The former chief executive officer of the failed Mamtek project in northern Missouri’s Moberly has been paroled from state prison.
Former Mamtek CEO Bruce Cole (2014 file photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Corrections)
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.
Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) spokeswoman Karen Pojmann tells Missourinet Cole was paroled from the Tipton Correctional Center earlier this month. Cole served three years and nine months in prison, before being paroled.
Prosecutors say Cole, 70, scammed investors out of millions of dollars involving a failed artificial sweetener plant in Moberly.
Cole held a 2010 press conference at Moberly Area Community College, where he promised then-Governor Jay Nixon, Moberly leaders and about a dozen reporters that he would bring 600 jobs to the struggling Moberly area.
Mamtek, the failed artificial sweetener plant, ended in bankruptcy.
The issue divided the community, and more than 20 lawsuits were filed in state and federal courts involving Mamtek.
Cole’s case was moved from Randolph to St. Charles County in 2014 on a change of venue, because of extensive media coverage in northern and central Missouri.
Veteran Randolph County Prosecutor Mike Fusselman, a Republican, and former Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster worked together to prosecute Cole.
Fusselman has noted it was a complex case, because some of the bank records were in China.
The DOC website indicates Cole is being supervised in another state, under the Probation and Parole Interstate Compact.
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