SLEAZE MAGNET

SELF-STYLED BUSINESS CONSULTANT GAIL Edward Cooper once wrote that he liked to tell Southern Methodist University MBA students that he’s the last person they’ 11 ever want to meet in the business world.

“By the time you seek out someone like myself you are in deep financial trouble.” Cooper wrote in 1993. He should know. In 1984 alone. Cooper was involved in three bankruptcies related to his 440 Ranch, a spread near Denton that was once home to one of the country’s largest horse breeding operations. Cooper has gone through at least six bankruptcies as an individual or as a company principal.

Cooper began consulting in the mid-’80s for clients facing financial ruin in the Texas oil and real estate bust, especially those enmeshed in the S&L calamity centered in Dallas who claimed to be flat broke when the money tap ran dry.

Though Cooper has testified that he has only an eighth-grade education, he is considered by many to be a sophisticated legal strategist. He has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by high-profile businessmen to negotiate complex debt workouts. His current firm. Cooper Consulting Inc., works mainly with small- and medium-sized companies that are on the ropes.

His no-holds-barred tactics typically combine hardball negotiations, exhaustive litigation and new investors. A “Gail Cooper Special” is said to include a bankruptcy, a divorce and often some form of complex financial restructuring like a “bleedout,” where the assets of the troubled company are transferred to another without payment, leaving creditors unable to collect claims.

Over the years, Cooper has built a reputation as a tough street fighter with an explosive temper. A former rodeo cowboy, he was charged in 1978 with aggravated assault for pistol-whipping a man and convicted in 1983 of assaulting a waitress in a nightclub. The bankruptcy of his ranch, followed by his personal bankruptcy, resulted in what has been described in court documents as “vitriolic and protracted litigation”’ with bankruptcy trustee Don Navarro, First Interstate Bank and Cooper’s then-wife Deborah. Allegations of fraud, misconduct and violence were lodged against Cooper, including the claim that during an argument with Navarro, an enraged Cooper pulled out a gun and fired it at the ceiling. (Contacted by D Magazine, Cooper declined to comment.]

Over the years. Cooper’s hard-driving, ruthless style has drawn dozens of wealthy individuals and desperate business owners wanting him to help resolve legal and financial entanglements. For some, like S&L looter Tom Gaubert, a visit to Gail Cooper’s office is a last-ditch effort on the way to prison.

That’s what Cooper himself now faces. In the early’90s, Cooper’s methods attracted the attention of the FBI. A federal investigation, which purportedly involved wiretaps and undercover informants, led to an armed raid on March 31, 1995 by 50 FBI agents on Cooper’s ranch near Aubrey. In June, prosecutors issued two federal indictments accusing Cooper of fraud involving his work for clients. In one indictment. Cooper is charged along with Dallas City Councilman Paul Fielding with five counts of fraud. In the second indictment, Cooper is charged with conspiring with three other men to commit wire fraud, bank fraud and bankruptcy fraud. His trial is set for April.

Among Gail Couper s most notable clients are:

PAUL FIELDING: Dallas City Council member known for taking a conservative stance on city spending. When his own business. Mason Rich, ran into trouble. Fielding turned to Cooper, who has been known to take a less-than-conservative stance on ethical and legal issues. A1995 lawsuit filed by Mason Rich shareholders claimed the company was paying Cooper $5,000 per month in consulting fees and that he had actually taken over the corporation. ’The choice of Mr. Cooper raises serious questions about the business judgment” of Fielding, the shareholders claimed after FBI agents contacted diem in their ongoing investigation into Cooper’s dealings. In June Fielding was charged in an eight-count federal indictment with fraud, violation of laws on minority government contracting and extortion in an alleged scheme to defraud creditors. Cooper was named in five of those counts.

SAM RICHARD FELDMAN: A Dallas businessman and president of Fielding’s factoring company, Mason Rich Inc. Feldman met Cooper in the 1980s when Feldman owned a company that ran the debt-laden Villa Capri Motor Motel in Austin. A controversy erupted on the City Council in 1994 when Fielding tried to name Feldman, a white man from North Dallas, to the Southern Dallas Development Corp., an ideal position to funnel minority clients to Fielding’s company. When Mason Rich began to struggle. Feldman introduced Cooper to Fielding. Named an unindicted co-conspirator. Feldman has agreed to plead guilty and testify against both Fielding and Cooper.

TOM GAUBERT: Real estate developer, former owner of Independent American Savings Association of Irving and high-profile Democratic fund-raiser who garnered millions for former Speaker of the House Jim Wright and other elected officials. Gaubert went to Cooper in the mid-’80s as his real estate empire was crumbling. Gaubert decided to try his own version of “hide the assets,” and was convicted of bankruptcy fraud and money laundering in 1993. He later pleaded guilty to bank fraud and is now in federal prison.

