FLDS trust faces court hearing in Texas

Published: Monday, June 2, 2008 10:44 a.m. MDT
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SAN ANGELO, Texas — The man appointed by a Utah court to oversee the real-estate holdings arm of the Fundamentalist LDS Church is pushing to see what authorities seized when they raided the YFZ Ranch.

A hearing is scheduled here this afternoon to discuss a motion to compel an agricultural financial institution to give up information about the funding of the ranch.

"We're just tracking assets," said Bruce Wisan, the special fiduciary of the United Effort Plan (UEP) Trust.

Wisan is seeking information about the UEP Trust's management before the courts took over, as well as any assets to satisfy an $8.8 million judgment against FLDS leader Warren Jeffs and other former trustees who were accused of mismanaging it.

The Deseret News first reported last month that Wisan issued subpoenas to Tom Green County, Texas, prosecutors — seeking evidence seized in the raid on the YFZ Ranch. Wisan wants to know about the financing of the ranch and the FLDS' first-ever temple.

"What we're asking there is that we get that information after they finish the criminal work, but before they give it back to the FLDS," he said Monday.

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A hearing on that is scheduled later this week.

The UEP was taken over by the courts in 2005, amid allegations that Jeffs and other top FLDS leaders had mismanaged it. The trust controls homes, businesses and property in the FLDS strongholds of Hildale, Utah; Colorado City, Ariz.; and Bountiful, British Columbia in Canada.

The courts ordered reforms recently, paving the way for private property ownership.

Wisan said the information that was taken from the YFZ Ranch is valuable to him — records dealing with property and UEP assets have disappeared, been destroyed or moved. Already, he has managed to get access to documents and evidence seized from a Cadillac Escalade when Jeffs was arrested outside Las Vegas in 2006.

"We have sprinkles on the frosting, but we don't have the cake or the frosting," Wisan said.


E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com

Recent comments

I can only please one person a day, today is not your day,(Wisen)...

amberrose | Aug. 11, 2008 at 12:12 a.m.

The many allegations of mismanagement are not rumors, rather they're...

azborderdude | June 2, 2008 at 11:45 p.m.

I don't know how the trust is being managed or mis-managed, but I do...

to Anonymous | June 2, 2008 at 8:59 p.m.

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