Utah launches first-of-its-kind team to prosecute fraud, other financial crimes

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has seen a "five-fold increase" in the amount of money stolen through financial crimes in the past five years, according to Attorney General Derek Brown.

That increase is part of why his office on Monday launched a new team focused solely on investigating and prosecuting financial fraud across the state. The Financial Crimes Intelligence Center is the first team of its kind in the state to work with federal agencies and financial institutions to fill gaps in the current fraud prevention system.

"Financial fraud is rampant, especially online," said Howard Headlee, executive director of the Utah Bankers Association. "Consumers reported losing over $20 billion last year alone, and three in four adults have experienced some kind of online scam or attack."

Utahns reported losing $108 million to financial fraud last year, compared to just shy of $24 million five years ago, according to Brown.

"We're already at $59.8 million this year, and the summer's not even over," he added.

Online scams are often perpetrated by "very sophisticated international crime rings," according to Headlee, making it hard for state and local officials to hold them accountable. He said industry groups have spent "billions of dollars to protect Americans from these attacks, but it's become clear we can't do it alone."

"Defending Americans from these increasingly sophisticated attacks requires the coordinated efforts of all industry, as well as state and federal governments," he said. "We are one of the first states to establish a Financial Crimes Intelligence Center. It will be the nerve center from which we can coordinate our combined efforts to prevent and prosecute these crimes and protect Utah families."

The Financial Crimes Intelligence Center was created with $1.7 million in annual spending from the state Legislature, and is directed to serve as a "centralized reporting center" with a mandate to investigate identity theft, bank account takeovers, bank fraud, elder fraud, romance scams, investment scams, counterfeiting, money laundering, forgery and online fraud.

Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, who requested funding for the new task force, spoke at a press conference at the Capitol on Monday about how common online scams are becoming.

"Even this past week, actually, somebody in my household, not me, put a credit card into a fake website," he said. "Fortunately, at least so far, we haven't seen any loss of money in my household, but this is happening every day. It happens to everybody. We're all subject to this."

Brown noted that being scammed can carry a stigma, but said it's more common than most people realize and can happen to anyone.

"The single most common call I get is someone who has been scammed. It happens to everyone," he said, recounting the story of a friend who is a real estate lawyer who fell victim to a real estate scam. "This is the kind of thing that literally can happen to anyone. If it's happened to you, there's no need to feel ashamed. I just want you to reach out."

Many modern scams tied to organized crime target victims across the state and nation. But even if incidents are reported to local police, they may not realize the fraud is tied to something bigger.

"Ultimately, none of these organizations are talking with each other, so it's hard to know if they're part of a larger organized crime ring," Brown said. "There's a gap, and today the FCIC is filling that gap."

The center will also provide law enforcement agencies and financial institutions with training to combat fraud, support local agencies with experts on financial crime and coordinate investigations into financial crimes.

Utahns can report suspected crimes to the Financial Crimes Intelligence Center at fraud.agutah.gov.

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