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The defense in the trial of St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson and two of his former employees tried to chip away Friday at whether Wells Fargo Bank and credit card processors that worked with it followed their own and others' rules that govern the relationships with merchants.

The effort came as the government presented witnesses from the banking and credit card processing companies that hosted accounts from Johnson's I Works company to build its case that the three committed bank fraud, the central allegation among the 86 charges they face in the trial that ended ts first week on Friday.

Federal prosecutors allege that Johnson and co-defendants Ryan Riddle and Scott Leavitt, who were top level I Works employees, created 36 "shell companies" using the names of friends, family and coworkers in order to open new accounts at Wells Fargo Bank after banks in 2009 began closing I Works accounts because of a high number of consumer credit card chargebacks.

Defendant Ryan Riddle, a former I Works general manager, asked government witness Ofer Yitzhaki, vice president of risk management for Wells Fargo Bank, why a signature from a bank official did not appear on any of the merchant accounts agreements with I Works companies. Ofer, during his second day of testimony, said there are so many such accounts that the bank can't physically sign all of them.

"We enter into those agreements by our actions and not by signatures," he said.

The government's next witness, Lewis Sablich of First Data Corp., a partner with Wells Fargo in credit card processing, testified about his company's agreements with the bank and CardFlex, another processing company that had helped set up the I Works accounts.

He said that First Data did not want accounts from companies like I Works that had been placed on warning lists for large numbers of chargebacks and did not want to do business with shell companies.

"That isn't the entity that's actually the merchant," he said. "It's just a facade used to hide the true merchant."

Attorney Marcus Mumford, who represents Leavitt, also asked Sablich whether he was aware that Mastercard and Visa thick set of rules require a bank signature on all merchant account agreements.

"I saw they have to be a party but I didn't see they must sign the agreement," Sablich said.

After the day of testimony ended in the trial expected to last five weeks longer, U.S. District Judge David Nuffer sought arguments about whether he should allow Johnson to use a recording of a meeting with Martin Elliott, global head of brand protection for credit card company Visa USA, who testified on the second day of the trial. Johnson said the 2009 recording, which he claims was made at the suggestion of Visa, directly contradicts some of Elliott's testimony.

The federal prosecutors had vigorously tried to keep the recording out of the trial and Nuffer at first agreed, one reason being that it had not been provided first to the prosecution. But on Friday, Nuffer reversed himself and said it could be admitted but that he still wondered if such evidence should be presented to prosecutors beforehand to keep the trial moving swiftly. But Johnson objected, saying that providing prosecutors such evidence beforehand would allow them to coach witnesses so they don't offer testimony that could be called into question by the defense.

"How does this work normally?" Johnson asked. "This is my first trial."

The defendants also said they wanted to introduce an affidavit from May of 2013 that was used to obtain a search warrant that swept up thousands of Johnson's emails, including private conversations between Johnson and his attorneys. Johnson said he was told about the affidavit, which remains under seal, by one of his previous attorneys, Rebecca Skordas, and that a part of it is contradicted by statements founds in an interview a few months later that was conducted by FBI agent Jason Hendrikson.

Hendrikson testified in the case on Friday and is to be back on the stand on Tuesday when the trial resumes. Nuffer was provided a copy of the sealed affidavit and the interview summary and then he denied the request a few hours later. The judge said he not did find evidence that backed Johnson's assertion that Hendrikson had misstated facts in the affidavits.

During arguments over the issue, the judge chided Mumford for what he said were misleading arguments about previous cases that address similar issues.

"You misquoted cases to me. You misrepresented the law," Nuffer said. And when Mumford started to protest, the judge said, "Oh yes you have."

Mumford replied, "I'm just making arguments based on what I got."