Inver Grove Heights Man Pretended To Be An Airport Fuel Company: County

DAKOTA COUNTY, MN — Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom announced that Glenn Charles Burke, age 55, of Inver Grove Heights, pled guilty to four felony counts of theft by temporary control and two felony counts of theft by swindle in connection with the theft of large sums of money from October of 2012 through February of 2015 while Burke served as the airport manager for the city of South St. Paul.

One count of theft by swindle was dismissed. The state requested a sentence of 45 months in prison for this major economic crime, which is the presumptive sentence under Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines.

Judge Martha Simonett dispositionally departed from the presumptive sentence upon finding the defendant particularly amenable to probation and sentenced Burke to 90 days in jail and probation for 10 years. Burke was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $132,012.23, according to a news release.

The allegations contained in the criminal complaint reflect that on April 22, 2016, the South St. Paul Police Department was contacted by an employee from the city’s accounting department about an overdraft notice for a suspicious account. The account belonged to Glenn Burke, doing business as "Airport Fuel Company," and was opened by Burke in November of 2006, according to authorities.

Officers executed a search warrant to gain access to the account records and discovered that the bank no longer had transaction records for the account from the time of opening in November of 2006 until early 2009. Between 2009 and 2015 approximately $108,769.58 was deposited into the account, according to authorities.

The investigation revealed:

• The majority of these deposits came from checks made out to the city of South Saint Paul or the South Saint Paul Airport for services provided at the airport including fuel, hangar rental, and other airport functions.
• Between May of 2009 and October of 2012, approximately $38,650 in payments to the airport were diverted and deposited into this account.
• An accounting of the bank records showed that between October 25, 2012 and Sept. 9, 2013, $26,855 in payments to the airport were diverted and deposited into this account and between October 21, 2013 and February 2, 2015 approximately $35,662 was diverted and deposited.
• Between May of 2009 and March of 2016, approximately $111,529 had been withdrawn from the account. The investigation revealed that about $70,000 of the money was used for online payments to GM Card Services, which the city of South St. Paul confirmed they have never used or approved for city accounts.
• The GM Card Services account was a personal credit card account for Burke.

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