When Harry Harcourt got a phone call from Google Money Tree, offering a CD course on how to make money from home, Harcourt thought he would give it a shake.

Not only did Harcourt not make any money from the program, he and potentially thousands of others had their bank accounts charged in a practice that federal regulators and state authorities in Utah and Texas say was an unlawful scam.

One person who did make money from Google Money Tree is Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

The state's top prosecutor received $30,000 from Infusion Media, the Draper-based company behind Google Money Tree and a handful of affiliated firms, according to public records obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune .

It is the latest in a series of generous donors to Shurtleff's political pursuits that have been in trouble with the law.

Since 2007, Shurtleff has accepted more than $180,000 from companies that have been tangled with state or federal law enforcers.

Shurtleff's Senate campaign spokesman, Jason Powers, said Shurtleff learned of Infusion Media's legal troubles just a few weeks ago. Powers noted that the contribution to the campaign came two months before Utah and Texas authorities took action against the company.

Asked if the campaign would return the money, Powers said Shurtleff would decide after the court case is resolved.

Powers said that when the attorney general is offered a contribution, he sends a note to lawyers in the office to ensure it would not create a conflict of interest with any pending case.

Most important, Powers says paraphrasing Ronald Reagan: "When an organization or a person gives a contribution to the attorney general, they're buying into the attorney general, not the other way around."

Essentially, a donor's endorsement of Shurtleff doesn't mean Shurtleff backs the donor.

Sen. Bob Bennett's campaign declined Thursday to comment on Shurtleff's donors.

The Utah Department of Commerce took action against Google Money Tree in April, a few weeks before Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sought a restraining order against Infusion Media in an effort to put an end to what he said were false and deceptive practices.

Utah regulators are seeking more than $40,000 in penalties on 17 alleged violations of state law; Texas law provides for $20,000 in penalties for each count.

Attorneys for the Federal Trade Commission have gone after Infusion Media the hardest, however, convincing a judge to freeze the company's assets so the money doesn't disappear.

Google Money Tree, itself, had no affiliation with the ubiquitous Google search engine. The company's advertisements boasted that participants could earn up to $100,000 in the first six months using their work-from-home program. Enrollees would have to pay $3.88 for shipping and handling for the CD program and could cancel within the first week.

According to complaints, some never received the CD. Those that did got a program that, according to the FTC, was a disorganized hodgepodge of 700 documents that also included two computer viruses that could compromise a computer's security.

But the real problem came when $72.21 monthly charges began showing up on participants' credit cards. Federal lawyers say the monthly charges were not made clear in the service agreement.

Shurtleff received two contributions from the company -- the first, $5,000, came last October. The second came on Jan. 25, for $25,000 and was made to Shurtleff's political action committee.

Powers said that, if there was a case pending in the attorney general's office, Shurtleff would not have accepted the contributions, but the attorney general for the state is an elected position "and as long as that's the case, there's a need to raise money."

"These companies have rights to support who they will. That's their right in the state," Powers said.

An attorney for Infusion Media did not return a message left at his office Thursday.

It is not the first time that Shurtleff's donors have drawn scrutiny.

For example, Shurtleff received $12,500 from Mentoring of America between 2007 and 2008. The Utah Department of Commerce had filed a lawsuit against the company in 2006 and eventually settled the case in 2008 with Mentoring of America agreeing to pay restitution to its victims.

The Federal Trade Commission took action against Mentoring of America in June, alleging it was part of a scam "duping hundreds of thousands of consumers into paying approximately $300 million" for get-rich-quick schemes. The case is pending in federal court in California.

The attorney general received $22,500 from The Summit Group of Utah, a Utah County-based call center. The Commerce Department currently has a case pending involving both Summit and Infusion Media that seeks up to $60,000 in fines.

Shurtleff also has received $40,000 from The Tax Club, which agreed in 2008 to refund nearly $3,400 to customers and pay a fine of $250 to settle a complaint from the state, which had sought a $7,500 fine.

Another company, IWorks, was issued citations by the Department of Commerce in 2006 for making misleading claims. The case against the company was later dismissed. The company and its executives have contributed about $80,000 to Shurtleff's campaigns.

Powers said that Shurtleff has shown that he will go after donors or friends if they run afoul of the law, pointing to a 2004 case where Shurtleff's office prosecuted the former Iron County sheriff, who had been a friend and supporter, for obstruction of justice.