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Utah's iMergent Inc. once again finds itself in a state court, accused of fraud and deceptive business practices in the sales of its Internet-based business products.

The Orem company is being sued by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Her Madison County Circuit Court complaint states that iMergent's representatives misled clients in regard to the ease of using their e-commerce Web site software and about the availability of technical support.

IMergent CEO Don Danks on Wednesday said the allegations are unsubstantiated. He added that the company has petitioned to have the Illinois case moved to that state's Southern District federal court, where it hopes the results will have a broader impact.

"We recently promised our shareholders that we would litigate, rather than settle, any new cases," Danks said. "We haven't done anything wrong and have good business practices. . . . We will be extremely aggressive defending this."

IMergent has faced and settled, without admitting any wrongdoing, similar actions in several other states, including Utah. The company also faces separate class-action litigation in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court, alleging securities fraud.

The Illinois suit seeks to bar iMergent from further sales and promotion of its products in Illinois. It also seeks to impose a $50,000 civil penalty and $50,000 in fines for each incident of fraud proved at trial.

In total, complaining clients paid $91,000 to iMergent's e-commerce companies, but none succeeded in setting up online businesses, Madigan said.

IMergent counters that it has reviewed all of the complaints and settled them, paying $35,000 in refunds.

Investors in iMergent stock seemed to brush off the latest litigation. Shares that sold for around $14 less than three months ago closed Wednesday at $28.72, up 2.39 cents, or 9 percent.

The company reported $29 million in revenue for the quarter ending Sept. 30. Net income climbed to $2.3 million, compared with a loss of $5.5 million the same time last year.

IMergent also recently increased its investor guidance for 2007, raising its projected revenue growth from 30 percent to 35 percent. It did so on Dec. 18, only to be followed a few hours later by a state of Illinois news release, announcing the A.G.'s lawsuit.

In announcing the suit, Madigan warned consumers to "be very skeptical of any marketing efforts that promise easy access to [or] prey on the desire to attain easy wealth through the Internet."

About IMergent
Through seminars worldwide, iMergent Inc. sells e-commerce software and services aimed at helping would-be Internet merchants get online. Using the StoresOnline brand name, its suite of services ranges from Web site set-up to Web hosting.