FERGUS FALLS — The former manager of a western Minnesota grain elevator has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for a swindle that cost his employer millions of dollars.

Fifty-six-year-old Jerry Hennessey of Dalton pleaded guilty in February to mail fraud and tax evasion in a 15-year scheme to defraud the Ashby Farmers’ Co-Operative Elevator Co. in Ashby.

Prosecutors said Hennessey used the money to pay for exotic hunting trips, real estate and credit card debt.

Hennessey concealed the payments as expenses for the co-op. He eventually got a line of credit of about $7 million for the co-op, then used that account to cover more than $5 million that prosecutors said he stole from the company.