Scoundrels

Denny Hecker is a prominent Twin Cities car dealer.  Or maybe I should use the past tense.  He's currently awaiting trial for fraud and is in the middle of both bankruptcy and divorce.  For all the salacious details, feel free to Google him.

I don't know if he's a con man or just an incompetent business person as he claims, but when he turned himself in for a few days in jail for contempt in the bankruptcy proceedings, he had $4000 in cash in his pocket.  You know, if you're on your way to serve a contempt sentence for hiding assets, you might want to leave your wallet at home if it contains some of the assets you've been hiding.  Ballsy and/or stupid.

For the last decade, the headquarters of Hecker's empire has been on my drive to work.  Four or five years ago, I noticed that he opened a mortgage lending office.  It makes sense, as car loans and home loans aren't all that different, and it was at the peak of the housing bubble.

I draw your attention to the signs on the building.


Let's see those signs in close-up.




In 1775, Samuel Johnson said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."  Naming your business "Freedom First Financial" and putting up red, white & blue signs, including one reminiscent of a waving flag, is definitely invoking patriotic imagery.  Denny Hecker is demonstrably a scoundrel, so there has to be a lesson in there somewhere.  I would even believe that "Freedom First Financial" wasn't the last choice of names; probably the first.

Minnesota Governor Timothy Pawlenty created a political action committee to raise money for his presidential bid.  The name of Pawlenty's political action committee?

Freedom First PAC.

Gotta be a lesson in there, as well.