By Lori Ehde
Sentencing is scheduled for Monday, July 8, for all parties involved in the Global Ventures and Pipestone County financial crimes.
Rock County Feedlot Officer John Burgers was charged last fall with soliciting and accepting bribes from Global Ventures hog production in exchange for preferential permitting treatment.
His wrongdoing surfaced during the course of a federal investigation into lending practices of First National Bank and Trust, Pipestone and Garretson.
Subsequent federal indictments were levied against former CEO of Global Ventures, David Logan, and former bank president Michael Morgan.
Logan, former Pipestone city administrator, admitted to violating lending limits and providing insider loans, some through the creation of fictitious companies.
According to the indictment, Logan and Morgan conspired to arrange a series of illegal loans to companies controlled or created by Logan, including two in which Morgan also held an interest.
Morgan was charged in March with misapplying more than $13 million in federally-insured bank funds to invest in hog production businesses, including Global Ventures and others he and Logan held interest in.
As the FBI and IRS investigation continued in Pipestone County, indictments were also levied against other Pipestone County businessmen.
For example, retired Pipestone construction company owner William A. Winter admitted to providing money to Logan while he was city administrator for the purpose of obtaining preferential treatment regarding city contracts.
Pipestone County veterinarian Gordon Spronk admitted last fall that he assisted Morgan and Logan in making false statements to and influencing First National Bank in Garretson in order to deceive bank regulators.
Spronk, Morgan and Logan each owned a little less than one-third interest in Global Ventures at the time, and Morgan owned First National Bank in Garretson and Pipestone.
Hearings begin at 9 a.m. Monday in U.S. District Court, Minneapolis, and are expected to conclude by 4:30 p.m.
See the Star Herald, Thursday, July 11, for a report on those sentence orders.