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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Convicted swindler Wayne Ogden has been returned to prison for alleged parole violations.
Utah Department of Corrections spokesman Jack Ford said Ogden's arrest and his return to prison Tuesday were based on a number of issues, including a poor record of paying restitution from his 1997 Weber County conviction for defrauding 500 investors of an estimated $7 million.
Ogden, 40, served 28 months in prison in that case and was released in November 2000.
Four lawsuits filed earlier this year allege Ogden had spirited some $9 million from investors in a Kiowa, Colo., land development deal that only went as far as option purchases.
Ford said the lawsuits "had some impact. The agents were aware of them."
Co-defendants in the civil suits filed in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake have included his partners in a now-defunct Sandy company called Empire Investment Group.
They said they lost all contact with him just before the lawsuits began in mid-January .
There has been little word on Ogden for months since four different Salt Lake County police agencies and state securities fraud investigators acknowledged the FBI had taken over the Kiowa investigation.
He had been cooperating with the FBI and making his regular required contacts with his parole officer in Farmington, authorities said.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
