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In 2009, St. George-based SunFirst Bank began processing payments to online poker players to the tune of $200 million dollars, resulting in what would ultimately become known as “Black Friday”. The US Attorneys Office in the Southern District of New York indicted a number of key executives at three big US-facing online poker rooms including the co-owner of SunFirst Bank, Jeremy Johnson.
Because gambling in any form is outlawed in Utah, the activity raised red flags with the feds, the state's bank examiner and even SunFirst's in-house attorney. But there was only silence from the Utah attorney general's office.
This week, Jennifer Napier-Pearce of the Salt Lake City Tribune talked with former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Tribune reporter Tom Harvey about the poker payment controversy and the non-response by Shurtleff and his then-deputy, John Swallow, now Utah's A.G.
Shurtleff denied having discussions with representatives from the online poker sites named in the US Attorneys complaint regarding the legality of processing payments in 2010. The former Attorney General also addressed his office's silence in the matter.
Johnson reportedly arranged the meeting in question. His bank was a contributor to Shurleff’s election campaign.
"I was not in any way, shape or form involved in any discussion with Jeremy Johnson or anybody else about his involvement in poker processing," Shurtleff said. "I wasn’t clear what his involvement in this was... I wasn't clear about who was [processing poker payments] or where it was being done, and it wasn't a question that was even asked of me."
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- Ace King, Gambling911.com
