Month: July 2025

They’re off and running.

The University of Utah began its fall camp Wednesday in preparation for its Aug. 30 opener in Los Angeles against UCLA, but thanks to an NCAA rule change a year ago, it was more of a continuation of player-led practices held this summer.

“In that regard, you expect to be further ahead and it’s a good thing they changed those rules because with the influx of new players that everybody has, it helps those guys make that transition. So I thought today was a really good start,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.

On the first day of fall camp, the change most evident from the spring to fall for Whittingham was how clean the offense operated, thanks mostly in part to those player-ran summer sessions.

“As far as just subbing the groups in and out, getting plays underway, just the operation itself was much cleaner. Very evident, very obvious that these guys have worked a lot on their own this summer,” Whittingham said.

Utah’s head man, who opened his 21st fall camp Wednesday, was impressed with the lack of substitution penalties, false starts and delays of games on the first day of practices.

While new offensive coordinator Jason Beck’s offense has been digested by players in spring practices, for the approximately 30 players that were not in Salt Lake City in the spring, it was their first chance to run it.

Beck is bringing his offense, which ranked No. 4 nationally at New Mexico with 484.2 yards per game, to Salt Lake City — and a fanbase that is starved for production on that side of the ball.

Expect to see Beck’s offense be a spread scheme that utilizes the run-pass option and quarterback run often and creatively uses its personnel.

Whittingham noted on Wednesday that the Utes won’t huddle, and that the offense will be a little bit more uptempo from last season, but “not ridiculously fast.”

What’s Whittingham most excited about from Beck’s offense?

“Probably the big-play capability at quarterback. Devon Dampier is a big-play guy and this offense suits him to a T. He’s a true dual threat, and this offense features a lot of QB run game and RPO and really is going to take advantage of his skill set,” Whittingham said.

As has been the case all offseason, Whittingham raved about his new QB1, calling his leadership “as good as any we’ve had.”

“He’s a terrific leader. He’s made a great bond with the entire football team, not just the offense. He’s one of those guys that’s got that ‘it’ factor, the charisma that you look for in a quarterback,” Whittingham said.

Last year, Dampier threw for 2,768 yards and 12 touchdowns (with 12 interceptions) and rushed for 1,166 yards and 19 scores.

“I keep going back to last year, but those numbers that he put up last year were pretty impressive and if he can duplicate that this year, then we’re going to be in good shape,” Whittingham said.

Battling for the spot behind Dampier are freshman Byrd Ficklin and sophomore Isaac Wilson. Beck said he’d like to have that spot settled by the end of the second scrimmage.

“Just as a complete quarterback, judging it on every single thing they do and accuracy, taking care of the football, command of the offense, just everything execution-wise and cadence, it all is factored in,” Whittingham said. “Whichever guy is doing to do the best job of getting in the end zone and keeping the defense out of bad situations is the guy.”

While it’s just the first day of camp, and the players are not in pads as of now — the real evaluations will happen once the pads go on — Dampier said new transfer Tobias Merriweather stood out on Wednesday.

Merriweather (6-foot-5, 195 pounds) transferred in from Cal after spring practices, and has unique size in the receiver room. Last year he caught 11 passes for 125 yards while only playing in five games due to injury, and previously played at Notre Dame before his time in Berkeley.

Receivers coach Micah Simon noted that Merriweather and Larry Simmons (Southern Miss transfer) were both working on the field at 8:30 p.m. when Simon dropped some stuff off to his office on Sunday night.

That summer work with Dampier did a lot to get Merriweather and Simmons up to speed with Beck’s offense, and it showed on Wednesday.

“Tobias is the guy. He came out here and obviously he stood out today, so huge kudos to him, but he’s going to be ready at UCLA for sure,” Dampier said.

As fall camp rolls along, there’s going to be plenty of decisions to make in terms of the offensive and defensive depth chart — especially at wide receiver, defensive tackle and cornerback — but on Wednesday, the energy and excitement from the whole team was high.

Football is finally back.

“It was fun. Glad to be with the boys. I mean, this is what you dream for. So getting closer to the season, we got high expectations during these practices and I think we made a good impression first day,” Dampier said.

Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. Currently writing for SB Nation and FanSided, he has covered the Utah Jazz and BYU athletics since 2024 and graduated from Utah Valley University.

