40 Comments »

Anonymous said:
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
What? The state {monopoly on force} perpetuates fraud {for a cut on the action}? Sounds like fear porn conspiracy theory to me. Maybe a STATE would be this corrupt :: but definitely not at the FEDERAL level :: eg Federal Reserve :: ECB, etc.
btw, Mormonism {not absolving other religious pyramid schemes} IS a pyramid scheme … do the research. Could send you loads more about the corruption of Utah’s AG office :: but you’re doing a great job as is. I hope that one day a good mass of people {Hacker News :: etc.} get behind this site and cause it to go supernova :: sucking ALL the scammers into its vortex :: not just the little minnow fucks like Kern and Dilliard.
LOSER!! ::   -4
[Reply]

HTNMMO Reply:
June 2nd, 2012 at 2:26 pm
@,
“Maybe a STATE would be this corrupt :: but definitely not at the FEDERAL level :: eg Federal Reserve :: ECB, etc.”
I know it was a small thing that didn’t get much media attention and hardely anyone is even talking about it any more so I don’t blame you for not noticing but there was this little teensy weeny little issue that involved the housing market that effected some people.
And some people believe that the federal government had a role to play in it, even as some states tried to prevent it.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2008/01/crashing_the_subprime_party.html
But that doesn’t mean states are good and the federal government is bad. Quite often it is just a matter of competing corruption.
  0
[Reply]

Sad Sad Thing Reply:
June 5th, 2012 at 12:20 am
@HTNMMO & @Anonymous
You two should get together and form a club.
Somewhere else.
Salty has another great post here and it’s guys like you who railroad it into your own little side tangent and personal beliefs.
@Anonymous, supposedly you “Could send you loads more about the corruption of Utah’s AG office :: but you’re doing a great job as is.” …
I call bullshit. You don’t have jack. IF you do, post it. Otherwise, go try to assure other strangers of how cool you are somewhere else.
@SaltydDroid, sorry for taking up the comment space here at the top. I understand the irony of it, but this post has a lot of meat to it and deserves more actual attention… Like Lanna’s post below. Nice work @Lanna.
  -1
[Reply]

Sad Sad Thing Reply:
June 5th, 2012 at 12:08 am
@ Anonymous,
http://imgur.com/kD7Xs
oh and ps…
http://cheezburger.com/6298825984
  0
[Reply]

Crazy Utah Reply:
June 12th, 2012 at 9:55 am
@, CRAZY UTAH
This isn’t the first time the state offices have battled over power
http://www.abc4.com/content/news/state/story/Not-the-first-time-AGs-office-has-set-its-sights/AYJ5qRBYmUSvmUoWKJzyhA.cspx
They even pull in an interview with John Huntsman from 3yrs ago to clarify on all these crooks from giani on down to shurtleff
  0
[Reply]

SD Reply:
June 13th, 2012 at 12:22 am
@Crazy Utah ::
Thanks that was interesting.
I like how Channel 4 is all proud of themselves for bringing this up {sort of} in ONE question … three years ago. With such great “journalists” all over the joint it’s a real shocker the whole world is going down the shit tubes.
Maybe Channel 4 should man up and play this audio …
http://saltydroid.info/scamming-two-debbies/
… so people in great fake state of Utah can get started coming to terms with just what an awful :: awful :: so fucking awful … thing they have done.
[Reply]

Crazy Utah Reply:
June 13th, 2012 at 12:43 pm
@SD, thanks for the reply!!!
HERE IS A HOT NEW ARTICLE SALLTY!!! I THINK YOU ARE IN IT LOL
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-77-16068-dialing-for-dollars.html
In a good way though MORE SCAMS
  +3
[Reply]

SD Reply:
June 13th, 2012 at 2:14 pm
@Crazy Utah ::
Fucking sweet :: and it ends with Jason saying “meat grinder” … boom!
[Reply]

Crazy Utah Reply:
June 13th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
@SD, check out this story you are all in this one
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-77-16068-dialing-for-dollars.html?current_page=all
  +1
[Reply]

