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A state court judge signed a judgment on Wednesday against two telemarketers who had made brief appearances in the scandals surrounding now former Utah Attorney General John Swallow.
Third District Judge Elizabeth Hruby-Mills approved a default judgment against Aaron Vincent Christner and Ryan Scott Jensen.
A week ago, the two were each charged with two third-degree felony counts of violation of a cease-and-desist order.
The Utah Division of Consumer Protection ordered Christner and Jensen to stop operations after they had been assessed $400,000 in 2010 for 160 counts of telemarketing without a permit. They had been cited three times previously for violations, including for misrepresentations to consumers, some of whom spent thousands of dollars on "coaching" software to help start online businesses.
The division then sued them in April allegedly after they continued to operate telemarketing businesses in violation of the earlier cease-and-desist order.
The judge on Wednesday entered the order assessing them $425,994 and enjoining the two and their businesses, K-Street Advertising and One Touch Media, from operating or assisting any business regulated by the Division of Consumer Affairs after they failed to answer the complaint in court. They also are enjoined from violating consumer, business opportunity and telephone fraud laws.
The judge on Wednesday entered the order assessing them $425,994 and enjoining the two and their businesses, K-Street Advertising and One Touch Media, from operating or assisting any business regulated by the Division of Consumer Affairs after they failed to answer the complaint in court. They also are enjoined from violating consumer, business opportunity and telephone fraud laws.
"K-Street, One Touch, Aaron Christner and Ryan Jensen ignored the Division of Consumer Protection and continued to violate state consumer laws so strong action was required," Francine A. Giani, executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce, said in a statement. "Consumer Protection would like to thank the Attorney General's Office for their ongoing partnership in fighting fraud so Utah can maintain a level playing field for business."
In a statement, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes also praised division regulators for pursuing "repeated and flagrant violations of Utah's consumer protection laws."
Christner also has used the names Vince Scarpuzzi and Aaron Cassidy, while Jensen has been known as Ari Schwimmer.
Their names came up in news reports and investigations into the alleged "pay to play" allegations against Swallow and his predecessor as the state's top law officer, Mark Shurtleff, which involved online sales companies, telemarketers and the payday loan industry.
In 2012, Christner recorded a phone call to Swallow in which he seemed to suggest Swallow might be able to help with the consumer fraud findings against them. During the phone call, he mentioned he might attend a fundraiser for Swallow's campaign to succeed Shurtleff as attorney general. He did not, however, donate to the campaign.
Swallow told Christner that if elected he planned to bring the Consumer Protection Division under his control.