Tagged: mamtek

Regional news coverage from the KBIA newsroom, including:

• More Akin abortion remarks stir criticism
• Sweetener company CEO headed back to Missouri
• Schaefer, Still square off in debate on MU campus
• McCaskill says she raised $5.8M for Mo. Senate bid

Missouri officials say the former head of an artificial sweetener company has agreed to return from California to face charges of theft and securities fraud stemming from a failed factory project.

Bruce Cole was chairman and CEO of Mamtek U.S. Inc., which received $39 million of industrial development bonds from the city of Moberly to build a sweetener plant.

Cole is charged in Missouri with using bond revenues to avoid foreclosure on his Beverley Hills home and misleading investors about his company's financial health.

The former CEO of Mamtek is fighting extradition to Missouri.

At a court hearing today in Santa Ana, California, Bruce Cole refused to be extradited, which means that he can’t be sent back to Missouri unless the Governor of California asks the court to order it.  A spokeswoman for the Missouri Attorney General’s office says that request is being expedited.

UPDATE: 3:00 pm, Tuesday September 18:

Former Mamtek CEO Bruce Cole was arrested at his home in Dana Point, California on Tuesday after the Missouri Attorney General charged him with theft and fraud.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster told reporters that Bruce Cole -- the former CEO of the now defunct company Mamtek -- has been charged with stealing and four counts of securities fraud.

The State Senate is considering legislation aiming to prevent economic disasters like Mamtek’s failed factory project in Moberly.

Columbia-based Shelter Insurance has sued a bond underwriter for $390 million over municipal bonds issued by the city of Moberly for the failed Mamtek USA sweetener plant project.

Regional news coverage from the KBIA News room, including:

• House legislators examine new death penalty rules in Missouri
• The controversy surrounding failed development of sweetener factory Mamtek in Moberly continues.
• Senate leaders endorse bill making disturbances of religious worship a crime.