FARGO, N.D. — The wife of a man indicted in a murder-for-hire scheme that originated in the North Dakota oil patch pleaded not guilty Monday in an alleged scam involving her oilfield trucking business.
Sarah Creveling is charged with four counts, including conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering. Authorities say Creveling and a co-conspirator, who is not named in the indictment, diverted or embezzled money from investors into personal banking accounts.
U.S. District Judge Bruce Hovland set trial for Nov. 17 and ordered that Creveling be released on a promise to appear. Creveling’s court-appointed attorney, Ryan Sandberg, declined to comment to The Associated Press. The U.S. attorney’s office in North Dakota did not respond to a request for an interview.
Creveling’s husband, James Henrikson, is facing murder-for-hire charges in a separate case involving the deaths of Doug Carlile and Kristopher “K.C.” Clarke, two former associates in North Dakota. Henrikson told investigators that Carlile owed him nearly $1.9 million for their dealings in Kingdom Dynamics, an oil development firm owned by Creveling and Henrikson.
The indictment filed earlier this month against Creveling involves other business entities that were incorporated under her name.
Creveling and a co-conspirator are accused of promising investors a 12.5 percent return on their investment for buying trucks and trailers. The pair allegedly told investors that the trucks were destroyed or damaged and had them sign releases for sale of the scrap. That practice “allowed the seemingly lawful transfer of the trucks and/or trailers to the other companies owned and operated” by Creveling and a co-conspirator, according to the indictment.
More than $1.7 million was diverted or embezzled from investor-formed corporations and used to buy personal property from January 2011 to February 2014, court documents said. The indictment also includes a forfeiture allegation for more than 320 acres of mineral rights in Dunn County, property in Watford City and more than $114,000 in cash.
Henrikson’s trial on murder-for-hire charges is scheduled for Oct. 5 in Richland, Washington.
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