Federal prosecutors have indicted top leaders and members of Warren Jeffs’ polygamous sect of accusations of food stamp fraud and money laundering. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that the polygamous group diverted funds from Utah’s nutrition assistance program for inappropriate use by leaders of a group known as Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A total of 11 people are charged in the scheme, including Lyle Jeffs and Seth Jeffs. They are the brothers of imprisoned sect leader Warren Jeffs. Lyle Jeffs runs the day-to-day operations in Hildale, Utah. Seth Jeffs leads a branch of the group in South Dakota. Amos Guiora, a law professor at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, has researched the FLDS and is available for comment on this developing story.

Amos Guiora, Phone: 216-470-6386, amos.guiora@law.utah.edu