A BLINDING BEAM from the spiteful scorching entity in the sky remains laser-focused on your face. A death ray from outer space that is simultaneously compassionate and relentless, providing you with the life-giving warmth to carry on while slowly draining you of all moisture and sizzling your now flamingo-fied flesh. Like bacon, you crisp beneath the summer heat. You glance to the right and see that some other muddy-faced anklebiter has successfully cooked an omelette on the sidewalk. Yikes. Sweat floods past your brow and into your vulnerable eyes.

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They say the human body is comprised of 70% water, but the other 30% must be the sand and woodchips you’ve stuffed your mouth with as Mom’s naptime overlapped with your adolescent culinary awakening. The rubber truly complements the splintering woodchips in a manner one would never expect, but has no choice but to welcome wholeheartedly. A masterstroke in resourcefulness, and a triumph from the kitchen of a child.

From one platform to the next, you leap, climb, and swing higher and higher. The screeching yelp from your fraying, overworn Chuck Taylors alerts the neighborhood of each maneuver (Mom remains unconscious), transmitting a frequency high enough to beckon “Killer”, the McLanahans’ bloodthirsty rotweiler, who now crouches directly beneath your platform. Poised to pounce. Hungry for action; you are action. Rumbling through the clenched cage of drill bits, he calls a mouth, his bloodshot eyes absorb your fear and await any misstep. The slightest slip, the most benign blunder, could be your very last. You decide to proceed up the playground with a bit more care this time around. Dusting wood shaving off your Return of the Jedi tee, you chart a course for the slides at the summit.

Don’t look down. Yeah, just don’t look down.

For its intended audience, a playground is a haven of bliss and adventure. A glorious summit where the brightest minds in imagination collaborate in a viscous mixing pot of ideas. Some fantastic, others borderline unthinkable. It’s magnificent. It’s disgusting. It’s the playground.

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Need Help? Dial 1-800-HOOPERS to reach the basketball addiction hotline

The Utah Jazz are basketball’s playground. For obvious, surface-level reasons, they’re exciting, energetic and, well, stuffed full of youths. For less obvious reasons, the Jazz are a basketball addict’s Cloud Coo-coo Land. Cotton candy. Sour Skittles. The world’s largest speaker system constantly blasting a 1,000-hour loop of “It’s Raining Tacos”. Unicorns (Porzingis, Durant, Wembanyama, etc) dance on rainbows. Basketballs are bubblegum and the citizens sleep on a bed of marshmellows after flossing with sour punch straws and washing it down with Sprite.

Dentists do quite well there, I hear.

If you find yourself giddy and anxious for the upcoming season of Jazz basketball, there is no way around this simple fact: you are neck-deep in basketball fanatacism and sinking. Don’t struggle — this pit of quicksand is unrelenting and ever-widening.

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I don’t want to hear excuses or denial. Take a look at the roster — top to bottom — and you tell me that your fascination with the team doesn’t stretch beyond reasonable explanation.

Utah Jazz 2025-26 roster

Backcourt: RJ Luis, Keyonte George, Isaiah Collier, Walter Clayton, Elijah Harkless, Svi Mykhailiuk

Wings: Cody Williams, Taylor Hendricks, John Tonje, Ace Bailey, Brice Sensabaugh, KJ Martin

Frontcourt: Kyle Anderson, Kyle Filipowski, Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler, Jusuf Nurkic, Oscar Tshiebwe, Kevin Love

If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a moment and ask you a few reactionary questions to gauge your current state. This will only take a few moments, and it really helps with our research.

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Thank you for your cooperation. We’ll start with some easy ones to get the ball rolling, and gradually ramp up the intensity. Please do your best to answer honestly. Let’s begin.

Okay. Next one.

Very good. Here’s another one.

Alright. One final question.

Do you feel that? The scorching burn on the back of your calves from hitting lightspeed on the metal slide? You’re in the playground now.

The very fact that you participated in this poll at all is evidence of your basketball obsession (if you decided not to participate, there may yet be hope for you). The game has its claws in you to such a degree that you are actively following storylines of two-way college stars, ancient relics obtained from the Miami Heat, and the potential of the 9th overall pick after an early season-ending injury as a sophomore. You are closely attentive toward the worst basketball team in the NBA last season.

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These are not indictments, this is applause.

