This whole article makes me sick.

This joker tries to shake down people and uses "Mission Presidents in Korea..." as moral collateral for his shady position.

I hope the FBI nails this guy, and every other db public servant (mormon or not), to the wall for using their office for their own personal gain (or that of their cronies).

Welcome to Utah.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/56356205-90/shurtleff-mcbride-robbins-jenson.html.csp?page=3

It sounds like this should be a chapter in the book, "Doing Business the Mormon Way".

Typical, typical mormon male behavior.

I always said, even when active, that there are two types of mormons -- the cruel and the clueless.

I have a feeling this is just a small tip of the iceberg and is the typical way of doing big business in Utah.
Shurtleff just learned his tricks from some other mormon big-wig.

I thought the comment at the bottom about mormon business men going to the temple to do their shady business was interesting. They don't have to worry so much about being recorded in the temple.

Are all of the miscreants mentioned in this story mormons?

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/56356205-90/shurtleff-mcbride-robbins-jenson.html.csp

Bribes. Protection of wrong-doing mormons, silencing one's critics. No moral compass. Business opportunities that turn out to be scams. Extortion. Threats of harm via a Danite-like network that includes "lots of guns" and "Polynesian friends."

Mark Shurtleff
Darl McBride
Mark Robbins
Marc Sessions Jenson
Terry Diehl
Tim Lawson

From the comments below the Salt Lake Tribune story:

"This case is just too big. This involves almost everyone in Utah Government. It is impossible to separate this from the LDS church."

"Man we have a whole bunch of greedy dishonest people in this whole mess,. But not let your hearts be troubled! Keep paying that 10% and life will be ok. We have as citizens of Utah, a whole money laundering, blackmailing, influeuence peddling and protecting criminals for political gain. But its Utah, If a Mormon you will walk. Non Morman would already be arrested."

Villager mentioned that this is probably the tip of the iceberg. A lot of the people commenting on the story at the Tribune site seem to agree.

There are also a lot of comments along the lines of "business as usual in Utah." Like this one:

"The thing I find hilarious is how shocked people are by this. These guys are ALL crooks, Utah is one big Mormon, conservative ponzi scheme. Liars and crooks dominate the legislature and public office. This is nothing - stuff like this happens ALL the time."

And this one:

"So why are they using Jeremy Johnson's houseboat, or why are they going on trips to Pelican Hill with other known crooks? How do they even know these guys outside of a courtroom? I can see them having one long-standing friend maybe who made some mistakes, of which they should know that they need to recuse themselves from the situation, but wave after wave of this crap? And believe me, this goes from the top to the bottom. From the former head of the Utah Republican Party to Herbert to these guys... thick as thieves comes to mind."

More from the reader's comments:

"The top cop in the state going to play in a luxury resort, provided by a man that has a current warrant out for his arrest? ya know, a FUGITIVE?? WTF?? And actually meets with the man? And doesn't have him arrested? Meets with a fugitive and actually tries to squeeze him for $$$$??? again... WTF?? It doesn't matter who the cash was supposed to be for. It doesn't matter if he was putting on the squeeze for a donation to an orphange!!! Brother Shurtleff, you should be behind bars. Take your hand picked, obviously well trained successor with you."

Background on one of the players, Marc Sessions Jenson:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile/56282825-68/jenson-shurtleff-says-swallow.html.csp