Rubicon files motion opposing dismissal of lawsuit against Utah AG

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally comes from KSL.com, which can be read in full on its website.

A Davis County general contracting company once accused of labor trafficking says the former Utah attorney general and his staff "did not investigate a crime. They invented one."

"Defendant Sean Reyes was supposed to be Utah's top law enforcement officer. Instead, he ran the Utah Attorney General's Office like a personal propaganda machine, manufacturing human trafficking charges against innocent people so he could hold press conferences, secure millions in federal and state funding, and distract the public from his increasingly toxic alliance with Tim Ballard, a man under criminal investigation for the very conduct Reyes accused plaintiffs of committing," Rubicon Contracting LLC and its owners, Rudy Larsen and Jena Larsen said in a court fling Wednesday.

"The irony would be poetic if the consequences for the plaintiffs were not so devastating."

In November 2023, the founders and five executive members of Rubicon Contracting were charged with multiple counts each of aggravated human trafficking by the Utah Attorney General's Office. The group was accused of recruiting about 150 people from Mexico to work for the company using H-2B visas. But once in Utah, charging documents alleged that the victims were paid very little and forced to live in deplorable housing provided by Rubicon, while also being forced to pay rent under the threat of deportation.

The charges were later dismissed, however, at the request of the attorney general's office because of a pending federal investigation.