This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Jury selection began Monday for the federal court trial of Jeremy Johnson, the St. George businessman whose allegations touched off Utah's most sweeping political scandal.
The selection process is scheduled to conclude Friday, with opening statement beginning next Monday for Johnson and two top-level employees of his online marketing company who face 86 charges, mostly related to allegations of bank fraud.
Johnson, Scott Leavitt and Ryan Riddle are accused of using straw companies and false information to open new accounts at Wells Fargo Bank to continue to process credit cards after Johnson's I Works company was placed on watch lists for companies with large numbers of consumer chargebacks. Johnson and Riddle are acting as their own attorneys after dumping their court-appointed counsel.
If convicted, the three face possible maximum prison sentences of five to 30 years, though the length depends on sentencing guidelines and a final decision by U.S. District Judge David Nuffer, who is presiding over the trial.
Also on Monday, Nuffer turned back a motion by Leavitt's attorney, Marcus Mumford, who argued the charges should be dismissed because the disputed accounts were not held by Wells Fargo Bank, but by a nonbank subsidiary and, therefore, don't fall under the federal laws cited in the indictment. But Nuffer sided with prosecutors and ruled that was an issue for a jury to decided at trial.
Johnson's allegations in January 2013 led to investigations of former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and his successor, John Swallow, who resigned the post in December 2013.
Shurtleff and Swallow face criminal charges in separate cases in state court.