SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former director of the Utah Division of Consumer Protection has filed a complaint against the attorney general claiming he violated attorney-client standards in conversations with a business owner cited for breaking telemarketing laws, a newspaper reported.
The complaint against Attorney General John Swallow was filed with the Utah State Bar by Traci A. Gundersen.
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Paul Murphy, a spokesman for Swallow, said the complaint is without merit.
It was the second complaint lodged this year with the state bar against Swallow. State bar spokesman Sean Toomey declined to comment on either complaint.
The latest complaint accuses Swallow of failing to alert the consumer protection division about an April 2012 conversation with Aaron Vincent Christner and about a discussion of possible settlement negotiations, The Salt Lake Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/16YhAJH ) Tuesday.
At the time, Swallow was serving as chief deputy under Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
The complaint said Christner had been fined $400,000 in the telemarketing case. It also indicates that he mentioned the possibility of meeting at Swallow’s campaign breakfast, but Swallow did not appear to acknowledge the comment.
“Right there you are presented with an immediate red flag, that what they are asking you is not on the straight and narrow,” Gundersen told the Tribune.
A transcript of the recorded conversation is included in the complaint, which the Tribune posted online. The newspaper said Christner recorded the phone call.
Gundersen said Swallow should have told Christner that if he was interested in a settlement negotiation, the attorney general’s office would have to check with its client, the consumer protection division.
Phone numbers listed for Christner had been disconnected and he could not be reached for comment.
Gundersen’s last day with the agency was Friday.
She resigned in January to care for her young children then stayed on part-time to help the division through the legislative session, said Francine Giani, executive director of the Department of Commerce, which oversees the division.
Gundersen said she prepared the complaint last summer but did not file it until she was leaving her position because she feared retribution.
Gundersen told The Associated Press she would not comment any further on the complaint because the bar association had asked her not to discuss it with the media.
Murphy said in a statement that Swallow “did not violate any bar rules and the complaint confuses the rules between a private law firm and a public law firm.”
Murphy also noted that the attorney general can hear complaints from the public, but no meeting took place and no settlement offers were made or accepted.
In January, a group claimed Swallow violated ethical standards in his relationship with indicted Utah businessman Jeremy Johnson.
Johnson has accused Swallow of setting up a plan to derail a federal investigation into Johnson’s Internet business by bribing U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Both Reid and Swallow have denied the accusations, which the U.S. Justice Department’s public-integrity section and the FBI are investigating.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
