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	Sect Leader Suspected of Draining $100 Million Trust By Trish Choate ScrippsNews April 23, 2008 http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/32593 SAN ANGELO, Texas — While many have wondered how a Mormon splinter sect financed its multimillion-dollar West Texas spread, one man thinks he knows the answer. Bruce Wisan, a court-appointed officer for the polygamist sect's $100 million real-estate trust, said he believes sect spiritual leader Warren Jeffs drained the trust to buy the land for the Yearning For Zion Ranch, then build the sprawling compound in Eldorado, Texas, and keep the operation going for years. "Warren was converting trust assets into cash at fire-sale prices to get the cash to build up the community in Eldorado," Wisan said in a telephone interview. Rod Parker, an attorney who has acted as a spokesman for the sect, could not be reached for comment. Wisan, a Salt Lake City accountant, was appointed long before the current controversy over alleged underage sexual abuses at the compound to be the special trustee for the United Effort Plan Trust, a holding company that owns the sect's Schleicher County property on behalf of all its members. He has subpoenaed documents and other items seized this month in the raid on the YFZ Ranch. He said he hopes records from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' polygamist compound will reveal assets to help satisfy an $8.8 million judgment for damages rendered about a year ago. The judgment essentially ruled that the trust is entitled to recover expenses such as attorneys' fees from sect leaders associated with the trust. "The people contributed real estate to the trust and then built houses and buildings on trust property," Wisan said. The trust came under Wisan's control after litigation was begun accusing Jeffs and other church leaders of mismanaging it, possibly jeopardizing thousands of homes and businesses and the land they're on. Authorities seized the documents Wisan wants during searches of the compound earlier this month. The raids came in response to allegations of sexual abuse of underage girls by adult male sect members. The FLDS practices a form of plural marriage in which the men take several "spiritual wives" in unions that are not intended to be officially recognized by the law. The sect split from the Mormon Church decades ago after the latter renounced polygamy. In recent years, the sect has come under scrutiny in Utah and Colorado. The civil lawsuit alleging the improper handling of funds involving the Texas branch is unrelated to investigations of alleged sexual abuse at the YFZ Ranch. Wisan said he suspects imprisoned FLDS prophet Jeffs was draining the trust — without the approval of sect members — to fund the building and operation of the 1,700-acre Eldorado compound. The ranch and its structures are valued at roughly $21 million, according to Schleicher County officials. The temple alone has a value of some $8 million. "He never told me that, but that's where all the money seemed to be going," Wisan said. Besides being the object of civil lawsuits, Jeffs is serving time for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl in Utah. Wisan was appointed to protect, preserve and manage the trust properties for sect members. On his behalf, San Angelo attorney Samuel Allen submitted subpoenas to District Attorney Stephen R. Lupton and Assistant District Attorney Allison Palmer on April 16 requesting the documents and items. They have until May 16 to comply. The wide-ranging request includes "documents or tangible objects" relating to the temple on the ranch; the YFZ Ranch, Limited Liability Co., set up to buy the compound site; Wisan; the UEP Trust; and defendants named in a default judgment registered March 7, 2007, in a Salt Lake County district court; and those defendants' assets. Defendants include Jeffs, Truman I. Barlow, Leroy S. Jeffs, James K. Zitting, William E. Jessop — also known as William E. Timpson — the Corporation of the President of the FLDS, Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the FLDS and the FLDS. Palmer said she doesn't comment on an ongoing process. Wisan said he hasn't really considered whether he wants to take possession of the ranch itself to help satisfy the judgment. "Who would want to buy a temple in the middle of West Texas?" he said. Taking possession of the compound would "cause me a lot of grief politically in the community," Wisan said. "And I'd just as soon obtain the judgment another way." (Contact Trish Choate of the Standard Times in San Angelo, Texas, at choatet@shns.com)
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