PORTLAND — For nearly a decade, Mark Neuman authorized false information to be published about Summit 1031 Exchange, in an effort to mislead clients about how their money was being used, a federal prosecutor alleged Wednesday.

During the second day of Neuman’s testimony, the prosecutor said Neuman knew Bend-based Summit 1031 employees printed brochures and placed information on the company website telling customers their money would be held in insured bank accounts.

But Neuman and the other Summit principals put more than $44 million of those funds into personal investment real estate deals between 1999 and 2008.

Neuman, of Bend; Timothy Larkin, of Redmond; and Lane Lyons, of Bend; are on trial in U.S. District Court, charged with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies. Brian Stevens pleaded guilty to similar charges last year and is serving four years in prison.

In 1991, Neuman and Stevens co-founded Summit, which helped clients defer capital gains taxes on properties they sold. To avoid the tax, the property owners had to deposit the money with an exchange accommodation company like Summit and reinvest it in similar property within 180 days.

Neuman, a certified public accountant, testified Tuesday that he never withheld information from clients about how their money was used.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Maddux on Wednesday showed Neuman copies of several Summit 1031 brochures printed between 2000 and 2006, as well as screen shots of the company’s website.

Each included language stating that Summit client funds would either sit in secured bank accounts, or be invested in government-backed securities.

“In all these years at Summit, from 2000 to 2006, you never told clients in the brochures that you were using client exchange money for personal investments, did you?” Maddux said.

Neuman responded, “I don’t think we did.” He said the brochures were a collaborative effort, and he didn’t pay much attention to what was on the Summit website.

Maddux asked, “From the early days until the close of the business, you understood that clients’ money wasn’t yours to do with as you wished?”

Neuman replied that his obligation was to ensure that client funds were returned to them when the 1031 exchanges were completed, and that laws prohibiting the practice weren’t put into place until mid-2008, several months after the Summit principals had stopped buying real estate with client money.