1: Jacob's Ladder

Smigle and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Oden Creek to David Letterman

“help make you funnier this week, my guest. SNL's Mikey Day and Head Writer, Streader”

Side L helped an Occupella band with their "Between Songs Banner." Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Wasn't a humor me with Robert Smigle and Friends on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged, it's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque, others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having troubles stopping the muscle growth. In the superhuman, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On paper, the three hosts of the Nick Dick & Paul show are geniuses. We can explain how AI works, data centers, but there are certain things that we don't

necessarily understand. Better version of "Play Stupid Games" when stupid prizes.

Yes, which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift who said that for the first time.

I actually thought it was. I got that wrong. But hey, no one's perfect. We're pretty close though. Listen to the Nick Dick & Paul show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you

get your podcasts. Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you saw it was.

“Your identity is formed by a secret history.”

I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring. The 14th season of Family Secrets. He kind of showed me out of the way and said, "Move." And he went help the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off.

And that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets. On the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Novel. In the height of summer 2013, the Kingston's Gather for Big Family

picnic, north of Salt Lake City, in the brushlands of Utah. It would be just hundreds of cars down the street, filling parking lots all around. There are hundreds of people, maybe even a thousand. picnic tables overflow with pot luck food.

“Potato salad, pasta salad, cakes, chili.”

It's nearly a hundred degrees today. The sun is blazing. There's like these really big bleachers in this little stage where people would show off their talents or like seeing. There was a big field, so there would be football, basketball, volleyball.

There's even one of those dunk tanks, like out of connovel. A dude in a truck hands out snow cones and watermelon, kids race around screaming. To you and me, it probably just looked like a run-of-the-mill state fair. But actually, this is an annual pioneer day picnic.

It happens every July, 24th. It's a big Mormon holiday, celebrating the settling of the Salt Lake Valley nearly 200 years ago. It was a really big get together. We're kind of separate into families.

Daniel's family would be here, Jesse's family is further down. But there is something unusual about this summer party. Everyone kind of knew each other in a sense where all somewhat close. Andrew saying they're all somewhat close is a little like saying the surface of the sun is a little warm.

Virtually every single person in this crowd of hundreds of people is related to each other.

And I don't mean like distant on to a third cousins.

I mean men who are married to their half-sisters, cousins or nieces, fathers with multiple wives and dozens of children. The folks at this picnic, the Kingston family, they're actually an isolated fundamentalist Mormon group. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes them as a mix of

incest and white supremacy with old fashion capitalism. They go by a few different names. The Davis County Cooperative Society, the Kingston clan, but mostly than known as the Order. The picnic is held on family land in a town called Bonafel.

The story goes that Brother Elden was praying up in like this cave in Bonafel and he was given the keys and he became God spokesperson on earth.

Today, Elden's nephew, Brother Paul, is running the show.

“In a mob family, he'd be the couple to copy.”

To the order, he's a man on the watch tower. Brother Paul is holding court at the picnic. Paul would have his little meetings off to the side where people would voice their concerns or whatever. So it's like a scene out of the Godfather where everybody's trying to see the Godfather.

Yeah, yep, lining up to shape Brother Paul's hand. When you look a little closer, this seemingly idyllic picnic scene doesn't look so wholesome anymore. They also had this fool that was absolutely disgusting. It was just a whole in this man.

Was it water in the pool?

Yeah, but it was just dark murky water and they were always reaches in there.

This particular year, in 2013, something unheard of happens. Out of nowhere, a strange war turned everyone's heads. Seconds later, a convoy of cars descends upon the picnic. Two black SUVs, then a blinding from Lamborghini. Everybody just rushed, just like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

I'm like, everybody's going, it must be cool and it was.

“Because we've never seen anything like that, right?”

So we're like, oh my gosh. Burley bodyguard step out of the SUV. As the doors on the spaceship looking Lamborghini rise up from the side, a single expensive shoe hits the dirt. Then it's owner, the lambo's driver.

Who is that? We're not used to seeing anybody other than order members. He's built like a mini refrigerator, all-tanned, muscle and swagger. Big guy, he's dressed really nice, look pretty demanding. Now, the guy who gets out of the Lamborghini's passenger side, he fits in.

He's tall, lanky and pale, awkward looking with big bug guys and mullsy brown hair. The hundreds of people gathered on this ranch, they're his family. His name is Jacob Kingston, and of all the years he's been coming to this picnic,

he's never made an entrance like this.

