The federal agency brought a civil action of securities fraud in 1998 against Neldon Johnson and IAUS, a case that was ultimately settled in 2005 with an order issued by Judge Dee Benson.
Johnson was allowed to settle the case with the SEC absent an admission of guilt. A payment of $1.3 million in profits gained from the alleged activity and $1.2 million in interest, which Johnson was ordered to pay to the court, was waived because of Johnson's sworn statement of his financial assets, according to the judgment. The court documents don't specify his "financial condition."
Karen Martinez, an attorney on the case and now the regional director of the SEC for Utah, said an injunction was issued against Johnson warning him not to engage in any activity that would violate the anti-fraud section of federal law dealing with securities or engage in an act or practice that would "operate as fraud or deceit upon a person."
Martinez said she could neither confirm nor deny if the SEC had taken up any probe of IAUS in connection with the solar pronouncements, which have come steadily throughout the years even as the SEC digital case was unfolding in federal court.
A Millard County official, however, told the Deseret News that an IRS criminal investigator has recently been to the county offices inquiring about the Hinckley project.
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