Federal prosecutors say church leaders orchestrated a yearslong scheme instructing members how to use food-stamp benefits illegally for the benefit of the faith and avoid getting caught.
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The volume of food stamp purchases was so large that it rivaled big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Costco. Group leaders then funneled 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 indictment charges 11 leaders and members of the FLDS polygamous sect with conspiracy to commit Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Lyle Jeffs is the brother of Warren Jeffs, the former leader of the FLDS who is serving a life sentence for sexual assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15. The leaders tell church members that they must obtain their food and household goods only through the church, the indictment alleges.
Outsiders have been predicting that sect leaders’ power would crumble since Warren Jeffs was first arrested in 2006, but he and his loyal lieutenants still hold sway. “Thereafter, knowing that the activity of the business facilitated the unlawful diversion of SNAP funds to the FLDS church, he served as the general manager of Quality and supervised the daily operations of the business”.
The arrest of Nephi Steed Allred, of Colorado City, Arizona, comes two days after local, state and federal law enforcement converged upon the twin cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, traditionally known as Short Creek, in actions related to a two-count indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court, District of Utah, Tuesday afternoon. The other is a religious discrimination suit being heard in Arizona.
The communities deny those allegations.
Followers would scan their food stamp debit cards at church-run stores, leaving the money with the owners, prosecutors say. But Sam Brower, a private investigator who has spent years investigating the group, said one common theme in the cases is that authorities are finding more willing witnesses with inside knowledge because large numbers of people have been kicked out or left.
He and his cousin Roy Jeffs, son of Warren Jeffs, were in the court gallery Wednesday in Salt Lake City as Lyle Jeffs pleaded not guilty to the charges, wearing a prison jumpsuit and looking somber.
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“If they’re finally going to prosecute Lyle and the leaders of the church, it will eventually bring the church down”, Wallace Jeffs, Warren Jeffs’ half-brother who was expelled from the church, said according to the Washington Post. They contend that if allowed out on bail, the polygamists are likely to flee and hide in the group’s elaborate network of houses throughout North and South America, using aliases, disguises, false identification and pre-paid cellphones. “This indictment is about fraud”, said U.S. Attorney John W. Huber.
