A former Miss Utah has been arrested with two others on suspicion of stealing about $1 million in products from NuSkin and reselling them over the Internet.
Elizabeth Craig, who was Miss Utah in 1991-92 and who participated in the Miss America pageant, was booked into Utah County Jail on suspicion of theft, conspiracy to commit theft, possession of stolen goods and selling trademarked goods without authorization. She spent a night in jail last week and was bailed out by her husband.
Brady Harper was jailed on the same circumstances, as was Scott Lazerson, who is also suspected of communications fraud. They have not been charged.
Beginning in April, Lazerson, a former NuSkin employee, would go to the company's distribution center and talk his way into getting boxes of products without paying for them, said Capt. Cliff Argyle of the Provo Police Department. The trio had three rented storage units full of products with a wholesale value of about $1 million, he said. They would use eBay and Amazon.com to sell the goods "to anyone with an Internet connection, anywhere in the world," Argyle said.
A person called NuSkin security to report that someone was selling NuSkin product without permission, and after security employees saw a non-employee load up boxes of NuSkin products from a storage unit in Orem, they contacted police.
"They didn't see how what they were doing was wrong. They said other people on the Internet were doing the same," Argyle said. "It's not clear that Lazerson was clear about not paying for it, but the other two had to have been aware they were not employees of the company but they were selling trademarked goods of that company."
Craig was a religious educator for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' seminary program, and she was a director for the Especially for Youth program, as well.
She was scheduled to speak at an Especially for Youth conference at Brigham Young University-Idaho, but when administrators learned of her arrest, they canceled her presentation, said Andy Cargal, school spokesman.
The three could face federal charges because the goods likely crossed state lines, Argyle said, but that is still under investigation. Police do not know how much money the three made.
"As far as value, this is probably one of the higher totals for thefts we've dealt with," Argyle said.
