2 images of Neways founders depicted

Federal jurors have four weeks to determine which of the two vastly different pictures painted for them Monday afternoon is correct — either the former husband and wife who founded Utah-based Neways Inc. are shrewd and calculating tax cheats, or they are dedicated businesspeople who have been targeted by overzealous prosecutors following a shoddy investigation.

An estimated monthlong trial for Thomas E. and Leslie D. Mower opened Monday before U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball. The Mowers, now divorced, each face one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and six counts of tax evasion.

Former Neways corporate attorney James Thompson is also on trial, facing one count of conspiracy and one count of obstructing an IRS investigation.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this case is about unreported income — a lot of unreported income," said Ed Power, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's Tax Division. "It's about deception, concealment and outright greed on the part of a husband, a wife and their attorney."

Government attorneys allege Thomas and Leslie Mower failed to report $3.2 million of personal income collected as commissions from Neways' divisions in the United States, Australia and Malaysia, ultimately saving themselves a tax bill of $1.3 million.

The Mowers concocted a story that the money was actually from a non-taxable loan from Neways' Australia division to avoid paying taxes, Power said. To that end, he told jurors that Thompson created "a bogus loan document" to bolster the Mowers' story.

Between 1992 and 1997, Power said, the couple received monthly commission checks totaling $3.7 million but reported only $565,000 on their annual income taxes. Among other things, Power said, they used the money to purchase a 1,400-acre parcel of property in Utah County's Hobble Creek Canyon.

That property, as well as the company's manufacturing facility in Salem, were indeed purchased with funds given to Neways from the overseas' divisions, said Rebecca Hyde, a member of Thomas Mower's defense team. However, the money was intended as a loan to the corporation, not personal commission income to the Mowers, Hyde said.

The IRS conducted an "incomplete and sloppy" investigation into a very brief period of time during which Neways USA was struggling and relied on its sister corporations overseas to help them succeed, Hyde said.

"They based their case on assumptions and not facts," she said. "They chose to see fraud where there were honest mistakes."