Jacob introduces the swore these stranger to his father, Daniel, and his uncle, who just happens to be brother Paul. He tells them it's his business partner, from LA. Back there, he's known by his moniker, the lion.

“I think a lot of people were confused like why Jacob was doing business with an outsider.”

The lion's entrance makes quite an impression, and so does his chrome Lamborghini. It shines like a UFO, curious order members poop around it, taking photos. After a while, the lion gets ready to leave. But before he does, he turns to Jacob, and with the entire Kingston family looking on, he hurls Jacob the keys to the Lamborghini.

Here, he says, it's yours. Then, the Lamborghini screeches off was Jacob behind the wheel. The order's incredibly insular world has just been pierced. Strap in folks were in for a wild ride. This is most unlikely of partnerships.

On one hand, you have this devout polygamous vermuta. On the other, a flashy Armenian gas titan with a fearsome reputation. What very few people at the picnic know is Jacob and the lion are in the middle of a crime so huge. The fallout will be catastrophic.

Their alliance will lead to a billion dollar fraud conspiracy.

I'm pressented in American history. And in time, it will attract the might of the federal government. This is a story filled with so many more expensive rides, opulent mansions, private jets, plus fuck-ton of corruption, greed, and crooked cops on the take. The whole thing is so brazen, it'll make your head want to explode.

My name is Michelle McFeed, and from the teams at novel and iHard podcast, this is Kingdom of Fraud, episode one, Jacob Slatter.

I'm a long time investigative reporter, I've written a bunch of true crime books,

“and I'm from Easte, a hard-scrabble Boston neighborhood.”

I'm half Irish, half Italian, but all Boston, as if you couldn't already tell from the accent.

My first big scoop was a mob shootout in Boston. It got me threatened to gunpoint,

but that terrifying experience also catapulted me into a job covering crime in New York City. Since then, I've spent my entire journalist career digging into crime and corruption all over the world. These days, I'm working out of the so-called city of angels, Los Angeles. Corruption is on a whole other level here, and wicked under-reported. One afternoon a few years back, I got a tip from a federal source, a big shot FBI agent

had been locked up for leaking intel. Two, none other than the lion.

“Thus started my descent down the rabbit hole of the story.”

Over the years, I've become obsessed with how these two completely different characters. Jacob and the lion came together to create a fraudulent scheme, so egregious. It was literally unmatched at the time. These guys ripped you, me, and everyone who pays taxes in America out of a genuinely mind-blowing amount of money. Even worse, their scam was surrounded by a coderie of dirty cops. But let's take it one step at a time, starting at the very beginning

with Jacob Kingston. I want to understand what first product I like him into the lion's orbit.

And it's clear to me it has everything to do with Jacob's family. The order. Okay. Can you introduce yourself, please? Okay, I'll give you the short version.

“I'll give you the long version. Okay. I am Amanda Righ Grant. I am of the second wife of”

three wives of my dad. So her mom is her dad's second wife. He has three in total. Grant is a fake last name because the second wife are the ones that do not obviously get legally married because it's not legal to look for me. So they have the spiritual weddings. And my mom chose the last

name Grant. And on my birth certificate, I have a fake father named Kyle Grant. And that I'm talking

to Amanda and my hotel room in Salt Lake City. She's young, 29, and possibly beautiful. And now free. She left the order years ago. Though in a way her life still revolves around it, she has an entire YouTube channel where she explains the order to the ever curious outside world. It's like a mission for her. When I was in the order, I knew I was going to be doing this. Because of my like anger towards it all and like seeing all the injustice, I was like,

I know that one day I'm going to be telling everyone what the fuck they're doing here. I'm not going to be keeping their dirty little secrets. Introduced the order. So it was started in 1935 by Elden Kingston. And the order was originally just a co-op. Around the Great Depression, people were just trying to survive. And so he was trying to create this co-op where people could all like put our resources together.