To the unsung heroes. To the late bloomers. To the underrated all-stars and the collegiate superstars. Here’s to the Utah Jazz, and those who follow them. For those who feel a kinship to this team, rest assured the rise is soon to come. No basketball success story follows a perfectly linear path. Supporting this team in its worst moment may pay off with a championship. It may not. But your basketball hyperfixation has not gone unnoticed.

Give the old tire swing a go, my friend.

More from slcdunk.com:

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – A group of inmates inside the Utah State Prison are using their skills to share their story. The goal is to take responsibility, bring peace and prepare for a future back in the community. Not only are they making it happen, but this Media Team was also awarded for the work they have done so far.

The Media Team inside the Utah State Prison won three silver awards at the 46th annual Telly Awards. They wrote, shot and edited the entire piece. Their short is just the beginning of a bigger documentary.

One member of the Media Team explained the happiness of getting the recognition, “We never thought that a bunch of guys in white would do anything that would be recognized.”

SOLID program requires commitment, but provides change inside the Utah State Prison

But it was. This short video is one step for the initiative and bigger goal: share the positive changes happening within correctional facilities.

Another member of the Media Team said, “At the end of the day poor decisions are made, so what is our step and our responsibility to try and resolve some of the hurt and turn that into healing. That is the responsibility and that is why it is so important our voice is the voice telling this story.”

They call their work and the upcoming documentary the Bridge to Freedom.

One member of the team explained, “We created the bridge, and the bridge has two pillars. One is education and the other is employment. Out of that employment pillar came the idea of social enterprise. We would come up with joint ventures with the people in here and the people outside.”

They members of this Media Team all reside in the SOLID program. SOLID stands for Successful Offenders Learning Individual Development. This is a housing unit of men in the prison, who have chosen to live to a higher standard which will aide in their change and growth.

Humane Society of Utah volunteers help dogs, cats and more find ‘fur-ever’ homes

A Media Team Member said, “The general impression we get is people in here should just be locked up and throw away the key, forget about it. But what the normal person on the street doesn’t realize is that 90% of everyone in here is going to be their neighbor at some point.”

This is why the Media Team feels they are important and needed; they are using their skills to shine a light on the potential of restorative programming within the justice system. A story only they can really tell.

Another Media Team Member explained, “It is very hard for the average person to know what people are going through in a situation like this. The ability to tell that story from the perspective of living it is something really powerful.”

The opportunity to do this work and tell this story comes from permission and cooperation from the Prison Executive Team and the Semnani Family Foundation. The foundation provided all of the equipment.

The plan is to have the documentary showing the “Bridge to Freedom” completely this fall. To watch the award winning short, click HERE.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.

The now-former head of a taxpayer-funded nonprofit spent public money on vacations to Hawaii, Florida and Las Vegas for him and his wife, paid for massages and exercise equipment, made prohibited political contributions and channeled nearly $2 million to a for-profit company where he is listed as the president and majority shareholder, the Utah state auditor alleges in a new report.

Auditor Tina Cannon recommended that the matter be referred to the Utah attorney general to potentially recoup the funds and possible legal action against the executive, who resigned from the nonprofit — iMpact Utah — in March, as the audit was beginning.

The alleged misappropriation, which occurred over the course of two years, went undetected because the Office of Economic Opportunity and Utah State University, which administered the taxpayer grants, had no oversight mechanisms in place. An anonymous whistleblower called the auditor’s tipline early this year, alerting them to the problems.

David Adams, a special projects senior auditor in Cannon’s office, said in an interview that, while the program was “well-intentioned … there’s just never been a mechanism there to have any accountability. … Because of that lack of oversight, the president there at iMpact Utah was able to do whatever he wanted with that money, unfortunately, and he chose to do inappropriate things.”

The Tribune is not naming the iMpact executive at this time because he has not had an opportunity to respond to the audit and has not been charged with a crime.

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership, created by the federal government to bolster the nation’s manufacturing sector, receives a mix of state and federal funding. The state funding of about $2.8 million annually was directed by the Legislature to pass through the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (GOEO) to Utah State University, which awarded it to entities, including iMpact Utah, Inc.

The nonprofit offered subsidized training and business services designed to bolster Utah manufacturers. The services generated additional revenue for iMpact Utah.

