Yellow Cab employees, along with some of the company’s drivers, may be facing up to a $5,000 fine and a year in jail if they get the book thrown at them. That’s the possible outcome of an investigation opened Tuesday by Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman.

The investigation stems from a complaint filed with Coffman’s office in early April by the non-profit watchdog group Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government (CCEG) which alleges that Colorado Cab Company, which owns Yellow Cab, violated lobbying statutes by offering drivers a reduction in lease rates in exchange for phone calls to state legislators. The bill in question, HB 1114, would have lowered regulations for starting a taxi company, and was staunchly opposed by Denver’s three cab companies. Eventually, the bill was tabled for next session.

If such a deal was made and accepted, then both the cab company and the drivers who participated would have broken state law.

“It is essential to our system of government that an individual has the right to lobby his state representative. Also as critical, however, are the laws we have in place to regulate lobbyist activity,” Coffman said in a statement.

Chantell Taylor, the executive director of CCEG, commented assuredly, “There were violations. The question is, ‘how many?’”

Still, the investigation may simply turn into a game of he-said, she-said. Yellow Cab representative Sean Duffy of the Kenney Group, a public relations firm, called the complaint “without merit,” and said, “[CCEG] makes a practice of making frivolous charges against political opponents and we will contest these charges vigorously. We expect to be completely vindicated.”

Duffy noted that CCEG had filed only a single sworn affidavit from a Yellow Cab driver, Mengisteab Desta, who said he had been offered a lease rate adjustment worth between $50 and $110 and was provided a “script” of talking points to use with legislators.

Attorney Scott Gessler, in a response to CCEG’s complaint, included a rebuttal in the form of a sworn affidavit from Michael Rivera, the supervisor Desta accuses of offering him the deal.

Rivera’s story is a complete reversal of Desta’s statement. Rivera wrote that Desta had approached him about opposing the bill, and had volunteered to make phone calls against the measure. Rivera offered to make a phone at the cab company headquarters available for such calls, and agreed that the company had also put together some “talking points” for the calls, but flat-out denied offering drivers a lease rate adjustment.

Duffy took it a step further, and agreed that drivers were asked by the company to call lawmakers if they disagreed with the bill.

“The difference is that the drivers were certainly asked, would you advocate for your own livelihood? But they’re saying they were paid lobbyists, and the company vigorously rejects that,” Duffy said.

Taylor said now that an investigation is open, however, a number of other cabbies may be willing to come out and back up Desta’s story.

“[Desta] indicated that there were other drivers that would come forward if an investigation was opened,” Taylor said. “That’s the first thing we’re going to do, is go back to our source and see if there would be others willing to come forward now.”

Coffman’s spokesman, Jonathan Tee, said currently there is no timetable for the investigation. He emphasized that the “potential” outcome is a hefty fine and possible jail time, but stressed that so far Coffman has only decided to open an investigation to determine whether charges should be filed.

An interesting side note to the case is that Coffman’s office and CCEG have often played adversarial roles. There has most decidedly been no love lost between the two offices — CCEG has repeatedly called on Coffman to fire an employee they claim is a blatantly partisan crony, and Coffman’s office has called CCEG a Democratic attack organization. Coffman’s decision to move ahead simultaneously lends a new air of credibility to CCEG and also marks Coffman as having a particularly developed sense of duty.

“We were concerned that non-related action would somehow taint this one, and we’re glad to see that the Secretary is taking this seriously despite our other actions,” Taylor commented.

Said Tee, “[Coffman] based his decision to move forward with an investigation on CCEG’s complaint, the response from Colorado Cab, and a review of the applicable statutory and case law. Basing the decision on anything else would have been unethical."