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Former Minnesota elevator manager sentenced to 8 years in prison

The former manager of a grain elevator in west-central Minnesota who pled guilty to stealing millions of dollars from the co-op has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Jerome Hennessey of Dalton, Minnesota has also been ordered by a U.S. District Court Judge in Minneapolis to pay $5.3 million in restitution to the Ashby Farmer’s Cooperative in Ashby.

In February, Hennessey reached a plea deal in which he admitted to knowingly and intentionally devising and executing a scheme to defraud and obtain money and property from the co-op by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and concealment of material facts.

Over a 15-year period Hennessey obtained a line of credit for the co-op that exceeded $7 million that he used to cover legitimate expenses and his own personal expenses.

Hennessey, who turned himself into authorities in December, had faced a maximum of 25 years in prison.