But state auditors found that in 2023 and 2024, more than $2.1 million of public funds were paid to a private for-profit company, Vereo Impact, Inc. The former director and CEO of iMpact Utah is listed as the president of Vereo, and auditors said he is the majority shareholder.

Of those iMpact funds, $400,000 was used by Vereo, $103,409 was used to pay off a Vereo debt, $26,165 was used to purchase assets for the company and about $50,000 was used for operating expenses, said auditors.

Some of the Vereo employees were doing work for iMpact Utah, Adams said, but there were no invoices to document the work. And from 2022 to 2024, as head of iMpact, the former CEO received “exorbitant” bonuses, totaling $525,000 over a three-year period, auditors said, putting his annual compensation at $518,823 — more than double the average for similarly sized nonprofit executives.

There was no functional board of directors at the time to approve the compensation, said Cannon.

On top of that, the audit said, the iMpact Utah executive put $35,715 on his company credit card to pay for vacations to Hawaii, Las Vegas, Florida and elsewhere for himself and his wife. Charges on the card included airfare, snorkeling trips, luaus and Las Vegas shows.

He also put $2,563 on the card for other personal expenses, including massages, Amazon purchases, a haircut and exercise equipment, according to auditors. He also made nearly $10,000 in political donations to state candidates and one federal candidate, which nonprofits are prohibited from making under IRS regulations.

State campaign disclosure records reveal a portion of the total — $6,563 to Gov. Spencer Cox’s campaign and more than $517 to a challenger, Carson Jorgensen. The federal donation the auditors reported does not appear in federal campaign disclosures, although Cannon said they documented the contribution.

Laurel Price, Cox’s former campaign manager, noted two of the contributions were listed under the name of the executive, which would be allowed — unless the source of the money came from the nonprofit.

“If a donation came from a prohibited source, the Cox campaign’s policy is to return the funds immediately,” Price said.

Cannon’s office recommended that USU and GOEO work with the Utah attorney general’s office to attempt to claw back whatever funds possible and refer the matter to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. Both USU and GOEO agreed with the recommendation in written responses to the audit.

GOEO Director Jefferson Moss said that it has limited authority to oversee legislatively-directed funds once they pass to a sub-recipient — in this case, once they went from USU to iMpact Utah.

USU said in its response to the audit that nothing in the state contract directing the funds to iMpact Utah required monitoring of how the funds were used.

Cannon said that, because of the limited two-year window of the audit, it is possible that other funds were misappropriated before the malfeasance was brought to auditors’ attention.

“The biggest problem with an office with limited resources, is … we have to have a clear time period that we’re looking at,” Cannon said. “Could there be more? Yeah, you bet there could be more.”

It could also point to a larger problem in government, because the Legislature approves “lots” of directed grants — the exact number is unknown — and there is little oversight of those funds. Last year, the Legislature enacted a law requiring entities that disburse more than $25,000 in state funds to nonprofit entities to notify the auditor so there can be proper oversight.

The auditor’s office was not made aware of iMpact Utah’s issues until it received a whistleblower tip.

“I have oversight over government entities, but once it gets funneled to a not-for-profit, then there is less and less restriction and less and less oversight available in those types of situations,” Cannon said.

In a letter to legislators accompanying the audit, Cannon said that lawmakers directing grants to specific entities “contributed to the lack of oversight in this case” and is part of a growing pattern.

She recommended the Legislature apply similar requirements to state matching grants as are used for federal funds: conduct regular reviews of expenditures; track recipients’ compliance with IRS regulations; require recipients to report annually to the auditor’s office; and award funds as reimbursements for services rather than providing a lump sum up front.

Adams said that iMpact Utah is “not long for the world” at this point, with creditors “circling” to reclaim money they paid. Cannon said that the unfortunate part is that there were some good things happening at the nonprofit, but “when there’s a lack of oversight that allows this type of behavior, it will destroy not only his job, but the job of people who were actually doing a good job.”

Correction, 10:20 a.m. • This story has been updated to indicate that Jefferson Moss is the director of the Governor’s Officer of Economic Opportunity and has included a statement from Spencer Cox’s campaign manager.

Any time a football program changes hands, alterations are expected. It’s the norm for new staffs to craft things to their liking, by installing new schemes, bringing in new players and letting old players move on.

That cycle has happened at Utah State a few times in recent years.