JOSEPH F. LANDIS: Owned an insurance agency, Intercon Reinsurance Brokers Ltd., that fraudulently sold insurance policies without the knowledge of other companies, including Dallas-based Lloyds U.S. Corp. During litigation with Lloyds U.S., questions were raised about whether $125,000 paid to Cooper as a “consulting fee” was actually funneled to Attorney General Jim Mattox to get the state to back away from taking action against Intercon. A court found that Landis and Intercon abused the legal system by “failures to produce documents, failures to answer questions and the making of misrepresentations.” Landis was represented by Cooper associate, attorney Robert Dowd. More than half a million dollars was transferred to a trust account at Dowd’s firm, which Landis said was to put the funds beyond the reach of a restraining order.

DEL MORTON: Piano businessman involved heavily in S&Ls and real estate deals in the 1980s. Owned interests in several now-defunct S&Ls, as well as numerous real estate investments. Morton filed for bankruptcy in Tyler. In September 1991, his debt of $39.4 million was erased. Morton and Piano wheeler-dealer Charles Wilson, also a Cooper associate, were charged with bank fraud in the early 1990s. Cooper was listed as a possible fact witness by the defense. Both Wilson and Morton were acquitted.

DAVID MCCALL JR.: Former Piano mayor and president and CEO of Piano Savings. Met all was indicted m 1995 on bank fraud charges. He faced onerous financial problems as a result of debt taken on in the 1980s for real estate and other investments. McCall pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and is awaiting sentencing.

ROY DICKEY: Dallas businessman and former official with the now-infamous Vernon Savings & Loan, whose collapse was one of the biggest S&L debacles of the “80s. Represented by Cooper associate Skip Simpson, Dickey pleaded guilty to one charge of bank fraud.



COOPER MAINTAINS A STABLE OF LAWYERS WHO DO LEGAL WORK for his clients. First affiliated with attorney Phil Palmer, Cooper branched out in 1986 when Charles Kaplan formed the law firm Simpson, Dowd & Kaplan. Cooper hired the lawyers and had a heavy hand in making management decisions. The law firm, which later became Simpson, Dowd, Kaplan, Lewis & Moon, had offices adjoining Cooper’s on the 48th floor of the Allied Bank Tower (now Fountain Place) until the early ’90s when the firm split.

ROBERT DOWD: Former lawyer with 1RS who later worked on litigation involving Cooper’s clients and associates.

CHARLES KAPLAN: After not practicing law for several years, in the mid- 80s, he set up the law firm of Simpson, Dowd & Kaplan adjacent to Cooper’s consulting firm.

SEARCY “SKIP’ SIMPSON: Former assistant in both the Dallas County District Attorney’s office and U.S. Attorney’s office. Simpson represented Cooper’s clients and associates in lawsuits and later various criminal defendants in prosecutions involving failed S&Ls.

JIM MATTOX: Former attorney general of Texas, Mattox met with a group of Cooper clients in December 1986 to discuss S&L problems. Cooper sought an opinion from Mattox’s office on whether the State of Texas could sue the federal government to stop the closure of S&Ls. Questions also have been raised in court documents about whether a $125,000 fee Cooper collected from insurance executive Joseph Landis involved getting the attorney general to intervene in a lawsuit involving Landis and the state. No criminal charges were brought.

PHILIP I. PALMER JR.: Longtime Dallas bankruptcy attorney who once was a trustee in the bankruptcy of a company Cooper ran in the 1960s. Palmer did business with Cooper, who used one of Palmer’s offices. The former vice consul of Costa Rica. Palmer was acquitted on charges of bankruptcy fraud in 1989. Hardball Dallas lawyer known for aggressively representing clients. In addition to representing Cooper personally. Weil has represented some of Cooper’s high-profile clients, including Del Morton.



And then, there are the wives:

SUZAN COOPER: Married to Cooper in 1969. she filed for divorce in 1973. And 1974. And 1975, when it was finalized.

DEBORAH COOPER: Married to Cooper March 20, 1976, Deborah filed for divorce in 1984. “During one of his daily drinking sprees,”’ Deborah alleged, ’?[Cooper] drove a late model [Cadillac] car over the rough terrain of the ranch in such a wild and reckless manner that the trunk flew open, a fender fell off and a tail light fell off. He then lost control of the car on the dam road and almost ran it into the lake before he got it stopped. He then proceeded to shoot innumerable bullet holes into the car body and windows.” In the car during the wild ride was Cooper’s son Cash, then only 7 or 8 years old. In a court hearing, Cooper said they were simply “chasing rabbits.”

In the middle of divorce proceedings. Deborah abruptly called it off and returned to Cooper. After her attorney Ray Besing hied suit to recover his attorney’s fees, Gail Cooper filed a countersuit against Besing for malpractice. It was settled out of court. Though the divorce was finalized, Deborah returned to live with Cooper until May 1990, when he suddenly abandoned her and married Phyllis Rainwater, his receptionist.

PHYLLIS RAINWATER: Filed for divorce in 1991 after a year of marriage, claiming that Cooper had beaten her. Phyllis’ action prompted Deborah to file yet another petition for divorce, as still unresolved. Deborah now claims that either she is entitled to unpaid child support payments dating back to 1984 as well as property she never received-or that she is still Cooper’s wife by common law and he is a bigamist.