Trucking firms involved in Nathan Cooper case may face civil penalties

~ No criminal charges: Federal prosecutors are not planning to pursue criminal cases against the companies.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri is negotiating possible civil penalties with the trucking firms that benefited from the immigration fraud scheme that resulted in criminal charges against former state representative Nathan Cooper.

Prosecutors in the office led by former Missouri House speaker Catherine Hanaway are not currently planning to pursue criminal charges against CalArk of Little Rock, Ark., or Pullen Bros. of Sikeston, Mo., said Jim Crowe, the assistant federal prosecutor who prosecuted Cooper.

Cooper has been ordered to report Jan. 24 to the the minimum-security prison camp for male offenders adjacent to the federal penitentiary in Marion, Ill., Crowe said. Cooper was sentenced Dec. 10 to 15 months by U.S. District Judge Jean C. Hamilton. He asked for assignment to the Marion prison, and the reporting date is within the normal period for the Bureau of Prisons to seek the surrender of nonviolent offenders, Crowe said.

The negotiations for a possible civil settlement with the trucking companies is underway, but Crowe said he is not handling the matter and referred questions to assistant federal prosecutor Andy Lay.

Calls to Lay and office spokeswoman Jan Diltz were not returned.

Pullen Bros. controller Garrick Gaffigan said Crowe's statement that criminal charges were not currently on the table is "good news" but declined to comment further. "Obviously, if there is a negotiation there would not be a comment."

He referred all other questions to company owner Jerry Pullen, who was out of town.

A call seeking comment left at CalArk's headquarters in Little Rock was not returned.

Cooper pleaded guilty in August to two counts of immigration fraud arising from his legal work for Pullen Bros. and Cal-Ark Trucking. Cooper admitted arranging temporary worker visas for foreign drivers, mainly from Australia and New Zealand, to work on a seasonal basis for the companies.

Cooper admitted setting up shell companies to hide the drivers' true employers, purchasing documents intended for seasonal workers in the hospitality industry and writing letters claiming that the drivers' immigration paperwork was being processed and it was legal for them to work. During the course of the investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers determined that the two companies had no significant seasonal variations in their workload and the use of the seasonal visas violated immigration law.

The civil litigation division of the federal prosecutor's office for the Eastern District of Missouri is engaged in negotiations with the two companies over their role in the violations, Crowe said.

Cooper forfeited $50,000 in legal fees he received from the companies to settle civil claims. He was also fined $6,000 by Hamilton as part of his criminal sentence.

Cooper, a Republican, was elected to represent Cape Girardeau in the Missouri House in 2004. He was re-elected in 2006, a little more than a year after federal investigators first visited him as part of their inquiry into his legal work.

He resigned his legislative seat Aug. 14, and his law license was suspended. On Monday, the Missouri Supreme Court disbarred him.

A special election to fill his vacant House seat will be held Feb. 5. Democrat Mike Keefe, Republican former state representative Mary Kasten and Libertarian Steve Kinder are competing for the post.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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