"Johnson grew up with money — his parents owned a houseboat and a plane among other things — and he wanted it for himself, too. So he made a promise: If God would help him be rich, he would do good things with his money. By the time he was 23, iWorks was bringing in the cash, God was making good on his promise and Johnson was living the life of a rich man. He bought a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a houseboat and a small fleet of airplanes and helicopters. He eventually bought a home in Santa Monica, Calif., where he works on building Elite Debit, and another in St. George...."
So, money is a blessing from God, eh? Any time a business person starts involving the concept of god(s) in his/her business dealings, check for the stench of scams. That article is nothing but fake tears and overly-sweet praise of Johnson.
Johnson justified some of his scams as god-given blessings. Sounds like prosperity gospel or mormonism for sure.
Here's a little bit of detail on one of Johnson's scams:
"The FTC last month initiated legal action against iWorks for allegedly scamming consumers out of $275 million by billing them online for products and services they didn't order. A complaint filed in federal court in Las Vegas alleges the company offers bogus moneymaking and government grant opportunities on various websites. Those who sign up for the "risk-free" offers are charged monthly fees and enrolled in other programs without their knowledge, according to the complaint."
It was reported in the Spectrum (St. George) that he was in the mission field with park ranger who was shot over in Moab a few months ago. He was quoted as saying that the shooting became personal when he heard who the ranger was therefore he spent time flying over the area looking for the shooter (who was never found).
"[Jeremy Johnson and his colleagues] operate a far-reaching Internet enterprise that deceptively enrolls unwitting consumers into memberships for products or services and then repeatedly charges their credit cards or debits funds from their checking accounts without consumers’ knowledge or authorization for memberships the consumers never agreed to accept. This scam has caused hundreds of thousands of consumers to seek chargebacks reversals of charges to their credit cards or debits to their banks accounts." -- from the FTC complaint
What the Salty Droid blog has to say about this:
"Apparently 'hundreds of thousands' is enough chargebacks to get some banks to act :: and iWorks lost many a merchant account. Johnson responded by setting up more than 50 new fool-a-banker shell companies. Call centers in Utah and the Philippines handled [by not handling] thousands of victim complaints per day."
Johnson built up his false front with highly publicized acts of kindness (paid for by mormon donors for the most part -- if I remember correctly, his Haiti mission was mostly funded by mormon donors, or dupes as the case may be), and the mormon community ate it up. Unfortunately, so did CNN. CNN interviewed him, while he held a little Haitian girl, after the earthquake in Haiti.
From the Mormon Times: “It’s no big deal, Johnson would say. But his actions — generous, daring and audacious — are unusual at best.”