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.
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The charges were contained in a grand jury indictment unsealed in US District Court in Salt Lake City on Tuesday as Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and sheriff’s deputies raided church-owned businesses and arrested leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah-Arizona border towns and in South Dakota.
SALT LAKE CITY Several top leaders from Warren Jeffs polygamous sect were arrested Tuesday on federal accusations of food stamp fraud and money laundering marking one of the biggest blows to the group in years.
While the FLDS regularly rails at Washington, various experts say church members are not opposed to taking handouts from the federal government and even have a name for the practice – “bleeding the beast”.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the leader of a South Dakota congregation of Warren Jeffs’ polygamous sect will remain behind bars pending a detention hearing scheduled for Monday.
Prosecutors said the actions in this new case weren’t co-ordinated.
While FLDS has been open about its disdain for the government, federal prosecutors have made clear that the latest indictment is unrelated to the church’s philosophies.
Lyle Jeffs and another high-ranking official, John Wayman, were arrested on Tuesday in Salt Lake City.
Devout followers will only know what leaders tell them about the arrests because of a standing rule not to watch TV, browse the internet or read newspapers, said Thomas Jeffs, a former member of the sect and son of the highest-ranking leader arrested: Lyle Jeffs, Warren Jeffs’ brother. Jeffs and other church leaders allegedly ordered members to give their SNAP benefits to the church, which then redistributed them to the community.
“This indictment charges a sophisticated group of individuals operating in the Hildale-Colorado City community who conspired to defraud a programme meant to help low-income individuals and families purchase food”.
Charged in the indictment are Lyle Steed Jeffs, 56, John Clifton Wayman, 56, Kimball Dee Barlow, 51, Winford Johnson Barlow, 50, Rulon Mormon Barlow, 45, Ruth Peine Barlow, 41, and Preston Yates Barlow, 41, all of Hildale.
If the defendants are convicted, the federal government will seek forfeiture of any property, real or personal, and a money judgment “equal to the value of all property involved in the money laundering”, according to the indictment. US Attorney Huber explained, the indictment was not a religion-related, it was fraud crime. “This indictment is about fraud”. But Sam Brower, a private investigator who has spent years investigating the group, said one common theme in all the cases is that authorities are finding more willing witnesses with inside knowledge because large numbers of people who have been kicked out or left. Prosecutors claim that the communities discriminate against residents who aren’t members of the church, depriving them of housing and essential services like water and police protection.
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Two group leaders have also pleaded not guilty.
