One of two lawsuits brought against the former owners of the First Integrity Bank of Staples came to a conclusion late last month with a judgement against the bank’s principal former owner and chairman of the board.

Randall Pattee, an attorney with the firm of Lindquist and Vennum of Minneapolis, said the judge in the case issued a default judgement for $1.3 million against Patrick Kruchten, who failed to show at the time set for trial.

Attorneys for the plaintiff, Geoffrey J. Gempeler, and for defendant Bruce Carr, a for mer First Integrity vice president, negotiated a settlement agreement on Feb. 23 and 24. Details of that agreement were made a matter of record, but are confidential and contained in sealed court records. Gempeler is an attorney formerly from St. Cloud who now has offices in Breckenridge, Colo.

A second lawsuit, brought by eight plaintiffs and called the Gunnarson suit, with Lamar Gunnarson of Staples as the lead plaintiff, is scheduled to go to trial April 5. Pattee’s firm represents the plaintiffs in both cases. They contend they were defrauded by Kruchten, Carr and others into investing money into a Florida land development project called Marco Island.

Pattee didn’t sound optimistic that Kruchten will show up for the April 5 trial either.

“Mr. Kruchten has not shown up for any other court dates so we don’t expect he will show up for this one,” Pattee said.

Kruchten’s former attorney, Susan Minsberg, told the Staples World she had no information to offer. She had represented the Marco Island partnerships in the lawsuit but said she has no longer been involved since August of 2008.

According to Pattee, Kruchten is now living in the Dominican Republic. “About the time that things went south for the bank, his brother bought a small hotel in the Dominican Republic. That’s where he’s supposedly at now,” Pattee said.

When asked what good the judgement award will do, Pattee said it’s probably more a moral victory. “We won’t collect anything. If he has any assets, we can find them. The one thing is this is not discharged if he files for bankruptcy. The guy won’t be able to make any legal money without us having a crack at it.” Pattee said this is very similar to the current status of automobile dealer Denny Hecker, whose financial dealings have him in court.

Initially, the plaintiffs in the FIB lawsuits brought suit against Kruchten, Carr and First Integrity Bank in early 2007 after their Florida scheme began to flounder. Those defendants have now been reduced to just Kruchten.

Pattee said his clients have already negotiated a debt reduction settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which took over the First Integrity Bank in May, 2008 and assumed the bank’s marginal assets. Several of the plaintiffs had borrowed money from First Integrity and invested that money in Marco Island. When the development went broke, the bank called in the loans, with the plaintiffs then suing for fraud and breach of contract, claiming essentially they had been told the loans could be paid by profits from the Marco Island investments.

According to Pattee, the FDIC has sold the Marco Island properties located in the Naples, Fla., vicinity to investors who are now operating the condos and hotel. He added that Pat Kruchten’s wife, Marcie, is still living at the Marco Island property.