This is why the group still calls itself the Davis County Cooperative Society. The mainstream Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, outlawed polygamy in 1890. But the order men were not giving up their plural lives. A man to says that one of the beliefs in the order is that their bloodline is directly linked to Jesus Christ. And that to keep that bloodline pure,

incessed, apparently, became common. The order has a different explanation for it. They told us that, quote, smaller, insular populations create situations where more closely related parties marry on occasion. The man I was supposed to marry that was God's chosen man for me, he was my cousin, but his parents were half siblings. Don't worry, this family tree is making my head spin too. These marriages are often arranged. In the past, it was common

for girls to marry as young as 14 or 15, often to men they're related to, and to a much, much older than them. The order had a response to this, too. Quote, although friends, family, and colleagues

the bounds of the parties involved. And they added, all marriages should be conducted within the legal

age of consent. Hearing all this, and, after spending time with Amanda, all I can think about is the handmaid's tale. She says that only men are guaranteed a spot in heaven. Women can only ascend up to the perligates as an appendage of their husbands. The men had this thing where, like, we're the gatekeepers of your path to heaven, so you better please us. A lot of these rules, in the order, developed over time, detach from the teachings of

the mainstream Mormon church. The order is like, we are not Mormons. We truly would like make

fun of Mormons because we were like, we believe in the true teachings that they fell away from,

“and the two things I remember them telling us was polygamy, obviously, and then consecration.”

And consecration means like giving your all to the Lord. Even as children, we are groomed to know that anything of value can be given to Paula any point because it's the work of the Lord's. The order seems extremely focused on a massing wealth. Their members run a wildly high number of businesses across Salt Lake City. They're behind the counter of the order-run grocery store, or they're operating the printer

in the order's printing shop, but their members also run major operations, like a coal mine and a gun manufacturer in company where they make semi-automatic rifles. This is how the order sustains itself, and how its members work towards heavenly glory. Even the children.

“We were basically like trafficked into working for the order businesses, so we would go to school”

early in the morning, and then we would not come home to a person with them because we were working. The order strongly denies this, but several form of members also claim that the earnings from these jobs flow back into the order, which has its own financial system. Amanda worked at what's nicknamed The Order Back, and she says she didn't have free access to her own money, which The Order also denies. In theory, this entire thing is supposed to operate

like a cooperative, with resources being shared and available to those who need them. They claim that happens in practice, but it's only to the inner circles. Andrew Robinson is another form of order member. I'm Amanda introduced us.

“I never had access to the resources of the order, but my sister, who married into the inner circle,”

she has access to it, and she'll be able to go and buy a home. I view it as it's basically a modern

day kingdom where you got the inner circles, and then being in the lower families, you're just at work or be. As a result, Andrew says that a lot of order members live in extreme poverty. We would go dumpster diving for food. My mom would contact stores that are just about to throw away food, and she would be able to get some food that way. It sounds unbelievable, but Andrew says that's just how people live in the order. A lot of them just think that's my suffering on this

life will just lead to more blessings on the afterlife. We asked the order about that, too. Their response was, quote, "members strive to work in harmony and cooperation with one another and to extend help to all those who are in need whenever possible." But it seems that a lot of people come up with, let's say, creative ways to make up the difference. Back in 1983, or tell Kingston, the ventilator was sued by the state of Utah for orchestrating

a welfare fraud scheme. His wives were alleged to have collected hundreds of thousands of dollars they weren't entitled to. Andrew says this kind of thing is commonplace. That, for example, mothers in the group cheat the government with exaggerated child tax credits, too. I'm not exactly sure if you can label it fraud, but Jill kind of spread her kids out to maybe three or four different people to claim her children, and then she would just have all of the

drug deposits go straight into her bank account. A lot of people didn't know it was happening to them. My sister, she had me claim a couple kids and got me an audit. So, I had no idea what was going on.

They say that they absolutely do not encourage fraud, and that it goes completely against their

“values, but Amanda says it was common practice for people in her circles, too.”

There's a phrase associated with what Andrew was describing, leading the beast, the beast being the United States of America. I'm fascinated by the order's unorthodox world, but what I really want to do is get closer to Jacob. That family was weird. The group that I was associated with didn't really like that family, so we didn't see them very much. But I'm in luck. Because it turns out, Andrew Robinson isn't just any former order member.

So, Jacob Kingston, he is my older brother. I helped him at the very beginning when he had no money.

After the break, Andrew takes me inside his and Jacob's dark, complicated childhood.

“It's either you just do a your told or if you fight back, you get abused more.”

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guide, not quite on humor me with Robert Michael and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funny this week. My guests SNL's Mikey Day and Headwriters Streeter side L helped an occapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen, a humor me with Robert's Michael and friends on the

I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcasts superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having troubles

stopping the muscle growth. Listen to superhuman on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Blood trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors. Where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush. And silence. I've seen something in the road. I guess the late dog was sleeping then. Then there was a full of blood. Somebody somewhere, no shelter.

