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SALT LAKE CITY — Marc Sessions Jenson, a Salt Lake businessman fighting fraud charges over a failed resort development, will be the one to explain what happened, his attorney said Thursday.
During his opening statement, defense attorney Marcus Mumford pulled the skirt from a table so that the former millionaire's shackled feet were visible to the jury and announced that Jenson will take the stand in the trial.
"(Jenson) is going to take the stand because it's important. It's important to him that you know just what happened," he told the jury.
Mumford, who deferred his opening remarks until the state had rested its case, told the jury that the beginnings of what was to be an exclusive $3.5 billion ski and golf resort in Beaver County was prepared to legally start selling memberships when Jenson approached investors in 2007.
"What you need to know is that this was real," Mumford said, pointing to a diagram of the three companies backing the Mount Holly Club and the money they had put into it.
Investors got what was contractually owed to them, even if it wasn't what they had expected, Mumford said.
Disgruntled investors, however, say Jenson deceived them when they purchased the costly memberships, misrepresenting the level of risk associated with the project and failing to disclose his previous felony conviction, other felony charges, personal bankruptcy and the financial status of his company.
Jenson and his brother, Stephen Roger Jenson, were both charged with multiple counts of second-degree communications fraud, theft by deception and money laundering in the wake of the failed development.
Stephen Jenson, who accepted a plea deal Wednesday, will not return to the trial.
Before, (the investors) said those were the bad guys, XE Capital, and now they're saying, 'No, this is the bad guy.'
–Marcus Mumford, defense attorney
Mumford argued that the "united front" of victims in the case initially blamed XE Capital, a New York-based hedge fund that was expected to put more money into the project and who Mumford claims was working behind the scenes to try to take it over.
However, their focus shifted to Marc Jenson after two closed-door meetings with then-Attorney General Mark Shurtleff in the Utah State Capitol.
"What was discussed there?" asked Mumford, who claims Shurtleff and the state have refused to answer questions about the meeting.
"Before, (the investors) said those were the bad guys, XE Capital, and now they're saying, 'No, this is the bad guy,'" Mumford said, pointing to Marc Jenson.
Shurtleff's name came up again briefly — as well as those of the former attorney general's self-described "fixer" Tim Lawson and former chief deputy Kirk Torgenson — as the defense's first witness was questioned about the terms of Marc Jenson's plea in abeyance to prior charges and how they were settled.
Mumford sent subpoenas to Shurtleff as well as former Attorney General John Swallow to testify in the nine-day trial. Their lawyers filed objections, which were upheld Tuesday by 3rd District Judge Elizabeth Hruby-Mills.
Marc Jenson is at the center of the criminal charges against Shurtleff and Swallow. He claims they shook him down for money and favors during a trip to the posh Southern California villa where he was living in 2009.
Stephen Jenson accepted a plea deal partway through the trial, pleading no contest Wednesday to three reduced charges of third-degree felony communications fraud while one additional fraud charge and 10 counts of money laundering, all second-degree felonies, were dismissed. He will be sentenced March 30.
