Local Man Charged With Multiple Fraud-Related Offenses

An Eagan man has been charged with check forgery, possession of a counterfeit check and receiving stolen property after authorities say he intercepted a check from a friend and used it to open a bank account.

Nathan David Andersen, 29, faces three gross misdemeanor charges in connection with the case.

According to the complaint, filed in Dakota County District Court in Hastings, Eagan police were notified in February that a check issued last year by KCHK Radio of New Prague had been intercepted and second-party endorsed to Andersen, then deposited in an Eagan branch of .

The man to whom the check was issued contacted the radio station to ask if it had been mailed. A KCHK employee told him it had, and the payee said he hadn’t received it. The radio station employee then contacted the bank and got a copy of the check, which showed that it had been fraudulently endorsed and then second-party endorsed to Andersen.

The employee told police that she suspected a recently fired employee, whose handwriting appeared to match the fraudulent endorsement, and provided police with samples of his handwriting, the complaint says.

Eagan police then contacted TCF Bank and learned that Andersen had opened an account with the $495 check. The bank subsequently closed the account.

In February, Eagan police contacted Andersen, who acknowledged opening the account with the $495 check, but claimed he had received it from his “longtime friend,” the fired radio station employee. He said his friend had given him the check “to help him with his financial problems,” but the friend told him he couldn’t open an account himself because of his financial situation and asked Andersen to cash the check.

Andersen told police that the bank said the funds wouldn’t be available until the check cleared, but acknowledged that he used a credit card issued by the bank when he opened the account to make purchases, spending most of the money. He denied knowing that the check was stolen or the endorsement forged, and said he was “trying to help a friend out.”

Several days later, the fired employee contacted Eagan police and said the check had been sitting on a secretary’s desk for more than a month, and that because of his gambling problems, he’d been thinking about taking it. He said he called Andersen and told him he was planning to steal a check from work, but that he couldn’t cash it because he worked at the radio station, according to the complaint.

The former employee said Andersen agreed to cash the check in exchange for $100, and the two drove to the originating bank together. When that bank wouldn’t cash it, they tried another one, but were unsuccessful there as well, the former employee said.

The former employee said he left the check with Andersen with the understanding that if he was able to cash it, the two would split the money.

The complaint says Andersen eventually admitted to police that he knew the check was stolen and the signature forged before he deposited it. He said he needed the money, but that he had “every intention” of repaying the former radio station employee.

Andersen has a lengthy list of criminal convictions including several alcohol-related offenses, multiple domestic assault offenses and a 2006 conviction for mistreating animals in a case where he tore the head off his girlfriend’s parakeet during an argument.