When Matt Wells left Utah State for Texas Tech and Gary Andersen took over, the Aggies dramatically shifted their style of play — on offense especially — even with star quarterback Jordan Love still on the roster.

When Blake Anderson took over for Gary Andersen a couple of years laters, the pendulum swung again, and in 2021 USU football hardly resembled what had come before, via new schemes and a rash of transfers added.

So when Bronco Mendenhall was announced as the latest head coach of the Aggies in December, expectations were that things were going to change.

Few probably had an idea of just how much, though.

Over the last seven months, Utah State has added 70 new players to its roster for this upcoming season and has signed 87 new players in total when you count players who have since left home to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In the House settlement era of college football, which caps rosters at 105 players, that means that two thirds of Utah State’s roster for 2025 has never played a game for the Aggies. For as much turnover that happened when Andersen and Anderson took over the program, Mendenhall has taken it another level.

Utah State football is indeed in a new era, an unprecedented one at that. Because of that, Mendenhall is quick to note things are just barely at their beginning for Utah State under its new head coach,

“Really excited for the beginning of a new era that again, is the beginning,” Mendenhall said Tuesday morning at Utah State football media days in Logan. “We’re not midway, we’re not at the end, we’re at the beginning. And so I’m anxious for that, and all that comes with it.

“I’m also super passionate about transitions and taking on hard things and taking on organizations and helping them become better. And I believe that’s happened at each place that I’ve been able to coach, and that’s something that’s really important to both my wife, Holly and I. That not only is the program better, but the community itself, the conduct of our players, the institution itself, the grades, which have already been the best in school history since we’ve arrived (at Utah State).

“Change matters to me. Seeing young people change, seeing institutions change, seeing the community become better because of a football team. Some don’t think that’s possible. I think it’s ideal, and it’s totally worth pursuing. So that’s what you can expect. At least as a starting point.”

With so much change, over such a short period of time, what can really be expected of Utah State this fall?

Realistically, the answer to that question won’t be determined until the games themselves, and wins and losses might not even be a good indication when it is all said and done considering the Aggies’ schedule, which includes two road SEC games, plus road trips to Hawaii, UNLV and Fresno State in conference play.

But, we do know that the Aggies won’t be what they were in 2024 or even in previous years. There are too many different players, many of whom are expected to start after the Aggies returned only four starters from 2024.

“You cannot, in this era (of college football), look at the past and say that that team is going to be the same team as they were a year ago, unless you kept the same players,” defensive coordinator Nick Howell said.

The Aggies believe they’ve thrived as a team despite the roster reconstruction. Or maybe because of it.

“I feel like we became a team very quickly,” returning linebacker John Miller said. “We do a lot of hard things together, and that kind of brings us close together, which I really like. … Everybody on the team melds together greatly. It’s a great team. I love being a part of it. Honestly. It’s a team that I feel like knows how to work hard and we know how to get through tough things. So I’m really excited for us this year. Truly.”

Miller wasn’t alone in his belief.

“I don’t think I’ve seen this many new players come together, but the crazy thing is this is the most meshed well together team I’ve ever been a part of,” wide receiver Braden Pegan, a transfer from UCLA, said. “Which I think is an amazing thing for this program.”

The reason for the surprising camaraderie, Pegan believes, is due to Mendenhall and his approach to football.

“I think it’s his dynamic that he has set up around here,” Pegan said. “I think everybody is bought in. And that’s honestly luck of the draw too, getting all these guys that want to buy in. At a lot of programs you won’t see that.”

Does that mean that the Aggies are going to surprise people in Year 1 under Mendenhall? Will USU be better than anyone could’ve have predicted, and not just simply because any predictions regarding the remade program were nothing better than shots in the dark? Is it possible for Utah State’s previously middling program to turn itself around in a single year?

“I think the speed of it (turning around a program) is dependent upon the people,” Howell said. “And so it will go as fast as we bring in the right players and the right coaches to to have the success that we need to have. Now, do we know? We’re not going to know until we play.”

There sure is a lot of belief and optimism right now in Logan, though. Which hadn’t been the case for awhile.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox instructed the Utah Homeless Services Board on Tuesday to accelerate their work in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order overturning the federal government’s “housing first” approach to homelessness.

