Minnesota Man Involved In Incredible $6.3 Million Embezzlment Saga

From the Pioneer Press on 2/18/14:

The saga has betrayal, blackmail and even a longtime mistress. And then there's the millions of dollars allegedly embezzled from one of St. Paul's best-known businessmen.  In a court document filed Friday, federal prosecutors laid out the case they plan to present to a jury next week when John Joseph Waters Jr. goes on trial, accused of stealing from his longtime boss and friend, the late Gerard Leon Cafesjian, the retired West Publishing executive whose name is on St. Paul's famous carousel.  Assistant U.S. Attorney William Otteson wrote in a pretrial brief that Waters engineered a scheme to embezzle millions from Cafesjian and that the scam lasted for years. "Waters used the stolen money to satisfy the expensive personal spending habits of himself, his family, and a mistress whom he was secretly supporting for years," Otteson wrote.  The alleged embezzlement totaled $4 million, the government claims, and he gave more than $700,000 of it "to his mistress, Cheri Kuhn (now Cheri Waters), whom he met at the Deja Vu nightclub in the late 1990s and with whom he was having a long-term affair," Otteson wrote.  Waters, 57, of Eden Prairie has pleaded not guilty to the charges. In August, he was named in a 26-count federal indictment accusing him of mail and wire fraud, income tax evasion and filing a false income tax return.  His trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 24 in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

...

Read the whole story here.