Sen. Durenberger Indicted in Expense Account Case

A federal grand jury has re-indicted Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.) on charges that he abused his Senate expense account, the Justice Department announced Friday.

Durenberger was charged with making and conspiring to make false claims to the Senate. The initial indictment was dismissed by a judge in December.

The 59-year-old senator was indicted last April on charges that he and two associates hid his ownership in a Minneapolis condominium so he could collect $3,825 in reimbursement from the Senate for staying there.

He could face up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted.

“I am absolutely confident that I will be exonerated in a trial,” Durenberger said Friday. He has denied any criminal wrongdoing.

Durenberger, who has announced that he will leave the Senate after this year, was formally denounced by colleagues in 1990 for the condominium deal and other alleged financial improprieties.

U.S. District Judge Warren Urbom of Nebraska, presiding over the case in Minneapolis, had dismissed the federal charges against Durenberger on grounds that prosecutors had improperly developed the case with material gathered by a Senate committee.

However, Urbom said the material was not critical to the Justice Department’s case, leaving the door open for a new indictment.

The two associates, attorney Michael Mahoney and businessman Paul Overgaard, also were charged in the April indictment. But Urbom dismissed the charges against them after they refused a Justice Department request to postpone their trial while authorities decided whether to seek a new indictment of Durenberger. Urbom said they could not be charged again.

The new indictment against Durenberger mirrors the one that was dismissed. It charges that the three men backdated documents to make it appear that the condominium was sold to Overgaard in 1987 several months before it actually was.

Durenberger also had an agreement to buy the condo back at the sale price, effectively allowing him to “park” the property with Overgaard “to shift the cost of the unit to the Senate,” the indictment said.