In the years before prosecutors say he assassinated a top Minnesota state representative and her husband, Vance Luther Boelter was working to build a sprawling business empire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Before the world would come to know him as the alleged madman who chased former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and gunned her down in her own home, Boelter had his mind focused on farming, fishing, and other businesses in Africa.
‘Develop a partnership with mutual gain.’
Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minn., is charged with six federal felonies for the killing of Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and her husband, Mark; the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman (DFL-Champlin) and his wife, Yvette; and the attempted murder of the Hoffmans’ daughter, Hope. Boelter faces a possible death sentence for the alleged stalking and murder of the Hortmans.
During a brief hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis Thursday, Boelter pleaded not guilty to all six charges lodged against him in a grand jury indictment handed up July 15. United States Magistrate Judge Dulce J. Foster approved the Department of Justice’s motion to designate the case as “complex,” allowing more time than is usually granted under the Speedy Trial Act.
Boelter will be back in federal court in Minneapolis Nov. 12 for a status conference. A trial date has not been set, but trial will likely take place after February 2026.
Boelter also faces second-degree murder and attempted murder charges in Hennepin County District Court, but those state charges will wait for disposition of the federal criminal case.
Hours after Boelter allegedly dressed as a police officer and visited the homes of four Democrat lawmakers intent on murder, the FBI said, he sent a text message to his children that read, “Dad went to war last night.”
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Lubumbashi is the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a major industrial center.Red Lion Group
What war he did not say, but by then Boelter had possibly separated himself permanently from helping the Central African nation grow more of its own food while growing its economy.
In a text exchange from the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, Minn., where he is being held pending trial, Boelter told Blaze News on Aug. 7 that the need is great in the DRC especially for agriculture-based businesses. Only about 10% of the country’s arable land is used for farming, he says, leaving huge untapped potential.
“I found the DRC to be a massive country,” Boelter said. “It is the 11th largest in the world geographically. It has more farmland than Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa combined, but they only farm 10% of it.”
An outline for Boelter’s Red Lion Group obtained by Blaze News demonstrates extensive knowledge of the Congo River Basin and a goal of improving life in a nation of 115 million souls scarred by war and violence since it obtained independence from Belgium in 1960.
Boelter said the documents viewed by Blaze News might have been early plans for Red Lion Group drafted several years ago. He said the company most recently is “focused on mainly agricultural projects and also ministry.”
Boelter and his wife, Jenny, established a tax-exempt charity, Revoformation Ministries Inc., in 2007 to help them spread the Christian faith at home and abroad. Some of the Revoformation projects, such as a planned book and purchase of commercial buildings for possible church locations, never got far off the ground, as Blaze News reported.
Starting in 2018, Vance Boelter turned his relationship with the Minnesota-based Global Impact Center’s chairman into the launching point for a business venture called Red Lion Group. Boelter eventually joined in several trips to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country that imports most of its food and badly needs more domestic farm-to-fork programs.
His interest was piqued on Nov. 30, 2018, when the DRC ambassador to the United States, François Nkuna Balumuene, visited Worthington, Minn., to discuss ideas for the two countries to work together.
A night view of Kinshasa, the capital and largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Red Lion Group
“We want to give a chance to everybody, even to our partners outside the country, to get land and to start businesses,” Balumuene told a gathering of business officials at the Worthington Event Center.
‘Red Lion Security will be the go-to security company for any protection services needed.’
Boelter suggested at the meeting that some 20 Minnesota businesses team up to train Congolese workers in various occupations, providing years of experience they could use to later launch prosperous businesses in the DRC.
Ambassador Balumuene approved of the concept. “I think it’s a very, very wonderful idea for the exchange experience,” he said, according to a page-one story in the Globe newspaper.
Boelter spent most of his career in the food industry, working for companies that included Gerber Food Products, Johnsonville Sausage, Del Monte Foods, Greencore, and Schwan’s Company.
Boelter told Blaze News that after the Worthington meeting, he was invited by the ambassador to travel to the DRC to “see if I had some ideas how to help their food supply situation. They have 100 million people and import 70% of their food or more.”
Two Worthington residents who spoke at the meeting soon became an integral part of Red Lion Group. The Rev. Mcnay Nkashama and his wife, Nathalie, both native to the DRC, touted the benefits of a partnership between Minnesota and the DRC.
“Anyone who would have the opportunity to to travel to Congo and teach people something, they’d love that,” Nathalie Nkashama said. “The youth … they’ll go and then they’ll come back and bring more people with them.”
The Rev. Mcnay Nkashama of the Minnesota-based Global Impact Center introduces Vance Boelter during Sunday services at Centre Evangelique Francophone La Borne Matadi church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.La Borne Matadi TV
Mcnay Nkashama said the mutual benefits of a partnership could overcome the stigma that Africa “is a place not to do business.”
Ambassador Balumuene agreed. “If you want to invest in Congo … you shouldn’t feel like government is in the way,” he said. “Develop a partnership with mutual gain.”
