Minnesota Man Learning Fate For North Dakota Stock Scheme

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A Minnesota man who helped found a business in North Dakota's oil patch has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud in a stock manipulation scheme.

Ryan Gilbertson also was fined $2 million and ordered to pay more than $15 million in restitution.

The U.S. attorney's office says Gilbertson co-founded Wayzata-based Dakota Plains Holdings, which owned a North Dakota facility that loaded oil onto rail cars. Gilbertson was accused of manipulating the company's stock after it went public in 2012 in a complex scheme that netted him, co-defendant Douglas Hoskins and others nearly $33 million.

Gilbertson was sentenced Dec. 11 and Hoskins is to be sentenced Friday. A spokesman for Gilbertson told the Minneapolis Star Tribune he plans to appeal.

Dakota Plains filed for bankruptcy in December 2016.

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