As Swallow continues to maintain his implausible innocence in a scheme to stop a federal investigation of his friend (wealthy St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson) the story, more and more, is reduced to a level of believability that doesn’t even rise to the level of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o. 

There is no question that Swallow, by his own words, nudged up to and crossed lines in ways that disqualify him from being Utah’s chief law enforcement officer. At minimum he was part of an improper lobbying effort –mind you, not political lobbying of a governor or a legislator but lobbying designed to interfere with the criminal justice system. 

There is a huge difference.

Swallow needs to come clean with Utah — about all his activities, his income sources and the composition and purposes of all his businesses. It’s time to stop hiding behind complex technicalities, otherwise known as rationalizations.

This is not rocket science. We know there was a flow of money from Johnson — big money –and some of it appears to have fattened at least one Swallow business shell, a Utah LLC called P Solutions. Some of it may have gone to Swallow personally, after being laundered through a third party.

The man who handled the money is now deceased, but he left an affidavit about what happened to $250,000. This was Richard Rawle, wealthy owner of Check City whose connections with U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada had been sought — at a price — to influence the Federal Trade Commission to back off its fraud investigation of Johnson. Rawle said $100,000 went to lobbyists, $50,000 went to Rawle for “services,” and $100,000 went to business investments including Swallow’s P Solutions. (Incidentally, Swallow’s resumé includes a long stint as attorney for Check City.)

P Solutions has all the hallmarks of a Swallow family shell, not a business that actually does something. It’s founding articles are nothing but vague boilerplate stating that it’s purpose is to do anything legal. It was formed in 2010 with Swallow listed as manager. “Manager” is LLC-speak that usually refers to an owner. Swallow’s home address is listed as the principal place of business. 

Because Utah requires only one “manager” to be divulged upon creation of an LLC, it is impossible to know who else might have had an ownership stake in P Solutions. What we do know, however, is that Swallow amended the business when he filed to run for attorney general, and the amendment is revealing: It was to make his wife, Suzanne, the manager and registered agent — same home address. Fancy that.

Utahns should be told who else has, or had, a stake in P Solutions. Odds are that nobody does anymore, at least not since the Swallow scandal broke. Incriminating private paperwork like that can have a funny way of disappearing. But we trust the FBI to get to the bottom of this if anybody can.

If you still have questions about whether Swallow should resign, consider what he told  telemarketing company owner Aaron Christner in an April 7 conversation Christner recorded.  Swallow, speaking from the Utah Attorney General’s office, said that he wanted to take “complete control” of consumer fraud investigations — in other words to take that function away from the Utah Department of Commerce and bring it under his own sole jurisdiction. That means he would have sole power to decide whether, or under what conditions, charges would be brought against a company for illegal or unethical business practices. 

What is startling about this is that Swallow was up to his armpits in a scheme to neutralize a consumer fraud allegation against his friend in St. George. Both Johnson and Christner are part of industries that get a lot of consumer complaints. They also donate a lot of money to those who can help them out. Swallow reportedly received somewhere north of $80,000 in political donations from telemarketers. 

Swallow says all his activities have been above board. We say, politely, they are highly suspect. To be more blunt, we think they stink. And there are more secrets yet to be revealed.

Should Utah Attorney General John Swallow resign? Send your comments to dhpolls@heraldextra.com or call 344-2942. Please leave your name, hometown and phone number with your comments. E-mail comments should not exceed 100 words; voice-mail comments should be no longer than 30 seconds. Anonymous and unverifiable responses will not be published.