In 2019, Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign accused Adrian Swensen of creating and promoting a fake, $200-per-plate event in Salt Lake City while working as a volunteer fundraiser. The next day, he was arrested in Wyoming in a car that had been reported stolen.
Swensen also has a criminal history in multiple states that includes financial crimes like forgery and credit card fraud. Among those, he was convicted of felony forgery for stealing and cashing a check from the American Red Cross while volunteering in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2014.
Despite his history, the Great Falls Clinic Legacy Foundation hired Swensen last month as its fundraising administrator.
In a statement Monday, a Great Falls Clinic spokesperson said that all employees at the hospital or the foundation undergo a background screening.
“Concerns around the findings of the background screening process are addressed as part of the hiring process,” the clinic’s statement said. “The clinic takes all matters seriously related to the integrity of the work it performs in the community and the role of the Legacy Foundation in supporting needy families receiving medical treatment. The clinic will continue to review and evaluate the concerns raised with respect to Mr. Swensen’s role with the Legacy Foundation.”
Swensen has been involved in Democratic politics for years, and a description of his job history from the Great Falls Clinic Legacy Foundation said that he worked in the offices of Congresswomen Maxine Waters of California and Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, which is Swensen’s home state.
Swensen’s resume, summarized by the foundation when it announced his hiring, also includes a degree from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. University spokesperson Todd Hollingshead told Montana Free Press Monday that BYU has no record of anyone named Adrian Swensen or Adrian Noe, another name he has reportedly used in the past, attending the school or earning a degree there.
In 2014, Swensen posted a photo of himself and an Iowa American Red Cross colleague on Facebook. He commented, “I very much enjoy what I do at the Red Cross. It’s a welcome relief from the political world.”
Two months after that post, Swensen was arrested and charged with using an LLC to forge and cash a $1,250 American Red Cross check. News reports from that time referenced past arrests for opening credit cards in someone else’s name. Iowa court records show convictions for unauthorized use of credit cards and theft.
But it was his 2019 work as a volunteer fundraiser for Harris that made headlines in Salt Lake City. Swensen initially told the Deseret News that Harris, who at the time was a U.S. senator running for the Democratic presidential nomination, would be coming to Salt Lake City to join a previously scheduled panel discussion and then hold an evening fundraiser for $200 per ticket. The news story attributed the event information to Adrian Hebdon, a name Swensen was using at the time.
Swensen has also gone by the name Adrian Noe and used an alternative spelling of his first name, Adrain, according to social media, court records and media reports.
The Harris visit to Salt Lake City didn’t exist. A week after the announcement, multiple outlets joined the Deseret News to report that the Harris campaign said that there were no Utah events planned and that Swensen, using the name Hebdon, was behind the promotion. The campaign notified law enforcement.
“It came to the campaign’s attention that an individual has been promoting an event with the senator under false pretenses,” Kate Waters, traveling press secretary for Harris’ campaign, told Deseret News. “We are investigating the situation.”
The campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter addressed to “Mr. Adrian Hebdon/Swensen/Noe.” The letter referenced Swensen’s Iowa forgery case and stated that he could no longer volunteer for the campaign.
The Harris event was supposed to take place at a downtown coworking space called The Wave, a business run by spouses S. Mark Barnes and Joanna Smith. Barnes told MTFP last week that once Swensen pitched the Harris event as a sure thing, they spent money to freshen up the space.
Finding out the event wasn’t real meant that The Wave had to refund tickets to a pre-planned panel discussion and cancel preparations they had made for Harris’ visit.
“It put us in a tailspin,” Barnes said. “It hurt us financially. We had to refund all the ticket money, even though we had paid out a lot of money to get things ready.”
The Salt Lake City Tribune reported that The Wave spent $22,000 on the event before learning it was fake, and the business had to refund $17,000 from tickets purchased for the panel discussion. Media reports in 2019 said that the Salt Lake City Police Department was investigating the incident as a potential fraud. One Monday, a department spokesperson told MTFP that there is no open investigation involving Swensen.
Six months after the incident, The Wave announced it was closing.
Swensen didn’t return a request for comment left at the Great Falls Clinic Legacy Foundation office, and the Great Falls Clinic declined to make him available for interviews Monday. But he told media outlets in 2019 that he did nothing wrong. In a 2022 episode of a podcast called Island Wave, Swensen talked at length about the campaign incident and claimed it was a misunderstanding.
