At one point, the businesses were pulling in $5 million a month, according to a former investor cited by prosecutors in the suit they filed against Henrikson in January. Even as they told investors they were losing money, Henrikson and his wife used some of the cash to buy a home in Watford City, two pickup trucks, a motocross bike and a Bentley Continental, purchased by Creveling for $60,099 with a cashier’s check, according to prosecutors.
Missing Person
The easy money didn’t last long. One source of the couple’s troubles was a determined mother named Jill Williams, who blamed Henrikson and Creveling on Facebook for the disappearance of her son, Kristopher Clarke, a former driver for Blackstone LLC, one of Henrikson’s companies. The couple filed a defamation lawsuit against Williams in Washington in October 2012, saying they had nothing to do with Clarke’s disappearance. They also said in court papers that bad PR resulted in the loss of their company’s largest client, an oil-services business owned by Tex Hall, the long-time chairman of North Dakota’s Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
As Henrikson’s problems mounted, he focused on Carlile’s big strike, the 640-acre drilling deal. XTO, the Exxon Mobil subsidiary, owns rights on an adjacent parcel. Given the returns from neighboring wells, the land could hold “billions of dollars” worth of oil, said Stan Dedmon, a veteran Texas oilman whose money Carlile also sought.
“Geologically speaking, it’s an excellent project,” said Dedmon, who agreed to provide funding. “I’d rate it a Class A.”
Federal Investigations
By the summer of 2013, Henrikson’s past was closing in. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the Homeland Security department were investigating possible wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering by Henrikson and Creveling. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms later joined the probe into Henrikson’s activities.
Authorities began to piece together a violent cast of characters around Henrikson. One witness told police about a man who “was Henrikson’s muscle in North Dakota and would beat up or intimidate people.” Police also referred to Cooperative Individual #1, or CI#1, who worked for Henrikson and feared for his safety. CI#1 told police that he “personally heard Henrikson threaten to kill Carlile,” according to an affidavit.
Henrikson’s talk of violence included Hall, the Indian tribal leader, one witness told Spokane police. A Henrikson employee with “Mexican mafia” tattooed on the back of his head said Henrikson asked him in September “if he knew someone who would kill Tex Hall,” according to the affidavit.
‘Something Bad’