Here's another Envision Ogden campaign corruption story from the Standard-Examiner Live! Website, this time from Tom Foy of the Associated Press:
• AG attorney: Envision Ogden probe will start overToday's AP article reveals new information. It seems the Utah Attorney General's Office isn't merely renewing their earlier-abandoned investigation... they're re-starting "from scratch":
SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah attorney general's office will "start from the ground" in its reopened investigation into whether an Ogden civic group misled contributors about the money it raised that ended up going to political candidates.Nice to see that the Utah A.G.'s Office is finally taking this case seriously at last. We'll also be hoping that Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's office hasn't already seriously malpracticed, and allowed any important crimimal limitations of action statutes to have "run."
Scott Reed, the chief of the attorney general's criminal division, told The Associated Press that he was looking at allegations that Envision Ogden raised the money to promote the city's outdoor amenities but funneled it to "political guys" through another organization.
At first, Reed said he didn't think the case merited prosecution. An investigative report released by the Utah Department of Public Safety to Utah newspapers in recent days quoted Reed telling state investigators in 2009 that he didn't believe the allegations amounted to fraud.
Reed said he hesitated because the allegations were politically motivated and he was overwhelmed with more important cases in 2009, but now has time to take a closer look.
"We want to take a look at a couple of additional things," Reed told the AP. "We're taking this back into our shop. We have the capacity to do this and start from the ground. The case is active and pending."
