Jeremy Johnson to settle with FTC in civil case; family will focus on appealing conviction

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SALT LAKE CITY — Jeremy Johnson has "reluctantly agreed" to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in a case that has been ongoing since December 2010, it was announced Thursday.

Johnson's wife, Sharla Johnson, and Karra Porter, lawyer for the family, issued a statement saying they are now focusing all of their efforts on appealing his criminal conviction, even if they have to take their grievance all the way to the Supreme Court.

"He (won't) be able to defend the FTC case any more because he (will) be in prison," Porter said.

Johnson was sentenced July 29 to 11 years in federal prison for eight counts of making false statements to a bank related to his once sprawling online marketing company, iWorks. Though he was convicted in March, jurors at the time also acquitted him of 78 counts of money laundering, wire fraud and bank fraud.

The FTC filed a civil complaint against Johnson in December 2010, alleging he lured iWorks customers into fraudulent moneymaking schemes, eventually conning them out of more than $275 million. After the case was filed, Johnson's homes, luxury cars, helicopters and other assets were seized by the federal government.

The settlement will include a judgement against Johnson consistent with the damages the federal government initially sought against him, but $750,000 in seized assets will be returned to his parents, according to Porter.

Porter said she still believes the Johnson family could have defeated the Federal Trade Commission in court if the civil case had proceeded to a trial phase.

However, Porter said, "the family's top priority had to be Jeremy's criminal case."

The family's top priority had to be Jeremy's criminal case.

–Karra Porter, attorney

Porter lamented the timing of the two cases, which she said conflicted with each other. She said the civil case was scheduled for trial in January, but federal attorneys were able to postpone it. The federal court in Utah "refused to move the criminal trial" to accommodate Johnson, Porter claims.

Sharla Johnson indicated fundraisers will be held on behalf of her husband in Salt Lake City and St. George as he fights his conviction in court. She said the family has set up a website, JusticeForJohnson.com, laying out the injustices she claims were perpetrated against her husband by the federal government.

"The court's gag order (in the civil case) has finally been lifted, and we are going to take this opportunity to explain to people what Jeremy's case is really all about," Sharla Johnson said. "We also want to point out things that we think the public would be shocked to hear about the federal criminal justice system and this case."