Influence-peddling case begins against former Utah Official

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Former Utah Attorney General John Swallow was enmeshed in a power-and-greed scheme that brought in thousands of dollars and luxury trips from businessmen facing criminal charges, prosecutors said Wednesday during opening statements in his influence-peddling case.

Swallow is charged with 13 counts, including bribery and evidence tampering, in one of the highest-profile scandals in state history.

The allegations include illicit gifts of gold coins from a now-deceased payday loan titan, stays on luxury houseboats and a trip to a high-end California resort with a businessman who prosecutors say got a sweetheart plea deal in a fraud case.

“You have this power-greed-corruption triangle here,” prosecutor Chou Chou Collins said. “That’s the basis for this story.”

Swallow’s defense attorney Scott Williams contended the case is a smear campaign against a successful politician, and that prosecutors are twisting the facts to fit the story they want to tell.

“It’s not cloak and dagger. It’s not criminal,” Williams said.
He acknowledged that Swallow was willing to hear out people from scrutinized industries such as payday lending, multilevel marketing and health supplements but said that was a matter of fairness, not corruption.

“Everybody should be listened to on all sides of the political spectrum, including individuals that weren’t popular,” Williams said.

Swallow’s predecessor Mark Shurtleff, who served in the state’s top law enforcement office for more than a decade, also faced allegations, but the charges against him were dropped.

The prosecutor cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning a corruption case out of Virginia and the refusal of federal investigators to share information about their past investigation into the two former Utah lawmen that ended without charges.

Prosecutors on the Swallow case are expected to call dozens of witnesses in the trial.

Developer Marc Jenson testified Wednesday that he bankrolled posh California vacations for Swallow and Shurtleff, who has denied the allegations of wrongdoing.

Jenson said he was shaken down for the favors after the Utah attorney general’s office charged him with securities fraud. He pleaded no contest in what prosecutors called a sweet deal, though he later served prison time after failing to pay restitution.

Defense attorneys call Jenson a con man and say parts of his story aren’t true.