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SALT LAKE CITY — A new website launched by the Utah Attorney General’s Office will help Utahns make better investment decisions by identifying scammers and schemers in the state.
It’s called the White Collar Crime Offender Registry. Last year, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert approved a bill authorizing the creation of this registry listing white-collar criminals.
Similar to a sex offender registry, the public can use this site to see who’s committed a white-collar crime in the state, what crime they’ve committed and even the criminal’s likely targets.
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said the site is the first of its kind.
"We wanted to give Utahns a way to be able to protect themselves and send a message to fraudsters that we take these things really, really seriously,” Reyes said.
The @wsj writes about Utah's White Collar Crime Offender Registry, feat. @utahag Reyes & @mikemckellutahhttps://t.co/l4onIRwdpD#utpol
— UT Attorney General (@utahag) March 24, 2016
The database uses information that is already public record to create hundreds of profiles of the most egregious white-collar crime offenders in Utah.
“What the registry does is make it more user-friendly to type in a name and see perhaps this is the person who's offering me this once-in-a-lifetime deal, maybe I better check twice,” Reyes said.
The profiles include mugshots, names, birthdates and aliases for people convicted of second-degree felonies in the last 10 years.
Reyes hopes the list will also incentivize these felons to pay restitution to their victims.
“In that case, their names can come off of the registry. If they do it upfront, they don't even need to go on to the registry,” Reyes said.
