Former owners of Utah sports court company accused of fraud

PROVO — The president and vice president of a company that built sports courts and had its license revoked in 2023 are now facing felony charges.

Ryan Wes Jones, 47, of Elk Ridge in Utah County, and Michael Christopher Duckett, 63, of San Tan Valley, Arizona, were each charged Thursday in 4th District Court with six counts of communications fraud, two counts of securities fraud and engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, all second-degree felonies.

Duckett was the owner and president of All-Courts, LLC, and Jones was vice president. All-Courts, LLC, was established in 2020 and is based in Provo. The company built residential sports courts, such as volleyball and pickleball/basketball courts.

According to prosecutors, "beginning in or around January 2021 and continuing through August 2023, Duckett and Jones, acting through All-Courts, engaged in a scheme to obtain money from residential customers and investors by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, promises, material omissions, or through a practice or course of business which operated as a fraud or deceit upon the investors."

All-Courts required a 50% deposit of the project cost before work would begin.

"Deposits from new customers were used to pay operating costs, prior debts, and Duckett's personal expenses, a practice some employees called 'robbing Peter to pay Paul,'" charging documents state.

But by November 2022, All-Courts had over 100 projects that customers paid for, but work was not started or not completed, according to the charges.

"In total, All-Courts collected approximately $1,092,512 from 63 residential customers, whose complaints were referred to the Utah Attorney General's Office for criminal investigation by the Utah Division of Consumer Protection. Of those 63 projects, only one was completed with that client later alleging poor workmanship; work began but was never completed on 20 projects; and no work was performed on the remaining 42 projects, leaving approximately $825,137 in reported customer losses," the charges state.

Prosecutors state in their charges that "former employees described persistent financial distress." One employee who observed Duckett's personal expenses in the company's QuickBooks account noted to investigators that "Harley Davidson motorcycle payments, dirt bikes and personal vehicles" were listed.

"Former employees reported an ever-growing backlog of customer projects, but All-Courts, through the defendants, continued to accept new customer deposits with promises of prompt start dates," the charges state. A man hired in 2023 to be the company's logistics manager told investigators that "he struggled to get anything done. For example, (he) could not order materials because the company was on credit holds with their suppliers, could not order equipment because the company was on credit holds with the equipment companies, and subcontractors refused to go on site until they were paid back wages," according to charging documents.

In September 2023, the Utah Division of Professional Licensing revoked All-Courts business license for "unprofessional conduct," specifically for abandoning projects and failing to maintain financial responsibility. The division website also lists more than a dozen citations issued to All-Courts in 2023 for project abandonment.

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