Ex-Iron County GOP treasurer given 2 years in prison for $2M wire, bank fraud

CEDAR CITY — A local property manager, and the former treasurer and chairman of the Iron County Republican Party, was sentenced Monday to two years in prison after defrauding victims of more than $2 million.

Blake Floyd Cozzens, 36, of Cedar City, was convicted this year of wire fraud and bank fraud for embezzling money from homeowners’ associations, property owners, and tenants. He also fraudulently obtained money from a bank and a property-management software company.

In addition to the 25 months in prison, Cozzens was ordered to serve four years on probation and pay $2,168,640 in restitution to the victims.

Cozzens was a property manager for multiple homeowner associations and property owners in Iron County between 2020 and 2025. He defrauded the associations, property owners, and tenants by embezzling more than half a million dollars entrusted to him, diverting the funds for his own use, according to court documents.

Cozzens would submit fraudulent deposits to an online application that helps manage properties, defrauding the California corporation of more than $200,000, according to court documents.

He also presented a bank in Las Vegas with seven cashier’s checks totaling more than $1.41 million in exchange for gambling credits, and after gambling, he falsely reported that he had lost the checks, causing the bank to cease payments to the casinos. This caused the bank to lose almost $1.4 million, court documents state.

The investigation

Cozzens was first reported to the police in December 2024 when the lawyer of a client “had suspicions that the property manager for the victim entity had unlawfully taken funds from an account,” according to an initial police booking affidavit.

In total, more than 19 transactions over $5,000, totaling over $1.9 million, were found in the form of checks, wire transfers and in-person withdrawals, investigators claim. Many of those transactions were allegedly sent to an account controlled only by Cozzens.

Cozzens was arrested in January and charged in 5th District Court with theft and 10 counts of unlawful dealings by a fiduciary, second-degree felonies.

Cozzens was one of five men arrested and charged in a 2018 St. George prostitution sting. He resigned from his GOP unpaid post, pleaded guilty to one count of patronizing a prostitute, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to 12 months of probation and a fine of $1,000.

On Jan. 16, the day after being booked into the Iron County Jail, Cozzens’ father, Iron County Commissioner Paul Cozzens, went to the jail and “allegedly requested special treatment for his son’s medical conditions, which raised concerns among jail staff,” according to a summary of an internal investigation conducted by Iron County’s human resource director on Jan. 31.

“Multiple staff members report that Commissioner Cozzens asserted his authority, stating that he was the commissioner responsible for building them the new jail,” the report states. “Staff members interpreted this statement as an attempt to leverage influence over jail operations.”

The report states that multiple staff members at the jail felt uneasy about the commissioner’s presence and that some “feared for their job security” if they failed to follow his requests.

Paul Cozzens addressed the issue during an Iron County Commission meeting in February.

“It’s been kind of a hard process because I’m a commissioner and having a son incarcerated, I don’t know all the rules,” he said. “As you can imagine with the meetings I’ve attended for a long time about building a new jail and knowing that one of our family members might be a resident there, it’s been hard.”

The commissioner said his son had asked him and his wife to bring him distilled water for his CPAP machine. After they arrived, a jail staffer informed him they couldn’t accept it.

“I know I didn’t handle the situation well that night,” the commissioner said, explaining that he was emotional. “I was deeply concerned for my son’s health, and I reacted inappropriately, but never did I threaten anyone’s job. I apologized then, and I apologize now for my actions.”

Additional charges

In March, Blake Cozzens’ state charges were dismissed after he was charged in federal court with wire fraud and bank fraud. He pleaded guilty to both charges on March 27, and his plea agreement stipulated a sentence of 25 months in prison.

On April 17, a federal judge set conditions for Cozzens’ presentencing release from custody.

Cozzens was charged in the 5th District Court in October with kidnapping, a second-degree felony, and assault, domestic violence in the presence of a child and damaging a phone, all class B misdemeanors, for an incident that occurred while he was on presentencing release.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Utah Highway Patrol troopers in July “responded to reports of a domestic violence incident” on I-15. “During this investigation, the troopers determined this to be a verbal fight only, and no law enforcement action was taken that night.”

But in August, the alleged victim in that incident, Cozzens’ wife, contacted troopers saying she had additional information she now wanted to share. She said she and Cozzens had gotten into a fight while driving on I-15, and Cozzens “grabbed her right wrist and twisted it, which caused her pain,” according to the warrant.

He got off the freeway and left her on the side of the road before returning and forcing her back into the car, despite her saying she didn’t want to get back in because she worried he would hurt her again, the warrant states. The incident occurred while her 3-year-old daughter was in the car.

Cozzens’ federal release was revoked after he was charged in the kidnapping case, for which a hearing is scheduled next month. Court documents also show the couple has filed for divorce.