - one to live in, one to sell - in the suburb's highest-profile ...
[italics added] That Grand Central Lofts project is where the bogus purchase agreement mischief reportedly happened. I believe the family still actually resides at Thomaswood, in Ramsey, and that the Grand Central Lofts project is stalled. They may have closed a purchase, and moved. I am not privy to the family's actual residential status.
Earlier, it was reported how a federal IRS and Postal Service search warrant was executed at Nedegaard's bankers' site, June 18, 4:20 pm. PiPress also wrote of records reviews at the Nedegaard construction business site in Columbia Heights, the same street address as Ramsey Town Center LLC used. I found no SoS record for "New Heights Development LLC" but there was a "Grand Central Lofts Homeowners Association" nonprofit record, also at the 4200 Central Avenue address (listing Nedegaard as registered agent). There is a different street address for the New Heights location, here.
While PiPress reported there were documents reviewed and inquiry by federal agents at City Hall I have seen no reports of any other record review or of any search warrant activity, anywhere else in Ramsey. From reports it appeared that no warrant was issued for City Hall, but that record review was on a voluntary basis in response to an investigative request. Check with City Hall if you want a clarification on that.
Finally, on the Prois Sept. 5, 2006, Strib item; the City has clarified its status as separate and apart from the for-profit venturing of others, and the Strib Sept. 5 item appears in error on that point. Nedegaard's LLC, not the City, was purchaser of the 170 +/- cornfield acres the Kuraks sold at the Town Center site; something the city makes a bit clearer here, than here.
The point is most emphatically made, here, at Power Point slide #3. The link is from the city's special comp plan page, which you should bookmark. I believe Breanne Dalnes [BDalnes@ci.ramsey.mn.us] is responsible for that page content and for coordinating email notice of Comp Plan citizen sessions. If you are not on her emailing list already, you can add your name by sending her an email request.