The former CEO of the failed Mamtek project in northern Missouri’s Moberly will be paroled next year.
Former Mamtek CEO Bruce Cole (2012 photo}
Former Mamtek CEO Bruce Cole pleaded guilty in September 2014 to one count of theft and two counts of securities fraud, and he was sentenced to seven years in state prison.
The case was moved from Randolph to St. Charles County on a change of venue, because of extensive news coverage.
Missouri’s Probation and Parole Board has approved Cole’s parole. Department of Corrections spokesman David Owen tells Missourinet Cole is scheduled to be paroled on June 4, 2018.
Cole is currently incarcerated at the Tipton Correctional Center, west of Jefferson City.
Prosecutors note Cole scammed investors out of millions of dollars involving a failed artificial sweetener plant in Moberly.
In 2010, former Governor Jay Nixon and Cole held an event at Moberly Area Community College, where Cole promised to bring 600 jobs to the struggling Moberly area. There were about a dozen reporters and television camera crews at that event.
Moberly officials agreed to issue $39 million in bonds, through the city’s Industrial Development Authority. The state authorized $17 million in tax credits, which were never issued.
Construction on the site, which is near Highway 63, ended in 2011. Mamtek ended in bankruptcy.
More than 20 lawsuits were filed in state and federal courts, involving Mamtek.
Longtime Randolph County Prosecutor Mike Fusselman (R) filed the original charges against Cole, and requested the assistance of then-Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster’s (D) office. That’s because of the resources required to prosecute this type of case.
Koster joined Fusselman in Cole’s prosecution and Koster was in the St. Charles County Circuit courtroom when Cole pleaded guilty in 2014, before Judge Daniel Pelikan.