SALT LAKE CITY — Federal prosecutors have filed more charges against two biodiesel executives with ties to a northern Utah polygamous group who are accused of running a half-billion dollar tax credit scheme.
Washakie Renewable Energy CEO Jacob Kingston and Washakie Chief Financial Officer Isaiah Kingston face five new money laundering charges, according to a 25-count superseding indictment filed in U.S. District Court last week. Jacob Kingston is also charged with five additional charges of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false tax return.
The Kingston brothers and California businessman Lev Aslan Dermen, also known as Levon Termendzhyan, were originally charged in August with a total of 15 counts of money laundering and filing false tax returns.
Federal prosecutors allege the men created fake records from 2010 to 2016 in order to obtain the federal tax credits totaling $500 million, then laundering the money. The company at the time billed itself as a premier producer of biodiesel and chemicals.
The Kingstons and Dermen have pleaded not guilty. A hearing in the case is scheduled for next Tuesday. All three men remain behind bars pending trial, which is set for February 2019.
Prosecutors argued to keep the men in jail because they were a risk to flee to Turkey, where they allegedly do business and own a mansion — or hide in homes or offices associated with the polygamous group they belong to. The Kingstons are members of the Davis County Cooperative Society, or the Kingston Order, which practices polygamy.