Automotive News is offering the entire 80-minute video for $2,500 under a non-exclusive license. A selection of HD still photos are also being made available under license. Anyone interested in obtaining the photos or video interview footage of Denny Hecker may contact Lauren Melesio at [email protected].
The following is a sample of the article:
In the 1990s through mid-2000s, Denny Hecker jetted around the country almost daily on one of 14 private planes he owned over those years, commanding an interconnected maze of businesses that grew to include 236 closely held private companies.
The wealth-flaunting mogul from modest means piled up millions in revenue each month and borrowed millions more from willing lenders as his empire of auto dealerships, auto leasing companies and related businesses, and an insatiable appetite for success, grew ever larger.
A few years later, he was earning 12 cents an hour teaching a business class in prison. The students were his fellow convicts. And the flying he did was from one federal penitentiary to another while shackled to the floor of one of the U.S. Marshals' ancient "Con Air" planes.
Hecker, now 66, pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud and was sentenced in 2011 to 10 years in prison for defrauding Chrysler Financial and other lenders out of more than $80 million in loans and $13 million in losses by falsifying loan documents.
But now, the onetime Minneapolis-based tycoon — whose over-the-top lifestyle and spectacular fall in the wake of the Great Recession shattered lives and left him with a mountain of debt — is free and is talking.
About Automotive News
Since 1925, Automotive News has been the go-to place for all the news that is happening among automotive retailers, suppliers and manufacturers. Whether it is breaking news sent to a phone, digital editions and web products delivered to a desktop, or stories in the award-winning print edition, Automotive News covers the news everywhere it happens around the world. Breaking news, data, daily newscasts, webinars, conferences and events are just some of the offerings. Automotive News, Automotive News Europe and Automotive News China are created locally and are backed by a global team of 50 editors and reporters, as well as a commitment to journalistic excellence.
SOURCE Automotive News
Share this article