At his famed Alpha Con in 2022 in downtown Salt Lake City, conference organizer and self-proclaimed “alpha” entrepreneur Jeremiah “The Bull” Evans made a profanity-laden declaration of independence.
“No one will ever, ever tell me what to do,” he said. “I live a life of freedom because I don’t care what regulations come out of this country. I don’t care what they try to do. You can’t f---ing tell me what to do. I’m the f---ing king!”
The proclamation aligned with the brash persona Evans was selling: Someone whose wealth insulated him from consequences and afforded him a lavish lifestyle with luxury cars, private jets and elaborate parties. It was prosperity he said he had earned through his successful business empire — and others, he promised, could have it, too.
Alongside him, Kole Brimhall, Dallin Pili and others were also selling shares of Evans’ Alpha Influence LLC. All investors needed to do, they said, was wire money to Alpha. Alpha would open and run an e-commerce shop for them, part of Alpha Automated Stores, that would generate passive income — and lots of it — within 12 to 18 months.
Alpha’s sphere of influence was wide; the men reached strangers on social media and at AlphaCon. But they also found investors in close friends, family and community members, prosecutors said.
Pili sold shares for roughly $40,000 each to friends and relatives, including his mother, who was undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
But the whole enterprise, Evans, Pili and Brimhall have each admitted in court, was fraudulent.
Not one of the more than 500 investors who trusted the three men in their 20s made money on their investments, prosecutors said. Pili’s mother died in 2023, having never recouped her investment.
All told, prosecutors said, investors lost a combined $21 million. Victims who testified in court or spoke to prosecutors said the impact, beyond financial losses, included a “debilitating loss of trust.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Woolf said such “affinity fraud schemes” are uniquely harmful and “disproportionately impact Utahns.”
“Here, victims have repeatedly used phrases like ‘we went to school together,’ ‘we sat in the same pew,’ ‘I played football with him, or ‘he was like family,’” Woolf and attorneys in his office said in court documents. “The Alpha investment scheme follows a similar pattern to other affinity fraud schemes and is notable for its simplicity while simultaneously shocking in its audacity.”
No one at Alpha was licensed to sell securities. Evans was using investors’ money to enrich himself and pay for the very lifestyle he sold, prosecutors said.
All three men were sentenced this month on separate charges of securities fraud and, for Evans, a charge of money laundering. Yet in each case, prosecutors asked judges to drop below the prison term range initially calculated under federal sentencing guidelines.
Evans “has been measured, cooperative, humble, and penitent,” and Pili and Brimhall also quickly took responsibility for their crimes, prosecutors said, which spared victims going to trial. The men also are young, they added, don’t have previous criminal records and upon release, can get to work to pay back their victims.
Evans, 29, was sentenced to eight years in prison, while Pili, 27, and Brimhall, 27, were each sentenced to a year plus one day. All three can be eligible for earlier releases, based on good behavior.
“The Bull”
Evans’ 48-minute keynote address at AlphaCon 2022 was framed as an inspirational success story wrapped in barbed wire — laced with profanity and attacks on anyone who considered his conference or outlook a form of “toxic masculinity.” His alias, “The Bull,” he said, was a reclamation of what his childhood bullies called him.
“My nickname growing up was ‘the fat bull,’” Evans said. “On a daily basis, I felt scared of what people would do to me.”
But he metabolized his fear and anger into motivation to be better, he said, and to help others along the way. “I could have stayed f***ing fat and lazy,” he said. Instead, he continued, he became a “king.”
Evans relied on “a common tactic used by fraudsters — generating the ‘Fear of Missing Out’ or FOMO," prosecutors wrote in court documents.
(U.S. District Court for Utah) Federal prosecutors included images from social posts from Jeremiah Joseph Evans, aka “The Bull,” in their sentencing memorandum, arguing he used "FOMO," or the fear of missing out on a luxurious lifestyle, to lure investors. They referred to his wife modeling "large diamond rings" and him posing in front of high-end cars and trucks. In the post shown, Evans said purchased this truck from country music star Keith Urban.
In videos, podcasts and on social media posts, court documents said, Evans “curated FOMO.” His wife modeled large diamond rings and he posed with “high-end” sports cars. In one instance, prosecutors said, Evans used investor money to put a down payment on a Lamborghini Huracan Evo.
“... There can be no debate that he put victims’ money where his mouth was,” they wrote, “with a dizzying array of luxury purchases.
He also misled investors about how successful Alpha’s e-commerce stores were.
“The nature and circumstances of Evans’ offenses are egregious,” Viti argued in a sentencing memo. “Evans engaged in a lengthy affinity fraud scheme targeting and exploiting his network of friends, family, and associates with the illusory promise of riches premised on a bulwark of lies.”
(U.S. District Court for Utah) Federal prosecutors included images from social posts from Jeremiah Joseph Evans, aka “The Bull,” in their sentencing memorandum, arguing he used "FOMO," or the fear of missing out, to lure investors: "He did this primarily through carefully curated online content targeting his network of friends and followers with the version of FOMO he wanted them to see — exotic trips, private jets, swanky parties, luxury goods, social access, fancy cars, and any other material accoutrement that Evans associated with success."
