SALT LAKE CITY — The man who accused former Utah Attorneys General Mark Shurtleff and John Swallow of a “shakedown” has been paroled from prison.
Marc Sessions Jenson was released from the Utah State Prison on Tuesday after the attorney general’s office sought a deadline extension to weigh in on whether he owed restitution in the fraud case he was serving prison time for. Jenson insisted he owes no money for restitution, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole said.
The parole board granted the Utah Attorney General’s request for a deadline extension, but also canceled Jenson’s February 2016 parole hearing and ordered him released immediately from prison. The parole board did say it would schedule a restitution hearing after the state responds.
Jenson served a prison sentence for three counts of sale of unregistered securities, a third-degree felony. After he was acquitted by a jury on other fraud charges, his lawyers requested that he be released.
“We view this development, with the exoneration that we obtained for Mr. Jenson at trial earlier this year, as important first steps in our efforts to obtain justice for Mr. Jenson,” his attorney, Marcus Mumford, said in an email to FOX 13. “Because of the indignities and injustice he has suffered over the last decade, Mr. Jenson has requested that everyone respect his privacy at this time as he reunites with his family.”
In a statement late Wednesday, the Utah Attorney General’s Office said it did not oppose Jenson’s parole request.
“By serving almost five years, he was already a likely candidate for parole. The focus of the AGO is getting dollars back to victims in the form of restitution, which the AGO knows Mr. Jenson could not begin to pay until his parole began,” Missy Larsen, a spokeswoman for Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, said in the statement.
“The Board requested input from the AGO regarding restitution and the Board will make a final determination of the amount owed after the State has had adequate time to finish investigating and reviewing hundreds of pages of new documents, many of which Mr. Jenson never previously produced to the Office. “
Jenson is a figure in the corruption cases against Swallow and Shurtleff. He accused the former Utah Attorneys General of shaking him down. Jenson has said he paid for trips to a posh California resort for the two, all while he faced investigation by the Utah Attorney General’s Office.