In a letter joined by Utah Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz, Cox charged board members, which include Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and State Homeless Coordinator Wayne Niederhauser, to “fulfill the President’s executive order and uphold public safety.”

“Utah must remain a place where lives can be meaningfully changed, not where chaos and disorder thrive,” the letter said. “President Trump’s executive order reinforces what many of us in Utah have long understood: that effective solutions to homelessness require both accountability and support.”

What is in Trump’s order?

On Thursday, Trump issued an executive order requiring agencies to facilitate the use of state civil commitment to move homeless individuals into long-term institutional care if they pose a risk to themselves or others because of severe mental illness or substance use disorder.

The presidential action mandated departments to prioritize grant money for states that crack down on illicit drug use and urban camping; that require outpatient treatment or civil commitment for high-risk individuals; and that track sex offenders who are homeless.

Agency heads will also be authorized to increase funding for drug courts and mental health courts while halting funds to supervised drug consumption programs and ending support for “housing first” initiatives that don’t promote recovery.

“(C)hronic homelessness is directly tied to mental illness, substance abuse, and the loss of human dignity,” Cox’s letter stated. “The President’s historic directive puts federal agencies in line with Utah’s approach and fosters a renewed national commitment to public safety and order.”

What’s next for the homeless board?

Cox called on board members to accelerate work on the state’s proposed sprawling 30-acre, 1,200-bed “central campus,” with wrap-around homeless services, which has yet to break ground amid struggles to find and purchase land.

The facility, which the letter describes as “a transformative, services-based homeless campus,” would prioritize “recovery, treatment, and long-term outcomes, not just emergency shelter,” by integrating sobriety programs and life-skills classes.

Until a final location is identified, the board has refrained from making large funding requests to the Legislature. But eventually, if the campus is to look like successful models in San Antonio, Texas, and Reno, Nevada, then it could require as much as $25 million in ongoing funds from the state budget.

“We are moving quickly to advance a service-rich homeless campus, streamline reporting, and improve outcomes across the system,” said Niederhauser, the State Homeless Coordinator. “Together, we remain focused on making homelessness in Utah rare, brief, and non-recurring.”

Utah’s top elected leaders also asked the board to identify gaps in the state’s homelessness response, develop policy recommendations for the upcoming legislative session, streamline service provider paperwork and ensure that funding requests clearly align with the president’s executive order.

In a statement to the Deseret News, Randy Shumway, the chair of the Utah Homeless Services Board, said that board members “firmly stand” with Cox, Adams and Schultz “in prioritizing a homelessness system rooted in treatment, accountability, dignity, and long-term recovery.”

“Compassion and accountability are not opposing forces but essential partners,” Shumway said. “We support the state’s call to invest in effective solutions — ones that treat root causes and restore dignity. We can no longer afford half-measures, permissive approaches, or fragmented responses to a crisis this urgent. Utah will lead in delivering a homelessness response that rescues and provides sustained healing for those who are suffering.”

The letter highlighted the work of newly appointed Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd to “restore safety and order in our capital city,” and said law enforcement is an essential piece of the state’s homelessness response system.

The Utah Homeless Services Board must provide recommendations and legislative proposals to the governor and legislative leadership prior to Sept. 30, the letter said.

The now-former head of a taxpayer-funded nonprofit spent public money on vacations to Hawaii, Florida and Las Vegas for him and his wife, paid for massages and exercise equipment, made prohibited political contributions and channeled nearly $2 million to a for-profit company where he is listed as the president and majority shareholder, the Utah state auditor alleges in a new report.

Auditor Tina Cannon recommended that the matter be referred to the Utah attorney general to potentially recoup the funds and possible legal action against the executive, who resigned from the nonprofit — iMpact Utah — in March, as the audit was beginning.

The alleged misappropriation, which occurred over the course of two years, went undetected because the of’s Office of Economic Opportunity and Utah State University, which administered the taxpayer grants, had no oversight mechanisms in place. An anonymous whistleblower called the auditor’s tipline early this year, alerting them to the problems.

David Adams, a special projects senior auditor in Cannon’s office, said in an interview that, while the program was “well-intentioned … there’s just never been a mechanism there to have any accountability. … Because of that lack of oversight, the president there at iMpact Utah was able to do whatever he wanted with that money, unfortunately, and he chose to do inappropriate things.”

