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SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge has refused to postpone the criminal trial for St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson and three associates accused of fraud.
U.S. District Judge David Nuffer called the request for a delay "obstructive" in a strongly worded denial last week. He said it misdirects the court's attention to "superfluous issues and wastes time needed to prepare for trial on the massive amounts of information already available."
Ed Wall, who represents co-defendant Bryce Payne, asked to continue the Feb. 1 trial date to allow the defense time to review a large amount of new electronic data it expects to receive from federal prosecutors. Nuffer noted that prosecutors don't intend to use the new information in its case.
"If defendants need more help reviewing the data, they must immediately seek additional resources. But the trial date will not be moved," the judge wrote.
Johnson, Payne, Ryan Riddle and Scott Leavitt face dozens of fraud charges in connection with Johnson's once-thriving Internet marketing company, iWorks. They're accused of setting up shell companies to process consumer credit and debit cards when other accounts were closed by credit card issuers because of a large number of chargebacks.