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're seeking to try to understand the forensic science behind these cases that we hear about

“in the news, body bags is where you need to turn. There's no fluff. We do a deep dive into”

the forensics. Listen to body bags with Joseph Scott Morgan on America's number one podcast network. I-Heart. Open your free I-Heart app and search body bags with Joseph Scott Morgan and start listening. In 1976, Jacob Kingston was born to Rachel in Daniel Kingston, who went on to have more

than a dozen additional wives after Rachel. Jacob was the second oldest. He, his mom Rachel

and six siblings all lived in a tiny, two bedroom house on a big wide ranch. Like so many others in the order they would dirt pour. And by the sounds of it, Daniel, Jacob's dad has quite the reputation. People say he's sadistic. In my reporting, I hear this over and over again. In court records too, support this reputation. Back in 1998, when Jacob was in his early 20s, his dad Daniel physically attacked his 16-year-old daughter, one of Jacob's half sisters.

She had been forced to become her own uncle's 15th wife. She later said that one night, Daniel took her to the family ranch. In the pitch darkness, he beat her until she was black and blue and left her lying there unconscious. She said it was punishment for spending the night with friends who had been drinking. Somehow she survived. She stumbled to the nearest truck stop and

He was sentenced to just over six months in jail. The uncle of the girl married, he went to prison

“for felony incest. But Amanda says the abuse wasn't a one-off. Of course, Jacob never told me”

of any abuse that happened to him, but every person I know from Daniel's family that I was close with has been abused severely. We've tried to reach Daniel Kingston for comment about what Amanda says, but we haven't heard back from him. Andrew Robinson, his one-wife, and their young children left the order pretty recently during the pandemic. He is about 10 or 15 years younger than Jacob. He doesn't even know exactly, and while they have different moms, they share a dad and Daniel Kingston.

Andrew was one of those shy kids who said very little but observed a lot. Just being beat down so much. You have no respect for yourself. I did have fear of talking to other people. Make myself look dumb. In order families where the man has a multitude of wives,

“it's often the mom who raises the kids. She pays for everything and she runs the household.”

In classic deadbeat fashion, the dad orbits in and out, but the gravitational pull of his distant presence is huge. Both Andrew and Jacob grew up as one of many of their father's children. I don't know all my siblings. I don't even have an exact number when we try to count. It's like 100 and 70, 180 kids. A lot of Daniel's kids share the same experiences of growing up. For example, when they're around 10 years old, he puts them to work.

We started getting pulled out of our mother's home and moved up on the Washke Ranch to start working on the farm. The farm is remote, but an hours drive north of Salt Lake City. From miles around, it's just scrubby, yellow and green flatland. A couple of old homes are dotted around here and there. Snowcapped mountains decorate the horizon. The farm was run by Daniel, in manned mostly by his sons. He worked them hard,

morning to night, hurting cows, laying pipes, back-breaking labor. I remember a particular moment

“that my older brother sees me smile and he just says, "What do you have to be happy about?”

You have no reason to be happy." I guess that in itself made us laugh a little bit because we're kind of like manned our lives there, messed up. In the order, you do as you're told. Whether it makes you happy, I not. They even have a rule about it. The law of one above the other.

You always follow the orders of the man above you in the hierarchy, which in my case was my dad,

and then my dad would make sure he was in line with the leader brother Paul, and then Paul had a direct link to God. And even if the one above you tells you to do something, you know, long, you still do it. You won't face the consequences in the afterlife because it'll be on the person above you. That's one way to get people to blindly follow. For members of the Kingston clan, life's purpose seems to be about building up the kingdom of God by having kids and making money.

In keeping with that spirit, Daniel Kingston, Andrew and Jacob's dad came up with business after business trying to make a profit. He pulled in his sons to get these ideas off the ground. Their childhoods were spent laboring. Over the years, Daniel borrowed God knows how much cash from the order bank to fund his ideas. Andrew estimates in the millions of dollars. But most of his projects don't make money.