The Tribune is not naming the iMpact executive at this time because he has not had an opportunity to respond to the audit and has not been charged with a crime.

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership, created by the federal government to bolster the nation’s manufacturing sector, receives a mix of state and federal funding. The state funding of about $2.8 million annually was directed by the Legislature to pass through the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (GOEO) to Utah State University, which awarded it to entities, including iMpact Utah, Inc.

The nonprofit offered subsidized training and business services designed to bolster Utah manufacturers. The services generated additional revenue for iMpact Utah.

But state auditors found that in 2023 and 2024, more than $2.1 million of public funds were paid to a private for-profit company, Vereo Impact, Inc. The former director and CEO of iMpact Utah is listed as the president of Vereo, and auditors said he is the majority shareholder.

Of those iMpact funds, $400,000 was used by Vereo, $103,409 was used to pay off a Vereo debt, $26,165 was used to purchase assets for the company and about $50,000 was used for operating expenses, said auditors.

Some of the Vereo employees were doing work for iMpact Utah, Adams said, but there were no invoices to document the work. And from 2022 to 2024, as head of iMpact, the former CEO received “exorbitant” bonuses, totaling $525,000 over a three-year period, auditors said, putting his annual compensation at $518,823 — more than double the average for similarly sized nonprofit executives.

There was no functional board of directors at the time to approve the compensation, said Cannon.

On top of that, the audit said, the iMpact Utah executive put $35,715 on his company credit card to pay for vacations to Hawaii, Las Vegas, Florida and elsewhere for himself and his wife. Charges on the card included airfare, snorkeling trips, luaus and Las Vegas shows.

He also put $2,563 on the card for other personal expenses, including massages, Amazon purchases, a haircut and exercise equipment, according to auditors. He also made nearly $10,000 in political donations to state candidates and one federal candidate, which nonprofits are prohibited from making under IRS regulations.

State campaign disclosure records reveal a portion of the total — $6,563 to Gov. Spencer Cox’s campaign and more than $517 to a challenger, Carson Jorgensen. The federal donation the auditors reported does not appear in federal campaign disclosures, although Cannon said they documented the contribution.

Cannon’s office recommended that USU and GOEO work with the Utah attorney general’s office to attempt to claw back whatever funds possible and refer the matter to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. Both USU and GOEO agreed with the recommendation in written responses to the audit.

GOEO Director Jefferson Moss said that it has limited authority to oversee legislatively-directed funds once they pass to a sub-recipient — in this case, once they went from USU to iMpact Utah.

USU said in its response to the audit that nothing in the state contract directing the funds to iMpact Utah required monitoring of how the funds were used.

Cannon said that, because of the limited two-year window of the audit, it is possible that other funds were misappropriated before the malfeasance was brought to auditors’ attention.

“The biggest problem with an office with limited resources, is … we have to have a clear time period that we’re looking at,” Cannon said. “Could there be more? Yeah, you bet there could be more.”

It could also point to a larger problem in government, because the Legislature approves “lots” of directed grants — the exact number is unknown — and there is little oversight of those funds. Last year, the Legislature enacted a law requiring entities that disburse more than $25,000 in state funds to nonprofit entities to notify the auditor so there can be proper oversight.

The auditor’s office was not made aware of iMpact Utah’s issues until it received a whistleblower tip.

“I have oversight over government entities, but once it gets funneled to a not-for-profit, then there is less and less restriction and less and less oversight available in those types of situations,” Cannon said.

In a letter to legislators accompanying the audit, Cannon said that lawmakers directing grants to specific entities “contributed to the lack of oversight in this case” and is part of a growing pattern.

She recommended the Legislature apply similar requirements to state matching grants as are used for federal funds: conduct regular reviews of expenditures; track recipients’ compliance with IRS regulations; require recipients to report annually to the auditor’s office; and award funds as reimbursements for services rather than providing a lump sum up front.

Adams said that iMpact Utah is “not long for the world” at this point, with creditors “circling” to reclaim money they paid. Cannon said that the unfortunate part is that there were some good things happening at the nonprofit, but “when there’s a lack of oversight that allows this type of behavior, it will destroy not only his job, but the job of people who were actually doing a good job.”

Note to readers • This story is breaking and will be updated. This story has been updated to indicate that Jefferson Moss is the director of the Governor’s Officer of Economic Opportunity.