Family wants Dasen to account for man's estate

For the second time, questions have been raised about Dick Dasen Sr.'s management of trust-fund money.

Court filings seek to compel the Kalispell businessman to account for money he managed as trustee for a disabled man.

In a similar case last year, Dasen was ordered to explain what happened to more than $1 million he was to manage for an incapacitated teenager.

Dasen, 62, also is charged with 14 crimes related to prostitution. Kalispell police say he spent millions of dollars for sex in the past 20 years.

In the new case, District Judge Kitty Curtis recently ordered Dasen to appear and explain why she should not order him to make a complete accounting of his activities as trustee for the man.

According to court documents, the adult is physically and mentally incapacitated because of schizophrenia, requiring residential treatment. He held a half interest in three parcels of property and received Social Security benefits because of his disability.

In 1995, Winnifred Storli was appointed his guardian and conservator.

Storli then asked that Dasen, a financial counselor, be named trustee of the man's estate. Storli remained conservator for him.

In 1999, Storli wrote to the court with concerns after she found out that the man's 1975 Volkswagen had been sold.

"My ward, who has been so bereft and lost so much, should not now lose the car his parents gave him," she wrote.

In 2001, the man's brother filed a notice with the court asking for financial records and noting that no accounting had been filed on the trust.

Then the man's sister also asked for an accounting, saying she knew of nearly $100,000 in cash and contract receivables that should be in the trust.

At one point, records show there was about $5,300 in assets left in the trust.

Court documents include information that, as trustee, Dasen invested the man's money in Budget Finance, a company of which Dasen was part owner.

Storli hired an attorney and asked for a court order requiring Dasen to appear and explain why he has not filed a complete accounting of the funds.

Storli's attorney, Dale McGarvey, filed papers saying that through Dasen's attorney, McGarvey secured more than $77,000, which is held in a credit union.

In a motion filed with the court, McGarvey said that "pursuing Dasen regarding his violation of trust and in-dealing is not economically feasible" because attorney fees would probably exceed any amount of money that could be recovered.

In correspondence, McGarvey alleged that Dasen's lending money to Budget Finance from the man's trust account was "a clear conflict of interest."

But the conservatorship would "have to show what portion of the profits of Budget Finance was attributable to the conservator's loan," McGarvey wrote. That would require the services and fees of a certified public accountant and attorneys.

According to James Moore, an attorney for the man's sister, though, "Neither Dasen nor Budget should be released until these monies are accounted for, the interest included."

Curtis had scheduled a hearing Jan. 5 to begin sorting through it all.

But Dasen's attorney asked for a continuance the day before the hearing, saying that "due to unforeseen airline issues, Richard A. Dasen Sr. has been unable to obtain transportation to Kalispell from Phoenix in time for the hearing."

Curtis rescheduled the hearing.

Dasen is in Arizona awaiting trial Jan. 24 in Kalispell on the prostitution charges.

This is the second trust-fund case involving Dasen.

Last year, a district judge ordered Dasen to account for more than $1 million in a trust fund he oversaw for a Kalispell teenager who was left in a vegetative state after inhaling a marshmallow as a toddler.

The money came from a lawsuit against the marshmallow manufacturer and others, settled in 1995. Dasen was appointed conservator for the boy with power to withdraw money "for the support, education, care or benefit of" the child. Regular accounting of the fund was required.

The sole document filed by Dasen appeared in the file on July 9, 2003.

It reads simply: "To Whom It May Concern: As of July 2000, cash and savings for the trust account … were depleted to a zero balance."

In May 2004, Curtis ordered Dasen to provide an accounting of Emery's estate. That was the last document filed in the case.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com