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Ogden activist Dan Schroeder (right) stands with his attorney, David Reymann (left) after his Envision Ogden records case was heard by Utah Supreme Court justices Wednesday.

Cathy McKitrick

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Dan Schroeder

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OGDEN — An Ogden activist’s state Supreme Court victory recently yielded documents appearing to prove that in 2007, money laundering took place involving campaign donations to city council candidates Royal Eccles and Blain Johnson.

The dogged efforts of Ogden resident Dan Schroeder to link political contributions between the groups Envision Ogden and Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate spanned several years and involved investigations from both the State Bureau of Investigation probe and state Attorney General Office. The former yielded an intriguing report but neither probe resulted in any criminal charges.

Schroeder’s attempts to connect the final dots through withheld documents led to several slammed doors and a final high-court win handed down in August that revealed the answers he’d been seeking.

• RELATED: Activist wins court case over Ogden campaign records

From a statement Schroeder sent Tuesday, Oct. 20:

”Records recently released by the Utah Attorney General’s Office clearly show what local activists long suspected — that the mysterious entity Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate, which was used to hide the origin of more than $20,000 in campaign contributions during Ogden’s 2007 municipal election, was operated by Blain Johnson, the local real estate attorney who was elected to the city council in that race.”

What was Envision Ogden? And who was Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate?

In early 2007, then-Mayor Matthew Godfrey’s office launched Envision Ogden as an organization aimed at boosting economic development in the struggling downtown. As such, it hosted fundraisers and invited businesses and foundations. 

The entity was headed by real estate agent Abraham Shreve, who managed to raise over $87,000 that year, much of it from entities with bylaws that barred any giving for political purposes. Many contributors, according to previous reports, believed the money would only be used for revitalization. 

By 2008, however, Envision Ogden had registered with the state and the Internal Revenue Service as a political organization, Schroeder said. About a year after that, he spotted on IRS disclosures five payments made in 2007 from Envision Ogden to an unregistered entity called Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate. 

Then, nearly four years after it was formed, Envision Ogden closed its books and it was shown that more than one-third of the money raised went to candidates, campaigns and the Utah Republican Party .

Phone messages to Godfrey, Johnson and Eccles late Tuesday afternoon were not immediately returned.

Five canceled checks tell the tale

Included in Schroeder’s recently obtained records are copies of five canceled checks from Envision Ogden made out to Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate which show a direct link between the latter entity and Johnson.

Johnson, who was running for city council in 2007 when the checks were written, endorsed three checks on behalf of the Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate (no signature is visible on the backs of the other two checks). All five were deposited at Key Bank, where Johnson deposited an earlier check written directly from Envision Ogden to his own campaign.

Documents show a total of $10,990 was funneled from Envision Ogden through Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate to Johnson’s city council coffers, while Royal Eccles received $9,700 through that same pipeline.

Johnson nabbed a council seat that year and served in that role until stepping down at the end of 2009. Eccles lost to incumbent Councilwoman Amy Wicks and later was tapped to manage the Ogden-Hinckley Airport, a position from which he was terminated in 2013.

Starts and stops

Schroeder filed a complaint with city attorney Gary Williams in early 2009 after he spotted the five mysterious Envision Ogden contributions to Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate. Williams addressed the grievance by allowing Johnson and Eccles to amend financial disclosure reports to reflect that the Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate funds originated from Envision Ogden.

The address for Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate, listed in public documents, was 4723 Harrison Blvd. — the same building where Johnson worked. However, no one at that time was able to identify or speak with any Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate representatives, leaving its official identity and origin largely unknown.

Later the same year, the state Bureau of Investigation launched a criminal probe into possible financial fraud and public corruption. It was then that witnesses said Johnson was connected to Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate. 

The state AG’s office later took over that investigation and obtained Envision Ogden’s bank records but the investigation wrapped up in March 2011 with no resulting charges.

At that point, a frustrated Schroeder commenced his own fight to gain access to copies of the canceled checks and a few other withheld records that might show a concrete link between Johnson and Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate. That battle eventually led him to the Utah Supreme Court and a bittersweet finish.

“The statute of limitations has expired, so none can be brought,” Schroeder said Tuesday, Oct. 20. “But it’s nice to have some closure on this. My goal has always been to get the story out there to anyone who is interested.”

However, a few loose ends still nag him.

“They never made any attempt to question Johnson, Eccles or Godfrey, and I don’t understand that. I’m not sure what the investigators were thinking,” Schroeder said of the probe.

The other puzzling piece: “Why did they even bother to subpoena the bank records, and what were they looking for?”

Or perhaps the AG’s office — then under former state Attorney General Mark Shurtleff  — was just stalling and the whole investigation was a charade, Schroeder hypothesized. 

In a separate matter, Shurtleff faces five felony and two misdemeanor counts in Salt Lake City’s 3rd District Court of accepting prohibited gifts, obstruction of justice, official misconduct and bribery to dismiss a criminal proceeding.

His successor, John Swallow, served a year in office before resigning in December 2013. Swallow was also charged in 3rd District Court with 11 felonies and two misdemeanors, including multiple counts of receiving or soliciting bribes, accepting gifts, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice and participating in a pattern of unlawful conduct.

Those cases are still pending.

Contact reporter Cathy McKitrick at 801-625-4214 or cmckitrick@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @catmck.