Polygamous sect leaders facing food stamp fraud charges
SALT LAKE CITY – Investigators say they noticed something strange when they began tracking food stamp transactions coming out of two small convenience stores in a polygamous community on the Arizona-Utah border.
The volume of food stamp purchases was so large that it rivaled big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Costco.
They said they ultimately learned that residents were scanning their food stamp debit cards at the stores but getting no items in return, allowing leaders of the polygamous sect to funnel the money to front companies. The proceeds paid for a John Deere loader, a Ford truck and $17,000 in paper products, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The alleged scheme is at the heart of a major takedown of top leaders of the secretive sect in which followers believe having multiple wives brings exaltation in heaven.
Eleven people were charged with food stamp fraud and money laundering, including Lyle Jeffs and Seth Jeffs, top-ranking leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and brothers of imprisoned sect leader Warren Jeffs.
Lyle Jeffs, who runs the day-to-day operations in the polygamous community of Hildale, Utah, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court in Salt Lake City.
John Wayman, a confidant of Warren Jeffs who handles legal and tax issues for the group, also pleaded not guilty in Salt Lake City and was ordered to remain in custody until a Friday hearing.
Attorneys for Lyle Jeffs and Wayman declined to discuss the accusations.
Seth Jeffs, another brother of Warren Jeffs who leads a branch of the group in South Dakota, is making a court appearance in that state. Warren Jeffs is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting girls he considered brides.
The arrests were made Tuesday in Salt Lake City; Custer County, South Dakota; and the sister cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.
They come amid a civil rights trial in Phoenix against Hildale and Colorado City in which prosecutors say the communities discriminated against nonmembers by denying them housing, water services and police protection.