Utah Sales Agent Admits to Defrauding Clients of More than $4.9M

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - A Utah County man pleaded guilty to securities fraud after admitting he lied to investors and fraudulently sold investment contracts, which are securities, without a license, to approximately 130 clients, through Utah company Alpha Influence, LLC.

According to court documents and admissions made at the change of plea hearing, from March 2020 to June 2022, Kole Glen Brimhall, 27, of Orem, Utah, fraudulently sold investments in e-commerce stores through Alpha Influence, LLC., a registered Utah corporation. Brimhall was not licensed to offer and sell securities, but as part of the scheme, Brimhall sold the e-commerce stores to purchasers as a passive investment and promised that the stores would make consistent, predictable, monthly returns. Brimhall failed to disclose that the majority of the invested funds went directly to Alpha Influence, LLC and then were distributed to sales agents, including himself, for commissions, and only a small portion was sent to the servicer of the investors' stores.

Brimhall is scheduled to be sentenced March 24, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. in courtroom 3.4 before a U.S. District Court Judge at the Orrin G. Hatch United States District Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City.

U.S. Attorney, Trina A. Higgins, of the District of Utah made the announcement.

The case is being investigated jointly by the Utah Division of Securities and the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office.

Assistant United States Attorneys Mark Woolf, Brian Williams, and Ruth Hackford-Peer of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah are prosecuting the case.