Jack Reply:
June 13th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
@Crazy Utah,

“But currying favor with pro-business politicians doesn’t begin and end with campaign cash. OBO companies also court government through in-kind services, charitable deeds and mutual endorsements.
And their efforts, at least in Utah, have not been in vain. Indeed, while the Federal Trade Commission has charged multiple Utah telemarketing companies with serious fraud charges, according to Utah’s Administrative Office of the Courts, on the state level there is no record of a felony or misdemeanor conviction against a company or an individual for violating Utah’s Telephone Fraud Prevention Act since the law regulating telemarketers was enacted in 1993.”
Wow.
And…double-wow:
“It was 10:45 p.m. on a cold night in January 2012 when a black car slowly pulled into the driveway of Johanna Quinones’ Sandy home and parked with the engine running. Quinones didn’t recognize the car but feared who might be in it. She quickly called the police. Quinones previously had a restraining order against her ex-husband, Sov Ouk, a Salt Lake City Internet-marketing entrepreneur.
She was naturally relieved when a patrol car rolled up to her house and an officer approached the idling car. She then watched in amazement as the officer shook hands amiably with the driver, the man she would later find out was Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. The state’s top attorney had driven her ex-husband to her house, in an act, she says, of intimidation.”
  +3
[Reply]

Wyrd Reply:
June 13th, 2012 at 11:38 pm
@Jack,
Yeah, that part, about the intimidation/wanton abuse-of-power-just-because thing
“It was 10:45 p.m. on a cold night in January 2012 when a black car slowly pulled into the driveway of Johanna Quinones’ Sandy home and parked with the engine running. Quinones didn’t recognize the car but feared who might be in it. She quickly called the police. Quinones previously had a restraining order against her ex-husband, Sov Ouk, a Salt Lake City Internet-marketing entrepreneur.
She was naturally relieved when a patrol car rolled up to her house and an officer approached the idling car. She then watched in amazement as the officer shook hands amiably with the driver, the man she would later find out was Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. The state’s top attorney had driven her ex-husband to her house, in an act, she says, of intimidation.”
That’s the thing that finally makes me outraged at Mark Shurtleff.
How come this guy gets to be at liberty and in office instead of in prison after crap like that?
  +3

Crazy Utah Reply:
June 14th, 2012 at 7:51 am
@Jack,
NEWEST STORY IN UTAH
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/54301020-90/swallow-attorney-county-fbi.html.csp
GOES UP INTO DIRTY FTC AND FBI AGENTS NOW!!!
  +1
# 2 June 2012 at 7:53 am

Anonymous said:
state = social proof
  +5
[Reply]
# 2 June 2012 at 7:59 am

Lanna said:
Some of the people deep in Scamworld seem to have vestigial consciences. It’s interesting where they draw the line. Mike Filsaime will work with boiler rooms, but not racist boiler rooms. Jensen and Christner will run boiler rooms, but they won’t buy state politicians.
WINNER!! ::   +11
[Reply]
# 2 June 2012 at 10:16 am

Spitsnot Swallows said:
From Swallow’s campaign website as one of his priorities…
“White Collar Crime
Utah is a hotbed for financial crimes, and that needs to stop. Utah’s next Attorney General must be prepared to prosecute those who prey on consumers and be tough on criminals who have cheated and deceived Utahns.”
http://www.johnswallow.com/priorities/
Does this mean he will withdraw from the race as completely unqualified to handle his own priorities?
WINNER!! ::   +13
[Reply]
# 2 June 2012 at 4:30 pm

Wyrd said:


