From Deseret News archives:
Did FLDS 'cook the books'?
Just days after Jeffs was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, Utah's attorney general confirmed to the Deseret Morning News that his office has been quietly conducting an organized crime investigation into Jeffs and the Fundamentalist LDS Church.
"I believe Warren Jeffs ran the FLDS Church and the UEP as an organized crime-type setup," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Monday. "We just have to get the evidence to prove it."
The attorney general said Jeffs and the FLDS Church are being looked at for "double books, cooking books, offshore accounts and fraud." In 2005, the Utah Attorney General's Office petitioned the courts to take control of the United Effort Plan (UEP) Trust, which controls homes, businesses and property in the polygamous border towns of Hildale and Colorado City.
A judge appointed a special fiduciary to oversee the $110 million financial arm of the FLDS Church. It is those records that Shurtleff said his office is examining in the organized-crime investigation.
"We've been following closely what the special fiduciary is uncovering from records and so forth," he said. "It has been very informative, we'll say."
Jeffrey L. Shields, a lawyer for special fiduciary Bruce Wisan, said any records are being shared because the Utah Attorney General's Office is a party to the UEP case. "Generally, we're sharing, not just with the attorney general but with the public," Shields said Monday.
Shields said the UEP did not keep much in the way of books or records, but what is being gleaned is being passed back and forth between many entities involved in the case.
Asked if investigators had uncovered anything criminal, Shurtleff said, "I can't say."
On Saturday, Warren Jeffs was named to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, putting him in the company of serial murderers, child murderers and terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. A $100,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his capture.
Publicity surrounding Jeffs' name on the most-wanted list has gone global, with his picture being publicized in newspapers, TV and the Internet.
Finding the fugitive prophet could be difficult.
Jeffs has been on the run for years, supported by money and resources from his devoted followers within the FLDS Church. Authorities are investigating rumors that Jeffs was in the Hildale/Colorado City area within the past few weeks. Some believe he has been at the FLDS Church's temple site in Eldorado, Texas.
"He's got everything he needs there," said Sam Brower, a private investigator who has been tracking the FLDS Church for ex-members who are suing the group. "He's got money, vehicles, wives. People go there to worship him."