Just such a partnership sprang up between Boelter and Nkashama. The Global Impact Center sponsored regular mission trips to the DRC. The men became close friends over the next few years as they built a plan to help the Central African nation better feed itself and develop its economy.
After Boelter’s June 15 arrest on the assassination charges, the Global Impact Center sought to distance itself from Boelter, who it said was just an occasional volunteer.
“We collaborate with church organizations and individual volunteers. It is within this context that Mr. Vance Boelter has, on occasion, appeared in some of our meetings and ministry platforms, as seen in various media,” the center wrote in an “Urgent Message” on its home page. “However, we want to clearly state that Mr. Boelter is neither a member of Global Impact Center’s leadership team nor affiliated with any of our local or international church partners.”
That carefully worded statement didn’t disclose the fact that Boelter and Nkashama had been business partners in Red Lion Group. Boelter held a 49% ownership share, and Nkashama had a controlling 51% share, according to documents written by Boelter and obtained by Blaze News.
Boelter made numerous trips to the DRC and often mixed Christian evangelism with gaining new business contacts for Red Lion Group.
Boelter, who said he was ordained a minister in 1993, gave at least three televised sermons at the Centre Evangélique Francophone La Borne Matadi church.
The French-speaking Lutheran church is located in Matadi, the capital of the Kongo Central province and the nation’s primary seaport.
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Prototype apparel and branding for the proposed Red Lion Security Service that Vance Boelter wanted to establish in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Red Lion Group
For some of the sermons, Rev. Nkashama introduced Boelter and served as his translator for the large crowds that packed the church.
In 2021, Boelter and his wife decided that he would quit his job with 7-Eleven Inc. so he could focus on Red Lion Group, according to a biographical video he posted on social media. Boelter made a trip to Kongo Central province in September 2021.
“The company I was working for at the time wasn’t interested in doing anything in Africa,” Boelter said in the video. “So I talked with my wife and we decided I just put in my two-week notice and we just go off on our own to try to do these [projects] to help out in Africa.”
After quitting his career-track job, Boelter said he worked jobs in the funeral industry to “pay the bills” as he tried to build Red Lion Group. Jobs included doing body pickups for two Minneapolis-area funeral homes and removing eyeballs from the deceased as a technician for the University of Minnesota eye bank. He also took mortuary science classes at Des Moines Area Community College.
The Red Lion Group business plan reviewed by Blaze News is sweeping and far-reaching. Boelter hoped to attract both investors and companies that could plug into any of the more than 40 business units he originally hoped to establish.
Boelter posted an update from the DRC on his LinkedIn page in February 2023. Boelter’s account was taken offline after his June arrest.
“Red Lion Group had a great meeting with the new governor of Kongo Central to talk about our private business projects,” Boelter wrote. “They are all moving forward in that province. … Everything on schedule and within budget.”
“Red Lion Group is here to make sure everything your company is doing in the DRC is being done right the first time,” Boelter wrote in an introduction for the company website. “… Red Lion Group is an investment in your company’s success. We want to help fast tract [sic] your goods and services into the DRC for maximum profit for your company.”
The goal, Boelter wrote, is to “have people see Red Lion Group as a cutting edge place to invest in financially as a way to be part of what we are doing and the spaces we are growing in all over the DRC. We want them to see multiple businesses they can be investing in.”
“Red Lion Group is the covering organization and that is owned by Mcnay and his wife, and myself and my wife,” Boelter wrote in one document. In another document obtained by Blaze News, Boelter wrote that Red Lion Group “is a collection of corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. Mcnay to have 51% ownership and Vance to have 49% ownership of Red Lion Group.”
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has landmass about a quarter the size of the continental United States.CIA World Factbook
According to the plan, Red Lion Group would be involved in infrastructure businesses such as oil production, road construction, residential and commercial construction, rubber products, custom fabrication, electro-mechanical assembly, concrete production, lumber and supplies, and glass manufacturing.
In food production, Red Lion would operate agricultural and farming services, food brokers, farm equipment and supplies, fishing, fast food, grain milling, coffee production, convenience food at fuel stations, pet stores and supplies, water purification, and food safety and inspection.
The rest of the business units are varied: martial arts, waste management, business consulting, the arts, film production, resorts and tourism, automotive sales and service, arms manufacturing, investment services, medical supplies, human resources staffing, clothing manufacturing and sales, call centers, boat and motor sales, import/export, and transportation services.
A core business meant to protect all of the others is Red Lion Security Services.
The goal is “to offer well trained security to meet the needs of customers who want to make sure they are protected as well as their workers, equipment, and property,” Boelter wrote. “Red Lion Security will be the go-to security company for any protection services needed.”
Boelter and wife Jenny twice sought to operate a security company over the past 20 years, business records show. The most recent, Praetorian Guard Security Services, was founded in 2018 but never took on clients. However, the company purchased extensive equipment and police vehicles, including one that the FBI said Boelter used in a deadly predawn shooting spree on June 14, 2025.
Blaze News left numerous messages for Rev. Nkashama to obtain comment for this article but did not receive a reply.
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