Financial system similar to old Mormon practice is called money laundering in prosecution of polygam

Financial system similar to old Mormon practice is called money laundering in prosecution of polygamous Kingston Group members


Brigham Young’s “united order” sure didn’t look like the financial dealings spelled out in the latest indictment against executives of Washakie Renewable Energy.

The court document describes how $6.2 million flowed into — and then out of — Washakie in 2013. Eventually, $4.5 million of that money made its way back to the company, the indictment alleges, but only after passing through other businesses associated with the polygamous Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group, as well as the sect’s incorporated church.

Prosecutors are calling the transactions money laundering, and the exchanges constitute five of the counts against brothers Jacob and Isaiah Kingston, Washakie’s chief officers.

The transactions, former sect members say, are also an example of how finances are held in the Kingston Group: Personal incomes or business revenues are immediately shared with church leaders or their designees.

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/02/03/financial-system-similar/