SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — The Utah Legislature appears set to approve a settlement in a lawsuit alleging that state officials improperly used millions in federal grant money.
Senate Joint Resolution 7, sponsored by Sen. Jerry Stevenson (R-Layton), was just made public ahead of the legislative session next week. It would approve a $1.55 million settlement that the state of Utah would pay to the federal government to settle the lawsuit originally filed by a prison inmate.
Reginald Williams, 62, first sued the state in 2015 over the federal False Claims Act. Through his job at the prison print shop in 2012, Williams said, he became suspicious that the Utah Department of Corrections was misusing federal funds.
Later, after spending “several thousand hours reviewing documents, questioning UDC administrative staff and prisoners and observing prison guards,” Williams said he confirmed the Department of Corrections had “obtained federal funds under false pretenses” and used that money to cover department salaries.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah ended up getting involved several years later, in 2020, and filed a complaint against multiple officials in the Department of Corrections, the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, the Department of Public Safety, and other state entities.
“Instead of properly using the grant money they received, Defendants misused it by replacing rather than supplementing state money,” the complaint stated. “In particular,...
WASHINGTON, D.C., DC, UNITED STATES, May 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Brown, LLC, a nationally recognized whistleblower law firm and leader in False Claims Act (FCA) litigation, today announced t...