Utah Launches Criminal Probe of Church

[Judi Lynn]

Utah Launches Criminal Probe of Church
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 9, 2006; 7:47 AM

SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah has launched an organized-crime investigation into a polygamist sect and its fugitive leader Warren Jeffs, now on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.

Jeffs is already wanted on Utah and Arizona charges alleging he arranged plural marriages of underage girls. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Monday that his office is also looking at Jeffs and his church for "double books, cooking books, offshore accounts and fraud."

"I believe Warren Jeffs ran the FLDS church and the UEP as an organized crime-type setup," Shurtleff said. "We just have to get the evidence to prove it."

The UEP is the United Effort Plan trust, the $110 million financial arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which owns businesses and property in the Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where the church is based.
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/09/AR2006050900399.html

[Demeter]

1. One Down; How Many More Churches To Go?

Organized criminal enterprises, indeed! Not to mention the colonizing.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Anybody here been watching "Big Love"?

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

3. Haven't missed an episode since it started..n/t

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Love it

So maybe this guy is like Roman? Wonder if Roman is based on him? Wonder how many men like him there ARE???

That series makes me think. A lot.

[quaoar]

12. This most recent episode

they touched on how young boys are expelled from the group because they might threaten the elder male leaders. Nikki told Bill that he had been thrown out not by his father but by Roman.

[flamingyouth]

17. I like that show

[LostinVA]

4. Gosh... it only took about what? A hundred years or so?

And, if we're talking specially about Jeffs... a decade or so???

[atreides1]

8. A Decade sounds right

I lived in Tucson for the last 8 years, the only reason that the Attorney General of Utah is concerned is because in the last several years this sect has been in the news, along with the fact that law enforcement on both sides of the Utah-Arizona border have spent their time looking the other way. I guess it had to do with some reports that the local law enforcement was in Jeffs pocket.

[kestrel91316]

10. Hell, local law enforcement wasn't just in Jeffs' pocket, they were all

MEMBERS of the group, from what I heard.............

[LostinVA]

14. That's what I've read, too

[LostinVA]

13. "Under the Banner of Heaven," Dateline, and even Dr. Phil (!)

have really gotten this creep into the news.... this has been going on for over a century... and yeah, when I saw on TV about the cops being in on the whole thing... omg.

[zann725]

5. "FUNDAMENTALIST" Church of...Later Day Saints'...???!!

I was NOT aware, and have NEVER heard that the Church...of Latter Day Saints (at least around here) having "FUNDAMENTALIST" anywhere in the title. Was there a "Fundamentalist-named" branch of the Mormon church all along, or is this some new "morphing" of Fundamentalist sect's OBSESSIVE need to convince EVERYONE 'their way is the ONLY way.' Has there been a somewhat miraculous joining at the religious 'hip' of traditional Latter Day Saints TO Fundamentalists??? True, both are equally OBSESSIVELY that THEIR 'way' is the ONLY way...and actively canvass to convert everyone in sight ...(even AFTER death), in the case of Mormons.

[LostinVA]

15. They've been around for over 100 years

A "breakaway" part who kept polygamy. And, no matter how some on here will try to same the LDS folks don't approve of it -- that's incorrect. They, including their politicans and law enforcement, have either made believe it wasn't happening, or didn't speak up against it.

Read "Under the Banner of Heaven." It's a great overview.

[atreides1]

7. About Time

I lived in Arizona for 8 years, and the law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border did their very best to look the other way while this whackjob was doing what he was doing.

Now that their dirty laundry has been exposed, we're supposed to believe that they cared all along.

[Ian David]

9. Do a google search on "Black Collar Crime." n/t

[Ian David]

11. Christians are attacking the sanctity of marriage...

We need a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between two non-Christians.

:sarcasm:

[NVMojo]

16. I'll drink to that!