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Feds: Utah biofuels company owners stole $511 million in IRS renewable energy credits
The owners of a Utah biofuels company fraudulently obtained $511 million in renewable energy tax credits, a federal grand jury indictment says.
Jacob Kingston, 42, Washakie Renewable Energy CEO, and his brother, Isaiah Kingston, 38, the chief financial officer, are held in the Weber County Jail for the U.S. Marshals Service.
The Kingstons and a California businessman, Lev Aslan Dermen, are charged with felony counts including money laundering and fraud.
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Jacob Kingston used some of the money to buy a $3 million home in Sandy, and he and his brother together bought a million-dollar Bugatti Veyron sports car, the indictment said.
The Kingstons — sons of polygamist leader John Daniel Kingston — created Washakie in 2007 and the company built a huge biofuels production plant near Plymouth in Box Elder County.
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In the new criminal indictment, prosecutors allege the Kingstons and Dermen falsified sales invoices and accounting records, plus production records, blending tickets, bills of lading and other paperwork routinely created in qualifying for renewable fuel transactions.
They rotated fuels between various places in the United States and elsewhere, including Panama, to make it appear that transactions involving the purchase and sale of feedstock and biofuels products were taking place, the indictment said.