Andrew says, Daniel doesn't really talk to his kids like people, unless he's berating them, but not working hard enough. We asked Andrew whether he has ever felt any love from his dad. Not really. I kind of just see it for for what it is that I was a tool

in his toolbox to use. Even as a little kid, I never liked it when my dad was around. He was

always just a mean guy. I was always scared of him. He believes that Jacob and his siblings had it much harder. Their mom Rachel, she was harsh too. Daniel did treat Rachel Anne's family the best, but I would hear from Rachel Anne's kids that their mom was really abusive. They had names

relationship with their dad because Andrew says, Daniel always loved and favored Rachel the

“most out of more than a dozen wives. It was common with a lot of his siblings because they were”

my dad's first wife's kids, a sense of that they were better than most people. I guess the dad loves them the most and they had more opportunities to run companies, run projects and we were just the workers. As the son of an ambitious, hard man like Daniel Kingston, Jacob felt a strong drive for success, stronger than many others around him. In search of that success in 1995, Jacob went to college, the University of Utah. After 12 years, he graduated with a doctorate

mechanical engineering and then he found his path to money, respect, maybe even his dad's love.

Or at least he thought so. Jacob had this grand idea and at the beginning it didn't sound like we

“had any plans of committing fraud. Only that resolve won't last very long. More on that after the break.”

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guide, not quite on humor me with Robert Smygo and friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week my guests, SNL's Mikey Day and Headwriters, Streeter Side L helped an occapella band with their between songs Banner. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement

songs. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smygo and friends

on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque, others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcasts superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably ten days I'd put on ten pounds. I was having troubles stopping the muscle

growth. Listen to superhuman on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Blood trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors. Where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. I've seen something in the road. I guess the late dark was a sleeping bed. Then there was a full of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something.

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season two is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're seeking to try to understand the forensic science behind these cases that we hear about

“in the news, body bags is where you need to turn. There's no fluff. We do a deep dive into”

the forensics. Listen to body bags with Joseph Scott Morgan on America's No. 1 podcast network. iHeart open your free iHeart App and search body bags with Joseph Scott Morgan and start listening. I mean it is super creepy. I doubt here. There's literally nothing except for solar panels as far as the eye can see. The land around me is desolate. I'm driving down the long dirt roads between remote towns just north of Salt Lake City. This is an order territory.

The weather today is grim. Rain and wind that whips right through your body. We're pulling up now. It's a paved road on the right are a herd of cows. It just is like a non-descript plant with giant oil tanks. It looks like any sort of oil or gas terminal and it's built right on a railroad track. The place looks haunted. It's clearly been sitting empty for years now. There's an old security guard check here that

looks long abandoned. This place is clearly shut down. But wow, what an operation. There are abandoned rail cars, train tracks, covered in grass, and these white round tanks.

futuristic neural pathway system. I came here because this place is the jumping off point

“to Jacob's story. It's a bio-fuel production plant, which sounds boring, I know.”

But when you peel back the layers, you'll get sucked in like I have. Andrew, Jacob's half-brother remembers how it all started. A few months after graduating college,

in idea, crystallizes in Jacob's mind. Jacob finally got out of school, got his PhD, and

had this ground idea. Andrew was sitting there when Jacob announces this revelation at a family meeting. He proudly reveals that he wants to start a bio-fuel production company. If you squint hard enough, Jacob's business plan can almost pass for a miracle. That plan, all disgusting cooking oil would be collected from the backs of restaurants and fast food joints all over Salt Lake City, in turn, into pristine, clean bio-fuel.

“I thought it sounded pretty cool, making the bio-diesel out of cooking oil,”

taking some that's garbage, and then turning into money.

It's unclear how exactly Jacob first gets this vision.

But around this time in the mid-2000s, bio-fuel is having a moment. It's the new hot thing. Woody Harrelson, the actor, is driving around in a bio-fuel powered truck, making entire Hollywood films about clean fuel. The federal government is also making a big push to support the production of renewable fuels, offering a lot of different subsidies to producers. To Jacob, bio-fuel sounds like a sure-fire money maker.

Andrew says up until then, the coal mine has been the order's most reliable cash cow. But now, the mine has been hit by a few very expensive lawsuits. So when Jacob's bio-fuel idea comes into play, Wala, a solution. The order was really hurting on cash. They was seeing this as this could be the next mine. To get the operation up and running, Jacob has to build a facility.

His dad has land, the Walshiki Ranch, and Jacob is able to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars from the order back. There were some other people in the group that didn't like this venture idea, because it was costing so much money. And so he had that pressure to be successful.