They think the a-teamers are using the power of the state as a weapon in “the game” … to keep newcomers from threatening the established powers. That seems so unlikely. Campaign donations with wink winks and looks the other way? Of course. The apparatus of the state actually co-opted into the racketeering process? That’s some old school shit right there
It doesn’t seem so unlikely to me. The donations themselves are enough to make this level of corruption seem likely, or at least plausible. Well… the donations plus Rod Blagojevich trying to sell a Senate seat plus whichever democrat it was that was investigated by the FBI and found to have ill gotten monies stashed in his friggin’ freezer plus the Citizens United ruling plus the funding sources of almost every major republican candidate ever plus the near collapse of the world banking system in 2008 and all the sweeping reform that’s largely failed to happen since.
Yeah I know I jumped all over there. It’s just it seems to me the corruption problem thingie is rather wide-spread atm. If we’re very lucky, it might be that Utah represents the bottom of the barrel. In an environment that sleazy, if you are receiving campaign monies from a not-nice source with the implicit agreement that you’ll “look the other way”, then you are only a very tiny nudge away from actively participating in the corruption. (IMHO)
Also, just to recap on Swallow’s financing sources:
Swallow drew heavily from
* dietary supplement companies — pretty scammy–no it’s not that every dietary supplement is a scam, it’s just that most dietary supplements are scams insofar as they haven’t had to go through any rigorous testing for “safe and effective” because they’re not regulated as drugs. Also, “I felt better when I took it” does not count as proof for either safety or efficacy.
* real estate — has a lot of scam in it, doesn’t it? Just ask Robert Kiyosaki. Also, Jay Van Orden (of Sterling and Jay, Internet Business Mastery) tells us that he got his start with the be-your-own-boss, financial freedom meme through a real estate investment group. Then he figured out that info products were the way to go
* wealth “coaching” companies — ah how nice. They used the word `”coaching”‘ to refer to the MMO group. Of course some “coaches” coach about “life” (Tim Brownson)
See how the word `”coaching”‘ has those built-in quotes around it? That’s cuz the word is too slimy to keep in a sentence without them.
–
Furry cows moo and decompress.
  +1
[Reply]

Lanna Reply:
June 4th, 2012 at 3:10 am
@Wyrd,
I mean this in the nicest possible way, but I think this article was too subtle for you.
They think the a-teamers are using the power of the state as a weapon in “the game”. . . to keep newcomers from threatening the established powers. That seems so unlikely.
. . .
It doesn’t seem so unlikely to me.
Salty says it’s a mother-fucking shakedown!! That’s the punchline. This shit is beyond the AG’s office accepting campaign contributions and looking the other way. This is beyond the AG’s office doing the bidding of the A-teamers and hitting the B-teamers with fines. The AG’s office is running the fucking scam! The AG’s office is the top of the pyramid, the leaders of the cartel. If you pay them protection money, you’ll be allowed to run your little racket. The AG’s office is scamming the scammers!
The City Weekly quotes John Swallow doing the Chris Bartold style budget probing:
“OK, so umm … so you ran out of money?” Swallow asks Christner.
Only once Christner says they’re making money does Swallow offer up the meeting with himself and Shurtleff. Pay for play. Fucking golden.
. . . most dietary supplements are scams insofar as they haven’t had to go through any rigorous testing for “safe and effective” because they’re not regulated as drugs.
We can talk about what’s wrong with that another day, on another venue perhaps. You’re letting your demand for Phase III clinical trials of common produce blind you to the real scams.
The two companies mentioned in the quote from The Salt Lake Tribune – Usana and NuSkin – are not in the business of selling dietary supplements. They are in the business of selling the opportunity to sell dietary supplements. MLMs. Pyramid schemes in the Pyramid state.
“[R]eal estate and wealth “coaching” companies” is code for boiler rooms like Prosper and PMI – not small-time “life coaches” like Tim Brownson.
According The SL Trib, he was a registered lobbyist for a company in the payday loan industry, i.e., legal loansharking. The same article explains his work “as an attorney in the supplement industry”:
He also was chief legal counsel for Basic Research, a supplement firm that has clashed with federal regulators over weight loss claims the company has made.
Founded in 1992, Basic Research hired Swallow in 1998, while he was already in the Utah House of Representatives.
Swallow had already left Basic Research by 2004, when the FTC filed a complaint against the company, but Westminster College columnist reported:
Initially, Basic Research told the FTC that part of Swallow’s duties included reviewing ad copy for the products in question, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Basic Research backpedaled on that. In 2006, they were order to pay a $3 million settlement, and in 2009 they were charged with continuing to make baseless claims despite the 2006 order to stop.
To recap, whatever your position on Centrum and Vitamin C caplets, John Swallow:
- accepted contributions from pyramid schemes
- accepted contributions from boiler rooms
- accepted contributions from loan sharks
- was alleged to have approved bogus claims for a weight-loss product for children (later redacted)
WINNER!! ::   +8
[Reply]

