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Tuesday was the deadline for St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson and four others to accept plea deals in connection with the operation of Johnson's online-marketing company.

But not one took a deal during a status conference in federal court Tuesday morning.

Instead, prosecutors and attorneys for the five defendants focused their discussions with U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Warner on what they needed to work through before a four-week trial starts Sept. 14.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Lunnen told the judge that prosecutors will likely dismiss some of the 86 criminal counts against Johnson and the others: Scott Leavitt, Bryce Payne, Ryan Riddle, and Loyd Johnston. He said the dismissals would happen before the end of July, and would involve money laundering and possibly other counts.

"We want to make this [trial] as quick and as painless as possible," Lunnen said.

The five defendants face 86 counts of conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering in connection with I Works, which allegedly baited online consumers with small fees and then made unauthorized charges on their credit or debit cards.

The defendants are accused of setting up merchant accounts for shell companies to continue to process credit and debit cards after other banks closed processing accounts because of a large number of customer chargebacks.

All five have pleaded not guilty.

Johnson, a central figure in the prosecutions of former Utah Attorneys General Mark Shurtleff and John Swallow on multiple corruption charges, has said the creation of shell companies was a standard industry practice encouraged by credit-card-processing companies and banks.

During Tuesday's hearing, Warner said he would like confirmation from all of the defendants that they saw the plea deal proposed by prosecutors, discussed it with their lawyers and have officially rejected the offer.

"These are some significant dice being rolled here," the judge said. "Eighty-six counts in this indictment. There's significant liability if someone is convicted."

The group is expected to be in court again for a motion hearing Aug. 3.

The Federal Trade Commission first sued Johnson, his I Works company and others in December 2010 in federal court in Las Vegas, saying the company baited online consumers with small fees and then made unauthorized charges on their credit or debit cards.

Johnson and the others have denied those allegations and that case, which is separate from the Utah criminal charges, also appears headed for a trial.

Johnson was charged in Salt Lake City in June 2011 and indicted again along with the others in March 2013 after a plea agreement fell apart.

On June 19, the Federal Election Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Johnson accusing him of making illegal "straw" campaign donations to U.S. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Harry Reid, D-Nev., along with Shurtleff.

Twitter: @jm_miller