Army Sgt. Aeren Nauman served on active duty for nearly two years, part of that time in Iraq, and even stood to recite the Infantryman's Creed at a memorial service for a fallen comrade.
But when he decided to buy a home on his return to the Twin Cities last fall, he found his credit ruined by identity theft.
The alleged thief: his dad.
"What kind of dad is this?" asked Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman after his office charged the father, Leonard Gus Nauman, 61, of Long Lake.
"He waits until his kid is overseas; he creates these forged powers of attorney, creates these new bank accounts and takes the money out of the accounts and leaves his son in deep doo-doo. I'm a veteran, and I'm appalled that any veteran would have to go through this."
The elder Nauman was charged with five counts of forgery, four counts of identity theft and four counts of swindling.
All are felonies, and the most serious — identity theft — carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
The bank accounts Nauman allegedly set up in his son's name were overdrawn by more than $21,000.
A police investigator said that when the son asked about the accounts, the elder Nauman admitted opening them. But, the investigator said, the father said he did it to "boost" his son's credit score.
"When asked where the money went, defendant stated that he had used the money to pay unspecified bills," Wayzata police Lt. Michael Murphy wrote in the affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint.
Neither Nauman could be reached for comment. The elder Nauman was not in custody, and no date had been set for his first court appearance.
Police said Nauman opened the accounts, used them to obtain lines of credit, got money on that credit and deposited it in a business account.
It appears the money was used to pay for a mortgage installment, utilities, teeth cleaning, groceries, liquor and some retail purchases, Murphy said.
Murphy said the father refused to be questioned by police.
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Wayzata police began investigating the case in August when Aeren Nauman, 28, of St. Paul, freshly returned from duty with the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Infantry Division of the Army National Guard, was looking to buy a home.
"He's at a mortgage place, thinking about getting a house," said Murphy. "That's when he discovered there'd been a significant dip in his credit rating between March of '07 and August of '07. In exploring it, he sees that he now has debt to Wells Fargo Bank and Bremer Bank."
In particular, a Wells Fargo account in his name had an outstanding balance of $12,125. A Bremer account had an outstanding balance of $9,100. Aeren Nauman said he knew nothing of the accounts.
He went to the banks and found his father had opened the accounts using letters that granted him power of attorney, Murphy said. A power-of-attorney certificate gives a person authority to act on behalf of another person.
Aeren Nauman said he never signed the power-of-attorney documents and that his father forged them.
"So then he begins to look into that and eventually goes back to his dad and decides he's probably been swindled," Murphy said.
In an affidavit accompanying a request to search bank records last month, Murphy said the son confronted his father over the accounts Aug. 23 at the Long Lake home of his father's girlfriend.
The father "reported opening the accounts without his son's knowledge or permission to boost Aeren Nauman's credit score," Murphy wrote. When the son asked the father what happened to the money, "his father responded that the funds were used to pay unspecified bills."
After opening the accounts, Leonard Nauman allegedly applied for and got lines of credit. He withdrew money on credit and then deposited it into the account of a business called Ten Mile Investments. State records list Nauman as an officer of the limited-liability company, which is owned by his girlfriend, Mary Ann Saindon, 55.
She could not be reached for comment, and officials said they weren't considering charges against her.