SD Reply:
June 4th, 2012 at 6:31 pm
@Lanna ::
You’re the best!
[Reply]

Jack Reply:
June 4th, 2012 at 11:21 pm
@Lanna, I mean, but, it’s just like McDonald’s Happy Meals, right? Right?
  +2
[Reply]

Lanna Reply:
June 4th, 2012 at 11:49 pm
@Jack,
I dunno. Can you find me a clinical trial on the correlation between McDonald’s Happy Meals and plugged-up Polish kids pooping?
Glucomannan is not effective for the treatment of functional constipation in children: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial.
Maybe it is not as good as Happy Meals.
  +3
[Reply]

Lanna Reply:
June 4th, 2012 at 3:14 am
@SD, Please approve my link-laden comment.
  +3
[Reply]
# 4 June 2012 at 12:20 am

Lanna said:
Local TV and radio station KSL reports on their website that “Swallow wants Consumer Protection under AG control”.
  +4
[Reply]
# 4 June 2012 at 2:38 am

Orenthal said:
You know what’s a real shakedown? Business licenses. That’s right: you have to pay a municipality for those pieces of paper to get the privilege of running a business. Oh yeah, and corporate taxes. They’re another shakedown.
  -2
[Reply]

SD Reply:
June 4th, 2012 at 6:51 pm
@Orenthal ::
Yeah :: the formalities underpinning civil society are a scam … like vaccinations and herd immunity protecting other people’s childrens.
dot dot dot
sod off.
[Reply]

Anonymous Reply:
June 4th, 2012 at 8:34 pm
@SD, uhh, whatever you say.
Oh, by the way, did you know “sod off” isn’t a ‘real’ British idiom? In fact, it was made up by the BBC as a way of getting around censors’ objections to realistic obscenity of the sort used by real, live people. Basically, if you hear someone saying “sod off”, you can figger them as a wannabe Englishman who doesn’t really know very much, or a young Brit (or other) who learned the language by listening to the television.
I’m not offing anywhere; I like reading your stuff too much. Put me in your banhammer box if I’m too much of a drag.
  -2
[Reply]

SD Reply:
June 5th, 2012 at 12:43 am
@Orenthal ::
Shame on me for watching the BBC then.
I also like to say fraked :: another fraking great fake curse word …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frak_(expletive)
… because I’m a wannabe cylon.
[Reply]

Dr Geek Reply:
June 5th, 2012 at 6:50 am
@SD,
As a Brit (who at 37 has to admit he is no longer in the first or even second flush of Youth), I can state with certainty that “sod off” has made it into the common lexicon, no matter what its origins…and you used it appropriately.
  +5
[Reply]

Wyrd Reply:
June 5th, 2012 at 9:36 am
@,
Re “sod off”:
Well somebody go tell Joss then.
  +1
[Reply]

Quesadilla Reply:
January 12th, 2013 at 6:37 pm
@SD,
What are you saying? Formalities don’t underpin society. All that stuff really is a shakedown. Who can keep up with it all and still run a business? That’s part of why it’s so hard for small business owners.
Vaccines don’t look good. The Pill looks even worse. Cause the FDA is making money on that nasty new stuff when bc’s been around since the dawn of time. It really deserves to be looked at. I know you center on law more than med. As and indie scholar and voracious reader, I can say: a really terrifying amount of conspiracy hypotheses turn up correct. Not all. Using the imagination to do forensic science takes practice, of course. Not everyone’s good at it at first, but imagination is, like, way important.
ANYWHIZ-
Shurtleff is disgusting to behold. I wonder what kind of rapey adventures he and his buddy Swallows go on regularly. They’ll probably be caught at it soon.
  0
[Reply]
# 4 June 2012 at 6:47 pm

