Lakeville Builder Charged with Check Forgery

A Lakeville man whose building contractor’s license was yanked last year by the state has been charged with check forgery after authorities say he falsified an endorsement on a $35,000 cashier’s check and deposited it into his company’s account.

Andrew John Geckler, 39, faces one felony count of offering a forged check, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, Lakeville police were alerted to fraud activity last Oct. 1 by a Lakeville bank.

A bank employee told police that on Sept. 9, a customer notified the bank that a cashier’s check she had endorsed to a title company had been forged and deposited.

The original endorsement had been crossed out, and replaced with “Geckler and Associates,” the customer told the bank.

Further investigation by bank employees revealed that last July 7, Geckler came to the bank and deposited the forged cashier’s check into the Geckler and Associates Inc. account, a transaction that was confirmed by surveillance video, according to the complaint.

The customer told authorities that the check was supposed to be deposited by the title company into an escrow account for a home that she planned to buy. She said she gave the check to Geckler, whose company built the home, with the understanding that he would pass it on to the title company.

Geckler and his company were cited last December by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Geckler’s building contractor license was revoked and he was fined $10,000, which was stayed on the condition that he engage in no unlicensed activity or any other violations.

The web is rife with complaints against Geckler’s company, from customers who claim he bilked them of thousands of dollars by taking their money and then not finishing the homes he was building for them. KSTP-TV reported last November that Geckler was working for a local pizza restaurant.

Geckler could not be reached for comment.