Businesses owned by former Otter Tail County couple are the subject of an FBI investigation. Paul McCabe of the Minneapolis FBI office confirmed that three Federal warrants were executed on Tuesday, April 4 as part of an ongoing white collar crime investigation.
Documents, records, computers and other related items were seized at 115 Main Street in Underwood, 320th Street also in Underwood and Hawes Beach Road in Ottertail.
At the center of the wire and mail fraud investigation are Robert and Janelle Loots of Underwood. Documents filed in U.S. District Court indicate the couple is under investigation for practices dating back to 1998. The documents allege a pattern of establishing freight distribution companies, receiving payment for services, and then not paying independent truck drivers.
Federal warrants show a series of eight trucking dispatch businesses opened and closed by the Loots since 1998.
Neither of the Loots have been available for comment.
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There have been no indictments or charges filed; the matter is an ongoing investigation.
(Sonja Kosler writes for the Perham Enterprise Bulletin , a Forum Communications Co. newspaper)
