Woodbury man charged with stealing more than $400,000 from his 93-year-old father-in-law

A Woodbury man has been accused of stealing more than $400,000 from his father-in-law over several years after taking control of his bank account, according to felony charges filed in Washington County District Court.

Mark A. Rippy, 56, told authorities that father-in-law Peter van Leeuwen, 93, had agreed to pay the private school tuition for Rippy’s four children. But the amount of money withdrawn from Van Leeuwen’s account, $420,147, was significantly more, according to the criminal complaint.

During a search of Rippy’s home, investigators found a Home Depot credit card in Van Leeuwen’s name on a nightstand next to his bed and a blank check from his father-in-law’s account in his wallet.

They also found several credit cards and lines of credit opened in Van Leeuwen’s name but linked to Rippy’s address. The cards were at their credit limit and totaled about $50,000.

Rippy was charged with 14 felony counts of theft, and his first court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 16. The complaint said an investigation was continuing and that more charges may be filed.

Rippy could not be reached for comment Friday.

Authorities were alerted by Van Leeuwen’s son, Patrick, who visited from California in June 2023 and discovered his father in ill health. Patrick van Leeuwen said he came to Minnesota to help while his sister, Maria Rippy, and her husband, Mark, vacationed in Europe. The Rippys live next door to Van Leeuwen.

After Van Leeuwen told his son that he hadn’t seen any of his bank statements “in a long time,” they obtained two years’ of records from U.S. Bank and were told the account’s contact information had been changed to Mark Rippy.

The records showed that Rippy was making monthly withdrawals from Van Leeuwen’s account, specifically from a variable annuity his father-in-law set up in 2006 with proceeds from the sale of a California house. Van Leeuwen told investigators that he didn’t authorize the withdrawals and that the signature on the checks was not his.

Asked about the withdrawals, Rippy told authorities that his father-in-law had agreed to pay the private school tuition of his grandchildren, buy him a Porsche without expectation of reimbursement and cover a $9,000 car loan for Rippy’s son. He also said Van Leeuwen had paid for a new roof several years earlier.

He said his father-in-law had changed his living will to leave more of his estate to his son to compensate for the money he gave Rippy. However, investigators found no evidence of that.

Maria Rippy told investigators that she didn’t know if her father was writing monthly checks to her husband but said Rippy had taken out “a bunch of loans.”

The private school tuition going back to 2016 totaled about $57,000, authorities said, but Rippy withdrew $179,000 more than that. Investigators also found that Van Leeuwen had taken out a home equity loan to help Rippy buy a Porsche for $32,000. Rippy made three monthly payments to reimburse Van Leeuwen for the car but then stopped, according to the complaint.