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Prosecutors have filed charges against two telemarketers whose dealings with John Swallow and Mark Shurtleff have figured into "pay-to-play" allegations against the former Utah attorneys general.
Aaron Vincent Christner and Ryan Scott Jensen each were charged Wednesday with two third-degree felony counts of violation of a cease-and-desist order. The Utah Division of Consumer Protection in 2011 ordered Christner and Jensen to stop telemarketing operations after they racked up $400,000 in fines relating to allegations that their call center persuaded customers to needlessly spend thousands of dollars on "coaching" software, sold by one of the call center's clients to help customers start online businesses.
In 2012, Christner recorded a phone call to Swallow in which he seemed to want Swallow's help in reversing the division's findings against them. During the phone call, he mentioned he might attend a fundraiser for Swallow's campaign to succeed Shurtleff as attorney general.
The conversation was taken to the Utah State Bar in a complaint by the division that Swallow, who then was chief deputy attorney general, shouldn't have dealt with someone who was the subject of a consumer-protection legal action since the A.G.'s office represents the division.
The bar dismissed the complaint, but the conversation was examined by a special Utah House committee that found Swallow had operated a "pay-to-play" scheme, soliciting campaign donations and other money from people connected to companies or industries under regulatory scrutiny.
The committee also reviewed an email sent by Jensen, who met with Swallow at the fundraiser discussed in Christner's phone call, thanking Swallow and Shurtleff for "opening a hand" to the telemarketing industry. However, Christner has said no donation was made to Swallow's campaign.
The fines and violations were not overturned, and Christner and Jensen remained under orders not to conduct telemarketing business in Utah, according to the charges filed Wednesday. But the Division of Consumer Protection received calls from customers describing contacts from businesses allegedly run by Christner and Jensen twice in 2012, after the cease-and-desist order was served, the charges state.
In 2013, Christner filed articles of incorporation and a business license application in Murray for yet another telecommunications business, investigators wrote. Former employees of that business, K-Street Advertising, confirmed they were doing sales calls to market "coaching" services for online businesses and that Christner and Jensen were running K-Street until May, investigators wrote.
In April, the Division of Consumer Protection sued Christner and Jensen, seeking a permanent injunction to prevent them from having any connection to any company the division regulates, and to require the payment of about $450,000 in outstanding fines.
Christner and Jensen then denied the allegations, saying K-Street was not involved with telemarketing and that they were the target of a vendetta.