Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says it was merely a coincidence that a Utah-based technology company made a $10,000 contribution to his campaign just days before he wrote a glowing letter praising its "groundbreaking technology."

"It's not, 'Hey, give me a contribution and I'll write you a letter,' " said Shurtleff. "It doesn't happen that way."

The company, Orem-based DigitalBridge, displays the Shurtleff letter to other attorneys general on the front of its Web site, but the company says that Shurtleff offered to write the letter nearly a year ago, after the company demonstrated its data sharing technology.

"The timing of the letter from Attorney General Shurtleff with the [fundraising] event was simply a coincidence," said Melanie Dougherty, spokeswoman for the company.

Over the years, Shurtleff has collected more contributions of $10,000 and up than any other Utah politician, which became an issue during his re-election victory.

In recent weeks, Shurtleff was challenged over a contract for legal help that the state awarded to the law firm Siegfried & Jensen, which has given Shurtleff close to $60,000 in the last eight years. And before that, advocates have questioned Shurtleff's support for the payday lending industry in the state, which has given tens of thousands of dollars to the attorney general's campaigns.

Andrew McCullough, a Salt Lake attorney who has run against Shurtleff three times, said he doesn't question the attorney general's honesty.

"What I do question sometimes is his judgment. It seems like it smells a little fishy, and the wide-eyed amazement that he gives when anyone suggests it smells a little fishy," McCullough said. "Not that I really think he's up to anything …. It just looks a little bad, it smells a little bad, and he doesn't seem to notice. It makes you wonder what kind of Pollyanna he really is."

Shurtleff said he was introduced to the company by Michael Sibbett, a former long-time chairman of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, who has done lobbying work for law enforcement vendors in the past and is on DigitalBridge's advisory board.

Shurtleff said he thought the company's technology, which allows different computer systems to speak the same language and share data, could help with data sharing for the Identity Theft Reporting Information System, a database the state is developing and that he envisions someday spreading nationwide.

Shurtleff arranged in August for Sibbett and a company representative to make a presentation at the Conference of Western Attorneys General and arranged another meeting for Sibbett with the executive director of the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, D.C.

"Then you come around to the fundraiser events and you say, 'Hey, send them an invite.' It's not tit-for-tat or anything. It's, 'I know you guys now, do you want to sponsor an event?' " Shurtleff said.

The company did, and contributed $10,000 to Shurtleff's annual Shotgun Blast fundraiser.

Eleven days later, Shurtleff sent off a letter to state attorneys general around the country, effusively praising the company, highlighting how they had developed a "truly groundbreaking technology" for data-sharing and said that he "would recommend that you see for yourselves its capabilities, and the simplicity of its solutions."

Shurtleff's office doesn't have the budget to purchase the DigitalBridge technology.

He has offered similar support for other companies in the past, but he does not consider the letter to be an endorsement.

"We make it clear we're not endorsing a for-profit company, but if you have something that might assist law enforcement, I just want other attorneys general to be aware of it," he said.