Group files complaint alleging Utah Senate President Adams violated financial disclosures rules

SALT LAKE CITY — A political advocacy group filed a complaint with the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Thursday alleging Senate President Stuart Adams has been violating campaign finance reporting statutes for more than a decade.

The office said it received the complaint and will begin the review process.

Alliance for a Better Utah’s complaint alleges Adams violated campaign finance reporting requirements for his campaign and for two political action committees for which he is a primary officer.

Adams denies the claims.

“I have always been, and remain fully committed to complying with campaign disclosure requirements,” Adams said in a statement.

“The claim that I failed to follow campaign disclosure requirements is not just inaccurate but a blatant falsehood. This is nothing more than misleading rhetoric, with Alliance for a Better Utah once again resorting to desperate fundraising efforts built on misinformation. These kinds of deceitful tactics are intended to distract from the real work of improving our state,” he said.

Alliance for a Better Utah describes itself on its website as “a nonprofit that holds politicians accountable and advocates for progressive policies that make Utah an even better place.”

The group claims more than $400,000 in campaign expenditures and almost $80,000 in political action committee expenditures were “hidden” by being listed under credit card companies or banking institutions. Being reported that way “gives no clear record as to where that money was spent,” a press release from Alliance for a Better Utah said.

The complaint says Adams violated Utah Code 20A-11-101.5, which requires reporting entities to reveal the person or entity to whom the payment is made and not report it under a “transactional intermediary” such as a financial institution, credit card company or money transfer service.

The complaint says more than 230 expenditures from the last 14 years were reported to entities such as Bank of America, Mountain America Credit Union, and American Express, saying those were not the entities that actually received the funds.

“Campaign finance laws exist to deter corruption or even the very appearance of corruption. By not adequately disclosing his finances for over a decade, President Adams has contributed to a lack of transparency and accountability in our election system,” said Chase Thomas, senior policy adviser for Alliance for a Better Utah, who filed the complaint.

Thomas’ complaint says a campaign financial disclosure guide on the Utah Disclosures website says expenditures should be reported with the “ultimate payee” and not a transactional intermediary.

As elections involve increasingly more money, more should be done for transparency in campaign finances so the public can have a clear picture of how the funds are being spent, Thomas said. Disclosure requirements deter corruption and allow voters to detect any misuse of campaign funds, such as for personal use or special favors, the complaint says.

“To be clear, such allegations are not being made in this complaint. However, the public has a vested interest in being able to review campaign finance disclosures of candidates and other entities and should expect that actual recipients of expenditures are being disclosed,” the complaint states.

A statement from Adams said that last year he received confirmation from the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office that he was compliant with state disclosure laws after an inquiry was submitted about how he reported transactions on a disclosure report. Adams said he relied on the guidance to continue reporting transactions.

This fall, another inquiry looked into Adams’ disclosure reports, his statement said. After the review, he received an email stating “no further action is required on your part until we have adequately reviewed the relevant statutes.”

Last week, Adams said, the office issued “clarifying instructions” to candidates and officeholders on requirements for disclosing transactions that will be implemented starting January 2025.

In his statement Thursday, Adams said he “will adhere to the updated guidelines issued by the Lieutenant Governor’s Office last week.”

In response to Adams’ statement, Alliance for a Better Utah Executive Director Jeff Merchant said, “Regardless of what President Adams may have gotten in terms of advice or council from the LG’s office, the statute and the LG’s own guidance are abundantly clear that you cannot do what he did.

“How the (lieutenant governor) would get something so simple so wrong, or why President Adams would even need advice on something so straightforward, is troubling. All Better Utah wants is for our legislators to follow the laws they have put into place. Legislators such as President Adams expect the rest of us to do that, so it seems justified that the people of Utah would expect that from him,” he said.