September 25, 2018
Roughly 150 farmers attended a meeting Tuesday night in Ashby, Minnesota, looking for answers about the closed Ashby Farmers Cooperative Elevator and its former manager, who allegedly stole at least $2 million from the elevator before disappearing earlier this month. An audit of the grain cooperative’s books is continuing to detail actual losses, and investigators are looking into the alleged fraud by former elevator manager Jerry Hennessey. He had managed the elevator since 1989, but has not been seen in Ashby since it became clear the elevator was missing funds.
Erik Ahlgren, an attorney hired to sort through the losses and find a possible buyer for the 307,000-bushel-capacity grain elevator, said roughly half the people in the crowd raised their hands when he asked how many farmers were still owed money from the cooperative.
