SALT LAKE CITY -- A former finance director for two Olympic bid chiefs admitted Friday at their trial that he helped hide questionable spending and turned state's evidence to avoid federal prosecution.

Rod Hamson also testified that an outside auditor of the bid committee's books asked for and got an Olympic job, succeeding him as finance director. Hamson took another position as Olympic licensing director, then left the Salt Lake Organizing Committee after the bid scandal blossomed in 1999.

Hamson testified that bid chief Tom Welch got Ernst & Young auditors to back off from closely examining the lavish spending on International Olympic Committee delegates who awarded Utah the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Hamson was in charge of preparing checks and vouchers -- and, he said, doctoring books to disguise what the government contends were bribes.

Welch, who was president of the Salt Lake bid and organizing committee, and Dave Johnson, who was senior vice president, are on trial for allegedly bribing IOC delegates to win the games. The two are accused of plying the delegates with $1 million in cash, gifts and favors. They don't dispute the spending but insist it wasn't bribery, just the way Olympic business was conducted.

Under questioning by federal prosecutor Richard Wiedis, Hamson acknowledged he was in debt to his lawyer and had filed for bankruptcy after a business failure. The organizing committee reimbursed him for legal expenses during the scandal, but Hamson said he kept some money "to take care of my family."

Hamson also acknowledged lying when a SLOC audit committee asked him privately in 1995 whether he knew of any questionable spending.

Before the judge excused the jury until next Wednesday, Johnson's lawyer tried to show that Hamson had been bullied into cooperating with the government and coached on his testimony.

Hamson said he had spent parts of three days with Wiedis reviewing his testimony before taking the stand.

At first, Hamson told federal investigators in 1999, he didn't agree that the staggering amounts paid to IOC delegates was bribery. Hamson justified the spending as legitimate help for the loosely defined worldwide "Olympic family." But federal investigators didn't buy it, and Hamson acknowledged changing his view of the largesse.

Wheeler tried to show Hamson changed his tune under pressure. Hamson acknowledged only that he was afraid of being charged. He said it was his understanding he would not be charged if he cooperated with the government.