Feds move to seize homes and businesses from polygamous Kingston Group as fraud defendants plead guilty - The Salt Lake Tribune

The owners of Washakie Renewable Energy pleaded guilty to charges Thursday in what the government has called a $511 million biofuel fraud, and the pleas could have repercussions for the polygamous sect to which they belong.

Jacob O. Kingston, the company’s CEO, pleaded guilty Thursday to 41 charges including money laundering, fraud, conspiracy and witness tampering and obstruction of justice, according to a court docket. His brother and the chief financial officer, Isaiah E. Kingston, pleaded guilty to 17 counts.

Their mother, Rachel Ann Kingston, 64, also pleaded guilty to five counts. Jacob Kingston’s legal wife, Sally, pleaded guilty to two counts.

Feds move to seize homes and businesses from polygamous Kingston Group as fraud defendants plead guilty - The Salt Lake Tribune

CA regulators look to shut down Mormon extremist-owned casino | The Sacramento Bee

California regulators are working to shut down a casino with ties to a Utah Mormon fundamentalist group known to practice polygamy, including marriages of girls as young as 15.

At first glance, Sahara Dunes Casino, doing business as Lake Elsinore Hotel and Casino, doesn’t look like much.

It sits on I-15 between Los Angeles and San Diego, hundreds of miles from the glittering lights of Las Vegas. Only a plain red sign — reading “Casino Restaurant Cocktails” — identifies the building’s nature.

However, the casino is owned by Joseph and Ted Kingston, whose family also controls the Kingston Group, otherwise known as the Davis County Cooperative Society.

As reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, the Kingston Group also owns “a diverse portfolio of service, financial and agricultural operations in Utah and Idaho.”

Members of the group are known to conduct marriages of girls as young as 15, as well as marriages between cousins, according to the Tribune; the Tribune also reports that the group has drawn the attention of federal regulators, who allege that members have engaged in a multi-million-dollar tax fraud scheme.

CA regulators look to shut down Mormon extremist-owned casino | The Sacramento Bee

Blood Cult | Southern Poverty Law Center

Obsessed with the purity of their bloodline and empowered by a sense of entitlement on par with the divine right of kings, the Kingstons have made incest the cornerstone of a self-serving theology that loathes non whites, fosters homophobia and abhors government authority.

Additionally, ex-Order members tell of a reputed church prophecy of an “End of the World War,” an apocalyptic vision that foresees a bloody race war with the Kingstons as the ultimate victors, chosen by their Heavenly Father to rule the world for a millennium.

Blood Cult | Southern Poverty Law Center