By Tom Harvey

| The Salt Lake Tribune

A St. George man linked to processing online poker payments for indicted businessman Jeremy Johnson has been charged with two fraud counts.

Todd L. Vowell, 44, faces second-degree felony charges of communications fraud filed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office.

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A charging document does not provide details of the allegations. But Deputy Attorney Jerry Jaeger said they were similar to allegations contained in a lawsuit filed against Vowell, his brother, Jason, and one of their companies, Executive Car Sales Inc.

In that lawsuit, St. George resident Karen Grounds claims fraudulent statements were made to entice her to invest $600,000 in the car lot.

Grounds declined to comment on the charges, and her attorney did not return a phone call. Vowell’s attorney did not return emails seeking comment.

Arraignment on the charges is set for March 12.

The Vowell brothers and Johnson ran businesses that helped two online poker companies process player payments through SunFirst Bank of St. George.

Johnson’s partner in the business, Chad Elie of Las Vegas, and John Campos, who was a bank official, were indicted in New York last year for allegedly violating state and federal laws in connection with the processing.

Neither Johnson nor the Vowells were charged in that case, but Johnson faces a single fraud charge in federal court in Utah for his operation of a separate business called I Works that allegedly bilked tens of thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars.

Johnson reaped about $50 million in profits from I Works, according to a receiver appointed to oversee the company as part of a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission in 2010.

Investigators recently said in a report to the court in the FTC suit that they found evidence the Vowells helped Johnson try to hide another $50 million that came from poker processing. They denied the allegations.

tharvey@sltrib.comTwitter: @TomHarveysltrib