Minneapolis bankruptcy trustee 'smelled a rat' and got the goods on a jewelry ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Manty, a Minneapolis attorney appointed as a trustee to represent the creditors, would not let go. For four years, she pursued Rohricht from one store location to another, from Minnesota to Wisconsin. But the court record is replete with examples of Manty’s methodical pursuit of Rohricht. Manty “smelled a rat and decided something was missing,” Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher, said in her findings in 2011. Dreher, who died in 2012, cited Manty’s “exceptional detective work,” which prompted a criminal investigation. “When a debtor seeks the protection of a bankruptcy court,” said MacLaughlin, “he has to make a deal, he has to be honest about his assets to get bankruptcy protection. Rohricht failed entirely to live up to his end of that obligation and his repeated egregious conduct ranks among the worst bankruptcy fraud cases that this office has handled. In an interview, John Conard, Rohricht’s attorney, said his client understood he had made a mistake. “I’m not gonna say that I’m lily-white, but I’m gonna say that anything I did was not done in a malicious way. Rohricht bought a jewelry store in Hayward in northern Wisconsin, and Manty learned from the previous owner, Tim Weisheipl, that Rohricht delivered. Source: www.startribune.com