It's been the big, headline story of the area for the last few days--Dale Schlicting and his DSI Agency, based in the Hayfield area (near Rochester, MN), has defrauded a significant chunk of the community out of what will no doubt be millions upon millions of dollars. According to the initial news stories, so far over $700,000 of fraud have been identified. When you talk to the people in the community you know that it's going to be a whole hell of a lot more.
My family and myself got hit by Schlicting's frauding schemes. Fortunately (well, as fortunate as you can get when you get swindled out of your money) we did not lose near the amounts that some people have. I don't know how much my family lost, but it isn't a large amount. Personally I haven't checked the exact dollar amount, but it is in the ballpark of three to five thousand dollars.
I was pissed about having that much money stolen from me, so I can't even begin to imagine some of our neighbors and friends that were taken for almost all they had. One couple had all of their retirement investments through DSI and were living off of the interest checks on their investments. Another couple had well over a quarter million put away that they were going to use when they retired. It seems like just about anyone you talk to in the community was affected or knew someone close who was affected.
Hell, this guy even defrauded his own church! It takes a phenomenal level of greed to cheat a church out of their money. Even Schlicting's "friends" were taken for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't understand this guy. No one seems to. Being in a small, rural community, he probably thought he could get away with it and no one would ever look into it. Thankfully, someone did. I hope his ass rots in prison for the rest of his life.
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