Utah CEO cleared of fraud charges

James Larry Hall II, who was charged with multiple counts of misusing funds from his insurance firm, has been acquitted of all charges.

Hall briefly served as chief executive officer of the Children's Miracle Network, but there was no suggestion of misusing the charity's funds in the case.

Instead, prosecutors charged Hall in 3rd District Court last year with crimes allegedly connected to the insurance agency: theft, two counts of unlawful dealing with property by a fiduciary and two counts of communications fraud, all second-degree felonies; and one count of wrongful appropriation, a third-degree felony.

The charges stemmed from claims made in court documents by the Utah Attorney General's Office that in 2003, Hall took trust-fund monies for his own use while working at the National Benefit Partners Insurance Agency.

However, after a three-day bench trial that ended Oct. 29, Judge Ann Boyden found Hall not guilty on all six counts.

"The state simply had no case and insisted on pursuing it nevertheless — and this is the result," said Max Wheeler, Hall's attorney. "It's a shame that so much collateral damage was done to Jim Hall as a result. He lost a job at the Children's Miracle Network and his business has been severely damaged. Obviously, he's grateful he was acquitted, but it was a case that should never have been brought in the first place, in my opinion."

The insurance agency sold policies to hospital workers, collected premiums and placed them in trust accounts and sent them on to insurance carriers. Hall functioned as the fiduciary handling the money for the various insurance firms.

Court charging documents contended that Hall used $400,000 of the trust funds to qualify for $1 million in financing to buy a house, then repaid that money; diverted $325,000 to buy a company airplane and pay for home construction and other costs; and moved trust funds to operating funds to cover payroll, then repaid the trust.

Wheeler, however, said Hall simply withdrew money that he was owed as commissions.

"The government never appreciated apparently that his commission money and the money that went to the carriers was co-mingled by the hospitals, not by him.," Wheeler said. "Yes, money was taken out of trust because that's where the commissions were deposited. It was not something nefarious or something to hide."

Wheeler said Hall brought in a national accounting firm to improve the company's financial management.