Bank-merger foe says intimidation attempted
Deseret News 5Oct99 B4
By Max B. Knudson: Deseret News business editor

An affidavit has been filed in a federal lawsuit opposing the merger of Zions Bancorp and First Security Corporation. A petition has been filed asking the Fed asking for an extension of time in which the public can make comments for or against the merger.

Provo businessman and former bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Richard P. Valgardson, filed suit along with several other plaintiffs in an attempt to stop the merger. He said, the merger would cause "a virtual 100 percent (banking) monopoly in southern Utah and even in Utah County."

Valgardson is president of Provo-based Irontown Housing. He claims his younger brother, David Valgardson, was informed by his bishop, Craig Carlile, an attorney who was acting as an agent of his client, First Security Corp., to "stay out of any activity related to protesting or objecting to the merger."

"As a direct consequence of Bishop Carlile's warning to David to stay out of the dispute relating to the proposed merger, David told my parents, who are 80 years of age, that he had been warned to stay out of the dispute," writes Richard Valgardson. Valgardson claims that his rights of free speech "have been significantly curtailed."

"Based on my prior services as a Mormon bishop, I believe that Bishop Carlile's warning to my brother to stay out of the dispute relating to the merger was contrary to long-established church policy that private business affairs may not be conducted on church property and was an act made by Bishop Carlile not as a Mormon bishop, but rather as an agent of his client, First Security Corp., to deliberately stifle opposition comments to this body."

Carlile could not be reached for comment. A First Security spokesman said Monday that the bank would have no comment on the allegations.