Wes Cooley (politician)

Cooley was born in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Leuzinger High School and served in the United States Army from 1952 to 1954, and is described in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress as a rancher. He owned the vitamin supplements company Rose Laboratories. Cooley graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1958. ==Political career==

Cooley was elected to the Oregon State Senate in 1992. In 1994, midway through his State Senate term, Cooley was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Republican from the 2nd district. In the 104th Congress, Cooley was an advocate of private property rights, American military superiority, tort reform to limit recovery by plaintiffs, and other planks of the Republican Party's proclaimed Contract with America. In April 1996, the Medford, Oregon Mail Tribune questioned Cooley's statement in the 1994 Voter's Guide that he had served in the Army Special Forces in Korea. A special nominating convention chose former six-term incumbent Republican Bob Smith, who had retired two years earlier, to replace Cooley on the ballot. Smith went on to defeat Democrat Mike Dugan in the November election.{{cite news In December, Cooley was indicted for lying about his military service in the 1994 voter's pamphlet.{{cite news ==Tax evasion conviction==

On January 29, 2009, Cooley was indicted in California for his role in an alleged investment scheme associated with the sale of shares of Bidbay.com. The Oregonian reported that prosecutors alleged more than $10 million was defrauded from investors in the Bidbay sale of shares based on false statements. Cooley was charged with six counts of money laundering and one count of filing a false tax return in 2002 in an attempt to conceal more than $1.1 million in illicit income. In December 2012, Cooley was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after pleading guilty to hiding $494,000 in income from the Internal Revenue Service. He was further ordered to pay back taxes of $138,470 and restitution of $3.5 million to the victims of the Bidbay investment fraud scheme. ==Death==

Cooley died on February 4, 2015, in Bend, Oregon. ==See also==