Probably it's especially prevalant in Utah because it's not common in the US to do business with family members while it's more common in Mormon communities.
Interesting, but the article doesn't give us much sense of how close the victim and perp were in the church hierarchy, My reading is that they probably did not have the same Mormon bishop, who would have felt some pressure to take action.
So, yes, the farther away in the social network, the weaker the social pressure. If the link is mere nominal membership in the same faith, that may be worse than no link at all. Most of Madoff's victims were Jews -- because they were inclined to give him the benefit of any doubts.