For a ”disabled nurse seeking a form of passive income after receiving the diagnosis that he was going blind, the high school teacher and football coach looking to supplement his pay, or the recently divorced single mother fighting to make ends meet for her and her children," Woolf added, the financial setbacks “were significant and lasting.”
Evans pleaded guilty in January to money laundering and securities fraud. Evans’ attorney did not respond to The Salt Lake Tribune’s request for comment.
As the “alpha” in charge, Evans faced a sentencing guideline range of 135 to 168 months, or up to 14 years in prison. Prosecutors instead suggested a range of five to eight years, arguing it would provide a just punishment “while also accounting for Evans’ cooperation, youth, and lack of criminal history.”
U.S. District Judge Judge Tena Campbell sentenced him to the top of that range — eight years — in prison on May 7. He was also ordered to pay $19,134,150 in restitution.
While Pili and Brimhall were required to forfeit their commissions, prosecutors did not ask Evans to forfeit any of his wealth. The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond to a question about why.
Prosecutors did note in court documents: “The United States is not aware of any assets held by Evans that can be liquidated and paid at this time.”
Optimism or willful ignorance?
Pili and Evans grew up together, according to court documents, and Pili became an early investor in his friend’s business. With his mother’s help, Pili split a $25,000 investment in Alpha between two credit cards and eventually made that money back, court documents said.
So when Pili started selling shares to friends and family members, he believed in what he was selling, defense attorneys argued.
“He feels duped,” Trinity Jordan, Pili’s lead defense attorney, said in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune. “He trusted Mr. Evans.”
Evans hired him as a full-time sales representative and Pili was soon leading a team. From February 2021 to May 2022, Pili and his team secured 138 investors, and Pili personally earned more than $2 million in commissions, according to court documents.
The issue, Jordan said, was once Pili had behind-the-scenes access to Evans’ business, he began to see its cracks. Amazon had shut down many of Alpha’s stores, including Pili’s own store a few times.
But Pili kept selling the stores to investors and promoting their success, despite knowing of their failures, court documents said. In their sentencing memo, defense attorneys called it “unbridled optimism” borne from a “lack of business acumen” and “trust in his childhood friend.”
To prosecutors, it was something worse.
“At best, [Pili’s] participation in the Alpha scheme was driven by a suspension of disbelief, willful ignorance, and a culture that embraces a steroid-fueled view of masculinity,” prosecutors argued in their sentencing memo. “At worst, it was driven by greed and indifference to others’ loss.”
Affinity fraud — defrauding people in someone’s social network — is especially common in Utah, Jordan said. Utahns have “more tight-knit religious connections,” and people are less likely to “do [their due diligence] with someone they know and trust.”
Alpha’s network extended beyond personal relationships, Jordan said. But Pili’s personal relationships with investors are what motivated him to confess; he wanted to right his wrongs.
“[Pili] hoped at every stage that people were going to be made whole,” Jordan said.
His brother, upon whom Pili especially relied through a tough childhood, was one of Pili’s victims, along with his late mother, according to court documents. “It‘s been very hard,” Jordan said.
In a statement at his sentencing hearing, Pili said he would “work tirelessly to rebuild trust” with friends and family, according to a summary provided by his attorney.
Pili’s brother testified at sentencing that he does not think Pili acted “maliciously,” according to Jordan.
Pili’s quick confession and cooperation with prosecutors helped his attorneys negotiate a lighter sentence. Pili has a family to take care of, and the sooner his sentence is over, the sooner he can get back to work and begin repaying his debts, his defense team argued. Besides being sentenced to serve one year and one day in prison, he was ordered to pay $5 million in restitution and forfeit $2.3 million.
‘A strong drive to succeed’
Court documents portray Brimhall as having all the makings of a successful self-starter. He had an apparently “idyllic” upbringing, has a wife and two young kids, and built his career with his high school education.
Over the course of two years, prosecutors said, he and his team “aggressively promoted” Alpha Automated stores, selling shares to around 135 individual investors and earning around $5 million for the company.
Brimhall’s role in Alpha’s scheme was significant, prosecutors argued in court, and he caused direct monetary and emotional harm to his victims. But he also quickly and willingly cooperated in the investigation into Alpha, according to their sentencing memo.
“The impact of immediate responsibility and cooperation not only saved finite resources, but it provided a measure of closure to victims without the retraumatizing effect of trial,” the memo said.
Attorneys said they worried about Brimhall’s job prospects post-incarceration but also argued he has “marketable skills and a strong drive to succeed that should serve him well upon release.”
Besides his prison term, Brimhall was sentenced to pay $5 million in restitution and serve three years on supervised probation. He was also ordered to forfeit $1.1 million — the amount he earned in Alpha commissions.
Brimhall’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
According to court documents, Brimhall is already working on a new business venture and plans to have it running before starting his sentence, “with hopes of continuing to build it upon his release.”
“The United States is certainly not opposed to Mr. Brimhall’s entrepreneurial efforts and wants him to be successful in that venture,” prosecutors wrote — “informed of course by his legal obligation to repay his victims and comply with conditions of his supervised release.”
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Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
