Inmate Ran Debt-Collection Agency While Paying Debt to Society, Cuomo Says
Lamont D. Cooper was supposed to be paying his debt to society. Instead, he ran a debt-collection company from federal prison, demanding payments from people who owed nothing, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said.
Cooper, 38, imprisoned in October 2009 for violating the terms of his release on a drug conviction, continued to operate a business called Legal Action Recovery while in New York’s Batavia Detention Facility, Cuomo said today statement. He had been barred from the business in April 2009, after a court found his service employed threats and intimidation.
“Such disregard of the law will not be tolerated and we will hold him accountable for the harm he has caused families throughout the country,” Cuomo said in announcing charges.
While Cooper sat in prison, his collectors impersonated law enforcement officers to scare victims into payments on sometimes non-existent debts, according to the criminal complaint. They were told they’d be arrested and jailed unless they paid immediately, Cuomo charged.
Some authorized withdrawals from their accounts or sent wire transfers, according to the complaint.
Millions in Deposits
From May through August 2009, Bank of America accounts in the name of CMP Processing, which were connected to Cooper’s CMC Recovery Services, Inc. showed deposits of $1.38 million believed to be from debt-collection payments, Cuomo said.
Cooper had told his probation officer he was working for Shepsu Financial Services Inc., a corporation owned by his girlfriend, which bought and sold debt portfolios, according to the complaint. He said he earned $72,000 a year, plus bonuses.
A Buffalo, New York, attorney who has represented Cooper, Thomas Eoannou, said in a telephone interview that he would be surprised if the allegations were true.
“Lamont is an extremely bright individual and I doubt he would be running something from a penitentiary where you know the phones are recorded,” Eoannou said. He said he hadn’t been retained to defend Cooper on the new charges.
Cooper is accused of operating a scheme to defraud, punishable by as much as four years in prison, and criminal contempt, which carries a year maximum.
Cooper pleaded guilty in 1997 to cocaine charges and was sentenced to 43 months’ in prison and five years of supervised release, according to the complaint. In October 2009, he violated the terms of his release and was sent to the Batavia Detention Facility, where he was sentenced to 14 months.
To contact the reporter on this story: Karen Freifeld in New York at kfreifeld@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page