{"id":38388,"date":"2026-07-19T09:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T14:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=38388"},"modified":"2026-07-17T18:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:24:18","slug":"moorhead-man-charged-in-corporate-account-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/moorhead-man-charged-in-corporate-account-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Moorhead Man Charged in Corporate Account Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Moorhead Man Charged in Corporate Account Scheme<\/h2>\n

Moorhead, Minnesota \u2014 (trfnews.i234.me)<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 A Fargo man faces a felony theft-by-swindle charge in Clay County.<\/p>\n

Travis Eugene Zierke, 43, is accused of using a company charge account without permission.<\/p>\n

The allegations appear in a criminal complaint filed in Minnesota\u2019s Seventh Judicial District Court.<\/p>\n

Zierke has been charged with theft by swindle under Minnesota Statute 609.52<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A criminal charge is only an accusation. Zierke is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.<\/p>\n

Company Reports Unusual Purchases<\/h2>\n

According to the complaint, a Moorhead officer investigated a fraud report on December 27, 2025.<\/p>\n

The president of a Fargo company reported unusual activity on its corporate account at Mac\u2019s Hardware.<\/p>\n

Only a small group of employees had permission to use the account.<\/p>\n

A store manager contacted the company after noticing several large purchases at the Moorhead store.<\/p>\n

The complaint says purchases were completed on December 22 and December 23.<\/p>\n

Another purchase was attempted on December 26, but the account declined the transaction.<\/p>\n

The December 22 purchase totaled $795.04. The December 23 purchase totaled $571.73.<\/p>\n

Former Employee Identified<\/h2>\n

Invoices listed an authorized employee as the person who made the purchases.<\/p>\n

However, that employee denied making the transactions.<\/p>\n

The company president and employee then reviewed surveillance video from the store.<\/p>\n

Both reportedly identified the person shown as Zierke, a former company employee.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges Zierke may have shown false identification during the purchases.<\/p>\n

The authorized employee told investigators that Zierke appeared to be the person in the video.<\/p>\n

The store manager also identified Zierke as the person who made the purchases.<\/p>\n

Investigators compared the footage with police photographs, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

They reported that the person\u2019s appearance matched Zierke’s.<\/p>\n

Felony Case Filed in Clay County<\/h2>\n

The complaint lists the alleged loss between $500 and $1,000.<\/p>\n

The filing describes the charge as a felony. It also lists a possible sentence of 364 days.<\/p>\n

A fine of up to $3,000 may also apply upon conviction.<\/p>\n

Court information may be available through the Minnesota Court Records Online system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The complaint states that officers could not locate Zierke during the initial investigation.<\/p>\n

Further court proceedings will determine whether the state can prove the allegation.<\/p>\n

I’m Adrian Cole, reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 TRF News. All rights reserved.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Moorhead
Moorhead Man Charged in Corporate Account Scheme<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Fargo man faces a felony theft-by-swindle charge after alleged unauthorized purchases at a Moorhead hardware store in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[567,770,4946,772,151,1346,3378],"class_list":["post-38388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-account","tag-charged","tag-corporate","tag-crime","tag-man","tag-moorhead","tag-scheme","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38390,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38388\/revisions\/38390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}