Ethics chairman pushes Cooper land deal inquiry
Cooper’s alleged role in the bank fraud and money laundering case is “something we need to be looking into,” Chairman Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, wrote in a memo to the ethics subcommittee chairman, Sen. Doug Henry, D-Nashville.
It will be up to the subcommittee to investigate and recommend to the full committee whether to pursue a full investigation.
“It is generally assumed that the unindicted co-conspirator is Senator Jerry Cooper,” Ramsey said in the memo Monday.
Henry said he received Ramsey’s memo Tuesday.
“I’ll look at it and decide what I’m going to do,” he said.
Cooper, D-Morrison, has avoided questions for weeks and did not return a Tuesday telephone message seeking comment.
The land deal resulted in federal indictments charging Anthony and Teresa Auyer of Alabama, who purchased Cooper’s lumber mill property in Warren County, and property appraiser James Passons.
The indictments also cite an unnamed, unindicted co-conspirator who owned the property and “used his political contacts, connections and influence” to help Auyer obtain a $1.77 million federally insured loan.
Minutes from a May 7, 1998, Department of Community and Economic Development Loan Committee meeting show that an official “presented this project, at the request of Commissioner (Bill) Baxter and Senator Jerry Cooper, for a reservation of funds in the amount of $292,255 for a rail spur.”
Cooper has not been charged but is identified by tax records as the man prosecutors are calling an unindicted co-conspirator.
The federal indictment says the co-conspirator “used his political contacts, connections and influence” to sell a Warren County business property he owned. It says he helped a buyer obtain a $1.77 million federally guaranteed loan from BankTennessee based on a bogus appraisal.
Ramsey noted that the sale resulted in an $800,000 loan owed by Cooper “being paid off from the proceeds therefrom.”
Ramsey asked: “Was undue influence used in gaining financial advantage for the railroad spur? Did Senator Cooper profit from this?”
Tax records and state documents show Cooper actively sought to get the state to use federal money to build a railroad spur to the property. Records show the property would be worth less without the spur. Records show state funding the railroad link was approved but it was never built.