FARMINGTON — Prosecutors have refiled charges against members of a family accused of bilking a Davis County car dealership out of thousands of dollars.
Frank Marks, 47, and his brother Jimmy Marks, 52, and two other relatives, Willis Marks, 36, and Tony Marks, 39, are charged with racketeering and multiple counts of communications fraud.
A fifth defendant, Steven Marks, is a fugitive, according to the Utah Tax Commission's Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division.
The division says that in 1997, the defendants sold 119 cars to Menlove Dodge Toyota in Bountiful for more than $300,000 but delivered only 90 cars and 45 vehicle titles.
The charges say certain family members falsely represented themselves as licensed Utah automobile dealers. The charges the suspects face vary from second- to third-degree felonies.
Janice Perry Gully, spokeswoman for the division, said the case was dismissed by 2nd District Judge Rodney S. Page in August to give the state time to organize evidence.
Separately in Utah County, two of the suspects, Jimmy and Frank Marks, have been charged with several counts of communication fraud and state tax evasion.
The Utah County case claims that on 32 occasions the brothers fraudulently claimed to be licensed Wyoming auto dealers to purchase 79 cars at wholesale prices without paying state sales taxes.
In March 2000, members of the Marks family filed a federal lawsuit against the Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division, claiming that the investigation against them was an attempt by state officials of "ethnic cleansing."
The suit stemmed from a raid on nine homes in Salt Lake and Weber counties in 1999. The suit claimed armed officers rousted half-naked women from their beds, groped and leered at them, and took family photo albums, jewelry, cash and gold coins, which disappeared.
Deputy Davis County Attorney William McGuire, who participated in the searches, called the suit's allegations "totally incredible."
Jimmy Marks' cousin, also named Jimmy Marks, won a $1.4 million settlement from Spokane, Wash., in 1997 over civil-rights violations during police raids at Gypsy homes in 1986.