Say Goodbye To The Irrepressible Wester Shadric Cooley

Occasionally, remarkable people come along in life. Sometimes their remarkability comes from admirable things. Other times, it comes from things not so admirable.

The later seems to be the case of Wester Shadric Cooley, a former congressman and now-convicted securities crook from Oregon. When he reports to federal prison in March, Cooley will just have celebrated his 81st birthday.

He was recently sentenced in Los Angeles to one year and a day in federal prison, after pleading guilty to involvement in a $10 million investment scheme and receiving $1.1 million from the scam that he hid from the IRS. Prosecutors said Cooley was also ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution, as well as $138,470 in back taxes.

In the fraud, a former IRS agent and a convicted felon solicited hundreds of victims to buy unregistered shares of Bidbay.com, Inc. Cooley was vice president of Bidbay and an executive at other, related companies. Investors who bought shares were told Bidbay and other shell companies would be issuing IPOs and would soon be acquired by Ebay, Inc. for $20 per share, the government said.

One of Cooley’s co-defendants was sentenced to 33 months in prison, and the other will be sentenced in February. That leaves the curious Cooley, who was dubbed in a February 2009 Oregonian article as “one of the more bizarre politicians Oregon ever sent to Congress.”

The writer, now-retired journalist, author and Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Bates, also recalled that Cooley once accused him of hounding Cooley’s aged aunt so vociferously that the old lady died.

Bates had been interviewing family members and friends of Cooley, who was forced to leave Congress after one term in the 1990s for lying about his non-existent war record. Among other things, Cooley also untruthfully claimed under oath to have a law degree and a master’s degree, Bates reported.

Cooley will now have a whole year to reflect on his transgressions, but the thought occurs that he still just won’t get the point. However, prison is probably as good a place as any to think about it.

Want a daily digest of articles like this one, plus the latest compliance jobs at top-tier organizations? Join 65,000 other compliance, risk governance, and regulatory professionals and subscribe to our free afternoon newsletter. Where do you find news, style, and career all in one place? The Executive Gateway, our new lifestyle magazine.

James Welsh is a veteran journalist and financial writer who covers compliance and securities fraud issues.