Leader of $1 Billion Polygamist Fraud Gets 40 Years in Prison

  • Lev Dermen joined forces with Utah family in clean-fuel fraud
  • Four members of Kingston family get terms of six to 18 years
Lev Dermen, left, and Jacob Kingston.Source: United States Department of Justice
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A Los Angeles businessman was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison for leading a conspiracy with a Utah polygamist family to defraud a US clean-fuels program of more than $1 billion.

US District Judge Jill Parrish in Salt Lake City imposed one of the longest US fraud terms in the past decade on Lev Dermen, 56, for escalating a plan run by the Kingston family. Dermen, who maintains his innocence, sought a sentence of time served.