Satan's maid and her green card said:
I hate lexicon nazis. Not complement makes their stupid explanation better. Mister Superman no here.
  0
[Reply]
# 6 June 2012 at 9:38 pm

SD (author) said:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/8/3068342/prosper-scamworld-internet-marketing-boiler-room-joe-vitale-mitt-romney
[Reply]

Head Honcho Reply:
June 8th, 2012 at 3:14 pm
@SD, Why am I not surprised the connections go that far? A VERY interesting additional spin-off development. Nice!
  +1
[Reply]

Anonymous Reply:
June 8th, 2012 at 5:13 pm
@SD,
Nice to see Bishop Romney’s ties to Scamworld get exposed.
  0
[Reply]
# 8 June 2012 at 12:01 pm

Stella said:
Indeed. Taxes= scam. The individual must become sovereign.
Yes, I know, “sod off”.
But the movement won’t stoppppp.
Shurtleff is a pussy-oozing rectal belch.
  -2
[Reply]

Wyrd Reply:
June 17th, 2012 at 3:24 pm
@Stella,
I’m curious to know how well that individual sovereignty’s going to work once one of your “sovereign” individuals commits one or more violent acts against another. Likely it’ll come down to whoever is quickest or strongest. Someone wrote about this once before already–name of Hobbes. You might wanna look him up. Now I’m not quite as dark as Hobbes.
But I think having a bunch of “sovereign” individuals roaming around is not the cure-all you seem to propose it as. You might (temporarily) solve the problem of taxes. But what is there in your system to stop some bully from starting the whole thing up again–forcing people to pay tribute or whatever?
–
Furry cows moo and decompress.
  0
[Reply]
# 16 June 2012 at 10:49 pm

Stella said:
I beg your pardon. I meant PUSS-oozing rectal belch.
  +1
[Reply]
# 16 June 2012 at 10:54 pm

Wyrd said:
FYI, John Swallow won the primary election for AG a couple days ago with 68% of the vote over Sean D. Reyes.
http://electionresults.utah.gov/300400.html
  0
[Reply]
# 28 June 2012 at 11:54 am

Ari Schwimmer said:
Mr. Christner (who also goes by the name Vince Scarpuzzi) and Mr. Jensen have made a career out of ripping off all the people around them. Their employees, their “clients”, anyone and everyone they can. Mr. Christner and Mr. Jensen ae about the sleaziest act in town, and when they get caught; they close up shop, change their names and start a new scam.
Their current scam is called The Black Box Firm. As with their previous companies, Mr. C ad Mr. J are ripping of clients and employees, while sitting in the back getting high as kites smoking pot. Another day, another doobie…
Earlier today, Mr. Christner and Mr. Jensen missed another day in court; they just couldn’t bother to show up. It is understandable for Mr. Christner- he lost his driver’s license due to a few DUI convictions. Today’s case involved them fraudulently acquiring a Utah telemarketing license, in defiance of many previous orders forbidding either of the two from telemarketing in any way. So this time as in previous times it seems Mr. Christner and Mr. Jensen just used different names and kept at it, selling their bogus coaching and ripping more clients off.
So, once again, they had their license revoked, and are again forbidden from telemarketing in Utah. John Swallow should look into this perhaps? Maybe he should look into why repeat offenders of consumer laws are just left to not show up to court, and flaunt the courts orders?
I think it is also a bit disingenuous of The City Weekly writer Eric S. Peterson to write his original article as if he has no previous experience with Messer’s Jensen and Christner. While The City Weekly is no giant bastion of journalism, it is at least worth noting in this article that Mr. Peterson has had an ongoing relationship with Messer’s Jensen and Christner for at least eight months. At least some mention of their ongoing work together should have been disclosed, I think…. if one is to take any of this article serious at all.
  0
[Reply]

