Warren Kyle Foote faces up to five years in prison after entering guilty pleas to reduced securities fraud charges

Warren Kyle Foote, faces up to five years in prison after entering guilty pleas to reduced securities fraud charges. The 28-year-old Salt Lake City man embarrassed Westminster College last year after pledging $3.4 million to help establish the private school's Institute for New Enterprise at the very time his alleged scams were unraveling. The small private school publicized the gift, which Foote's victims say he used to build trust - even though he never gave a cent to the college, which he attended briefly a decade ago.
The Utah Attorney General's Office charged Foote with eight second-degree felony counts, including theft and a pattern of unlawful activity, involving six victims whom Foote is accused of cheating out of thousands of dollars. Foote pleaded guilty to five third-degree felony counts, exposing him to prison time when Judge Deno Himonas sentences him Jan. 2. Later this month, Foote is to appear in court to resolve bad-check charges brought by county prosecutors.
In late 2006 and early 2007, Foote was posing as an altruistic entrepreneur who had made a fortune in "hard money" lending when he approached several potential investors with supposedly risk-free ventures, the fraud charges say. He touted his Westminster gift with one victim as proof of his success and
philanthropic intentions.
Susen Sawatzki is a magazine editor who interviewed Foote for an article about his electronic billboard company Red Outdoor. Afterward, Foote offered her opportunities to make easy money in some hard-money deals.
Foote held himself out as a millionaire who co-owned California's Deerfield Ranch Winery and was developing a high-rise project in downtown Salt Lake City. Sawatzki declined his investment offers, but Foote did persuade her to put up a $50,000 short-term loan, which she financed thorough a home-equity loan, to help another investor close a real estate deal. She entrusted the money to Foote on his promise that he would secure the loan with an interest in the property.
Later, Sawatzki tried repeatedly to get Foote to produce documentation of the transaction, but he put her off. After the loan was due, he paid her with checks that bounced, according to the charges. Foote finally produced documents, which an investigator later suspected of being faked, since the property described in mortgage documents did not match the address Foote provided, and of bearing forged signatures.
Foote grew up in Clearfield, the youngest of five, and the family moved to Taylorsville when he was a teenager. He attended Westminster for a semester after high school, but never earned a college degree. Both his parents died of cancer and he remains estranged from his siblings, according to a sister. Foote went on an LDS Church mission and was invited to join a Utah chapter of Rotary International, the conservative service organization. He used his Rotary connections to build trust with two other victims, court documents allege.