SALT LAKE CITY — Two members of the prominent polygamous Kingston Group have been indicted for their part in an alleged $500 million fuel tax-credit scheme, according to documents unsealed Friday, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Washakie Renewable Energy CEO Jacob and CFO Isaiah Kingston, as well as Lev Aslan Dermen (also known as Levon Termendzhyan), are accused of gaming an IRS tax-credit program that gave payouts to companies that produced renewable energy. The men allegedly did so through false filings and money laundering, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
Washakie Renewable Energy LLC is operated by and partly fundedthroughthe Kingston Group, a Utah-based polygamous church with fundamentalist Mormon beliefs. The church is also known as the Davis County Cooperative Society and the Latter Day Church of Christ. Jacob and Isaiah’s father, John Daniel Kingston, is the patriarch of the group. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints no longer endorses polygamy.)
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