SD Reply:
July 17th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
@Ari Schwimmer ::
First of all … let’s not blame it on the weed. They’re prolly also “sitting in the back” eating expensive food and then shitting it out … but we’re not going to blame cows or toilets are we?
Eric thinks the political corruption is the bigger story :: the more important stort … because he’s right. You think Aaron and Ryan are swinging big dicks in this fucking game? Cause you know jack shit if that’s how you see it. What you describe them doing is what ANYONE who doesn’t care about other people can do right now in the “pretty great state” of Utah.
“I think it is also a bit disingenuous of The City Weekly writer Eric S. Peterson to write his original article as if he has no previous experience with Messer’s Jensen and Christner.”
He has years of experience with these beasts … me too. Not the point is it? You think we’re going to figure out the story by only talking to the innocent? Could we talk to you by those rules?
Me doubts it :: disingenuousness … indeed.
[Reply]
# 17 July 2012 at 3:05 pm

Crazy Utah said:
Help us get Mark Shurtleff’s drone out of Office! Every signature helps! END this shit of corruption and help Utah take a stand for themselves.
http://www.change.org/petitions/john-swallow-resign-from-office-of-the-attorney-general-of-utah?utm_campaign=new_signature&utm_medium=email&utm_source=signature_receipt&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_before_sign
  0
[Reply]
# 16 January 2013 at 10:51 am

Say Something!

{ commentators }

{ subjectories }

Aaron Parkinson Andy Jenkins Angel Valley Anik Singal Anthony Morrison Bill Harris bleep bloop BlogWorld Bob Proctor Boiler Rooms Brad Fallon Brian Clark Chicken Soup for the Soul China Chris Brogan Colleen Conaway Copyblogger copyright credit cards Crystal Cox Cults Dan Kennedy Darren Rowse Dave Navarro David Schirmer David Sipes Dean Graziosi Decor My Eyes Dennis Karganilla DMCA Don Lapre Eben Pagan Ed Dale Ed Magedson Eliot Bernstein Featured Frank Kern Free Speech FTC Gary McCaffrey Get Motivated Google Greg Hartle Harlan Kilstein Headline Herbalife Hope HSBC IM Warfare Internet Marketing Interviews Ivy Capital Jack Canfield James Arthur Ray James Chartrand James Malinchak James Ray Trial Tweets Jeff Johnson Jeff Walker Jennifer Horton Jeremy Johnson Jimmy Davis Joe Vitale John Assaraf Johnny Truant John Raygoza John Reese John Swallow Josh Fredrickson Julian Assange Kajabi Kevin Trudeau Lanny Morton Laura Roeder Lawyers Leonard Coldwell Magic Bullet Maria Andros Mark Fabiani Mark Shurtleff Mark Victor Hansen Matt Bacak Matt Cutts Matt Harward Megan Fredrickson Michael Johnson Michael Martine Michael Savage Michelle Goulet Mike Dillard Mike Filsaime Mike Koenigs minions Mitt Romney MLM Munger Tolles & Olson Naomi Dunford Oprah Pat O'Bryan Paulie Sabol Perry Belcher Peter Diamandis Peter Wink PowerPay Professional Marketing International Prosper PushTraffic PZ Myers Rachael Acklin Randy Garn Rhonda Byrne Rick Calvert Rip-Off Report Robert Hirsch Russell Brunson Ryan Deiss Scams Scamworld Scientology Scribe Sean McAlister Sean Stephenson Secret Millionaire Senen Pousa SEO Sheeple Sonia Simone Stephen Pierce StomperNet Tedd Johnson Tellman Knudson the media The Secret The Syndicate The Tax Club Tim Brownson Tony Alessandra Tony Parinello Tony Robbins Trolls Twitter Utah Video Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease WikiLeaks Yanik Silver