Jeffs, UEP told to pay up
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
The first moves are being made to collect on an $8.8 million judgement against jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

A statement was filed in St. George's 5th District Court on Thursday, putting the Fundamentalist LDS Church leader and other former trustees of the United Effort Plan Trust on notice that they owe money to the court-appointed special fiduciary of the church's financial arm. "We're doing it initially in the counties of residence for those people," special fiduciary Bruce Wisan said Thursday, adding that a similar judgment statement was filed across the border in Mohave County, Ariz.

The statement names Jeffs and other top leaders, as well as the FLDS Church itself as debtors.

On March 1, a judge in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court awarded special fiduciary Bruce Wisan $8.8 million in a lawsuit he filed against Jeffs and the former trustees, accusing them of fleecing the church's financial empire. It was those allegations that prompted the judge to take control of the $110 million UEP Trust in 2005.

The UEP Trust was founded on the early Mormon concept of a "united order," where people would put everything into a common pot and get things back based on wants and needs. The UEP Trust controls most of the land in the polygamous enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

A judge recently reformed the trust, clearing the way for private property ownership. Applications for benefits from the trust are due March 31.

Meanwhile, Wisan said he will try to collect on the $8.8 million judgment for fiduciary fees, attorney's fees, loss of property and other things that have disappeared in the border towns. "We've got a couple of things we're looking at," he said.Jeffs was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday on a single charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. He is also facing an April trial in St. George on charges of rape as an accomplice a first-degree felony. Jeffs is being held without bail in the Purgatory Jail.
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Friday, March 9, 2007
 
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