In the podcast, Swensen said that he worked as a volunteer fundraiser and coordinated with the Harris campaign to arrange a Salt Lake City visit but that the campaign couldn’t commit to a specific date. He said he gave The Wave a placeholder date, and the campaign didn’t follow through with the visit.
“So when all of this broke, and somebody had done a press release saying that the senator was coming,” Swensen said. “It got back to the campaign. The campaign said, ‘No, we’re not coming on that date. We don’t even know what that date is,’ which is true. That’s when it became uh, he’s a hoaxster — all of this stuff.”
In the same podcast, he admitted that he had “embellished” his role by telling The Wave that he had been sent by the campaign to set up the fundraiser. He also made some false comments over the one-hour, 15-minute episode.
“The campaign never commented on what happened. They never put out a press release,” Swensen said in the podcast. “They never told the press that, ‘Yes, this has happened.'”
The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News both reported statements from a Harris campaign spokesperson, who said the event was false and that the campaign had to refund $6,000 in contributions related to the fundraiser. Both outlets also referenced the cease-and-desist letter sent by the campaign.
There are no reports confirming that Swensen financially benefited from the event.
A day after news surfaced of the false Harris event, law enforcement in Rawlins, Wyoming, arrested Swensen and his then-husband, who had outstanding warrants. The car had been reported stolen and belonged to Barnes, the co-owner of The Wave.
Barnes told MTFP that Swensen had been renting space at the coworking business and was a spirited, personable person who had photos with multiple Democratic political leaders. He let Swensen borrow his car multiple times. Barnes said that in July 2019, Swensen didn’t return with the car on the expected date. When news broke of the false Harris event, Barnes reported the car stolen to Salt Lake City police.
Authorities in Carbon County, Wyoming, charged Swensen with wrongful taking of property, a felony, related to Barnes’ car. He was convicted in that case and sentenced to serve at least two years in prison in April 2020. The sentence included $1,740 in restitution to Barnes and Smith, according to case documents.
“Still haven’t gotten any of that restitution money that he’s supposed to pay,” Barnes said.
After the Wyoming arrest but before reaching Montana, Swensen worked as a community development director at a Salt Lake City group called Pacific Island Knowledge 2 Action Resources, or PIK2AR. The organization advocates for Pacific Islander communities and is led by Swensen’s mother. She did not return a request for comment.
Utah court records also show that in 2022, Swensen lost two lawsuits for defaulting on small loans. His landlord also filed to evict him that year, although the case was dismissed because Swensen wasn’t served by the courts within 120 days.
It’s unclear when exactly Swensen moved to Great Falls, but in 2023, he started posting on Facebook from Montana. In some posts, he used photos in misleading ways. In October 2023, he posted three photos of a golf course and wrote, “Probably the last round of golf of the year, but what a beautiful day and course.”
Two of the photos are from Gaylord, Michigan, and Crosslake, Minnesota. The third photo was found in a 2019 article on the PGA website.
In another 2023 post showing a beautiful mountain town, Swensen wrote, “It’s a beautiful day!” When friends asked him where he was and where the photo was taken, he responded, “Glacier National Park, Montana.” The photo actually shows Colorado Avenue in Telluride, Colorado.
In Great Falls, Swensen previously worked at 5th and Wine, a local restaurant. On Aug. 3, the Great Falls Clinic Legacy Foundation announced on social media that it hired Swensen as its fundraising administrator. A few weeks later, the foundation posted an announcement on its website.
“Adrian is recognized nationally as an expert in criminal justice reform, political advance work, and campaign finance reform,” the foundation’s announcement said. “He speaks regularly to audiences across the country — ranging from grassroots advocates to institutional leaders — on policy, strategy, and systems change in these critical areas.”
The foundation was formed in 2016 by the Great Falls Clinic, one of two hospitals in the city. The foundation completed a housing project in 2021 that provides rooms for out-of-town patients and families. The organization’s website listed Executive Director Grant Bebee on its staff page as recently as last month, but it appears he no longer works there.
Foundation coordinator Chariti Butterfield declined to comment to MTFP last week. In addition to Swensen, Butterfield is the only other foundation staff member. The foundation’s board includes Great Falls Clinic CEO Mark Robinson, other hospital officials and community business leaders.
The foundation is preparing for one of its major fundraising events: a winter wonderland gala that is set for Oct. 4.
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press at montanafreepress.org.
