Wilder says he didn’t try to influence ethics panel

“I went up there to say howdy,” Wilder told The Commercial Appeal. “I said nothing to any of the (subcommittee members). I mean, I didn’t meet with them.”

The Wednesday meeting was going to be closed to the public, but Wilder told reporters who were waiting outside and trying to get into the closed-door session that he thought he “might sit in” on the meeting. He left after reporters quizzed him about his appearance.

The Senate Ethics Subcommittee eventually let the reporters in — and the loan made by BankTennessee to Sen. Jerry Cooper was part of the discussion. Cooper is thought to be a unindicted “co-conspirator” named in a federal indictment alleging fraud against two men involved in the sale of property owned by Cooper.

The panel didn’t take action against Cooper, deciding to wait until the federal case unfolds.

But Wilder is now drawing fire, with some of his fellow senators and others saying it was wrong for the Democrat from West Tennessee to show up at an ethics meeting that dealt with a questionable land deal in which he was involved.

Wilder was in the meeting for less than two minutes and did not involve himself in any presentations or deliberations, said his chief of staff, Russell Humphrey.

Cooper is not named in the indictment in the case, but court documents make reference to an unindicted co-conspirator who owned the land and used his political connections to help obtain the loan.

Wilder said Cooper approached him about having BankTennessee, which Wilder partly owns, underwrite the $1.77 million loan when the deal was first going down in the late 1990s. Wilder said he stayed out of the decision to grant the loan, which has since defaulted.

A Huntsville, Ala., couple used the money in 1999 to buy a Warren County lumber mill Cooper owned.

Wilder told The Commercial Appeal on Friday that he didn’t try to influence the subcommittee’s decision or the making of the loan that sparked the controversy. He said he did nothing more than refer his Senate colleague to BankTennessee executives.

“Cooper came to me and told me he had this person who was going to buy his factory. And he wanted to know if my bank would be interested in making the loan,” Wilder said.

“And I said, ‘Jerry, I think it would. It does that kind of business. You send him down there.’ He sent him down there. And I was not involved in it.”

Asked if his referral might have influenced the bank to make the loan, Wilder said: “It could be. I mean I’m a member of the bank. And I vote on loans all the time. But I didn’t vote on this loan. It didn’t come before us. It made the loan without it coming before the board.”

Cooper didn’t respond to a message left at his Nashville office.