A former Utah State University professor and his business partner have been sentenced to one-month jail terms and ordered to pay nearly $95,000 in restitution for securities fraud.
First District Judge Lanny Gunnell also told Joseph Talmage Graves and Dennis Uriah Butt during a hearing Monday that they must pay $10,000 fines and complete an unspecified probation period after their monthlong terms, to be served in the Davis County Jail.Gunnell suspended zero-to-three-year prison terms each for Graves, a onetime psychology teacher, and Butt, a former bank officer.
In November, Graves and Butt pleaded guilty to one count each of acting as an unregistered securities agent. In exchange, prosecutors dropped nine other felony counts.
Prosecutors said that in 1986, Graves told a class of 77 students that he knew of an investment opportunity that would return up to 20 percent on their investment.
Former student Anthony Paul Douglas contacted Graves because he was interested in investing money from his mother's estate. Court records state that Graves and Butt told him the investment was "as safe as putting it in the bank."