Skip to content
Main Menu
Utah Attorney General
Search
Attorney General
Sean D. Reyes
Utah Office of the Attorney General
Secondary Navigation

Rodger Graham Sentenced

DECADE LONG FRAUD CASES CLOSES WITH RODGER GRAHAM SENTENCED TO ONE YEAR IN JAIL AND $1.4 MILLION IN RESTITUTION

 

Sept. 25, 2014 — Ten years after Rodger Graham fraudulently convinced investors that he had salvage rights to building materials from the old Geneva Steel site, he has been sentenced by Judge Lynn Davis in Utah’s Fourth District Court. Graham is currently serving 365-days in the Utah County Jail and has been ordered to pay $1,417,500 million in restitution to three victims. Investigators and prosecutors in the Utah Attorney General’s Office are pleased to close the securities fraud and communications fraud case with successful results for those who have been harmed.

In 2004, Mr. Graham made representations that salvaged material from Geneva was worth approximately $5.5 million dollars and that there was a robust market for its use in new buildings. Two victims invested, with one paying him approximately $1 million dollars for the materials with a promise that when it was sold, the victim would be repaid with interest. No money was ever repaid.  Another victim hired Graham as a general contractor to build a Harley Davidson dealership using the salvaged material. Graham did very little work on the building but received hundreds of thousands of dollars in excess of the work done and then walked off the project.  Graham pled guilty to one count of securities fraud, one count of communications fraud and one count of a pattern of illegal activity. He was sentenced to 365 days in the Utah County jail and was ordered to pay almost $1.42 million in restitution.

“We appreciate the hundreds of hours of investigative work by our special agents and the additional hundreds of hours of prosecutorial expertise led by Assistant Attorney General Craig Barlow in this case,” said Attorney General Sean D. Reyes. “I am deeply committed as Utah’s Attorney General to combat white collar crime and have made internal changes to our office structure to do so. Our great state is plagued by fraud, especially affinity crimes by those who play on trusted relationships. Because of this, one of the main focuses of our new Markets and Financial Fraud Division is to wipe out this destructive pattern of unlawful activity in Utah. I appreciate those within our office who have consistently and diligently investigated and prosecuted these criminals.”