UTAH
Gephardt Daily
By Nancy Van Valkenburg – July 12, 2016
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, July 12, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Attorneys on Tuesday filed a motion for charges to be dropped against Lyle Steed Jeffs — the fugitive leader of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — claiming those charges violate Jeffs’ right to religious freedom.
Jeffs and 10 others have pleaded not guilty to fraud and money-launder charges, brought by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which hold that Jeffs and others diverted at least $12 million in Federal funds awarded to individual church members who were approved for food stamps benefits.
FBI investigators say that Jeffs and others instructed those recipients to buy goods at FLDS-owned stores with the food stamp cards, then donate those items to the church warehouse for illegal redistribution to members as church leaders saw fit.
Another practice was to illegally divert funds to front companies for the purchase of a tractors, trucks and other large, non-food items, according to FBI information.
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