At first, Andrew thinks Jacob's idea sounds kind of cool, but he's seen enough of his family's

projects by now to know that for him, this new plan means ruling labor. Sure enough, Andrew and six to seven of his brothers are given the job of actually building the plan. For six to eight months, I was working before the sun came up and after the sunset, I was like 16, 17, and we wasn't eating enough. I was using the bathroom once for the whole day. I counted one time. And then after that, because we were taken like a home school for high school. After that

long day, we were expected to teach ourselves high school. It's just a pile of books. Daniel's ranch turns into a construction site. Day after day, the brothers are putting up dry wall, running plumbing, setting up electrical wiring. Jacob's there too. He was hard to work with because he's like short tempered and stressed out, and like he's my dad's kid, so he was a bully.

“Andrew says that if he and his brothers, now remember, these are basically kids.”

Our struggling with something. Jacob yells at them, mocking them, asking them if this stupid Andrew heats every second of it. He had no money other than what he was getting a loan for, and it was too much to ever pay back with any other job that he can get in the order. So it's kind of like, you got to make it or you can't file bankruptcy in the order. Because if you don't pay it back in this lifetime, it's going to really hurt you on the afterlife. Andrew works on

the plant for a few months. After his stint is over, he's all done with Jacob. He's had enough. But Daniel's other sons keep building for about another year and a half. Jacob even takes out another loan. And then the plant is finished. And with big fanfare, Washiki Renewable Energy,

This being the order, Jacob obviously wants to keep WRE in the family.

“By this point, Jacob has gotten married to a woman named Sally, who he actually seems to love.”

As expected, they start having kids. There will be more words, but Sally is number one. WRE soon becomes a family affair. Sally's there. So as Jacob's mom, Rachel, and as younger brother, Isaiah. But there is a very big problem. Among other issues, it turns out that producing biofuel is very difficult and a place as cold as Northern Utah. In the winter, it can go well below zero. Something Jacob doesn't seem to have

thought through. Pretty much as soon as the plant opens, the company sinks deep into the red. Jacob is drowning. Everyone is watching. He can't afford to fail. So, he gets to work.

“Jacob starts crisscrossing the country. Judging around the world to link up with people in the”

industry, good old fashioned networking over dinners or a biofuel conventions. And then, in 2010, a guy puts Jacob in touch with another guy named Andre Bernard. You know, a guy knows a guy. Andre specializes in two things, discard an oil and fraud. Together, they cook up a plant. He helps Jacob take advantage of those lucrative tax credits the government is offering. Whether WRE is eligible or not,

it starts out with some biofuel that Andre Bernard needs to shift. Biofuel which WRE never

produced. But, Jacob is going to claim tax subsidies like it was his company that made it. All it will take is some fake paperwork. Jacob and his mom, Rachel, get to work. Making a bogus invoices and contracts forge paperwork that makes some eligible for tax subsidies. The first time Jacob received the subsidies, the IRS cuts WRE a check for $2.5 million. The kicker, in this to me as a taxpayer, is absolutely wild. To get these massive subsidies,

Jacob doesn't even have to submit all that fake paperwork. He just sends in a form with his own made up dollar amount. Here's the catch. Jacob's cut of that $2.5 million is 15%. That's $375,000. Still, not bad for a bit of arts and crafts. Even talking about it now, I can see how intoxicating this would be for Jacob. This could be an easy way out of his debt. It could accelerate his path to fulfilling his dad's expectations and to building the kingdom of God. So, he keeps going.

In a cross 2011, WRE steals nearly 40 million tax dollars this way. But it isn't like Jacob is living the high-life. All of Jacob's multiple partners are taking their cut. Of course,

I've reached out to Jacob multiple times to give him the opportunity to tell his story but he never

responded. He has told his version of events before, though, in February 2020, on the stand inside a federal courtroom in Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, hearings weren't recorded, but I've managed to get my hands on transcripts of the entire six days he's spent testifying. It's over a thousand pages. There's a lot of excruciating detail about, like IODs, and money transactions in there, but you can actually also find some real gems.

I mean, Jacob's testimony and really tells a story. This is my producer, Jacob Tyavich. I've asked him to help me bring Jacob's words to life. Jake has spent months and months waiting through this labyrinth of criminality alongside me. Obviously, a transcript of Jacob's testimony doesn't give me all the information about what he's

“thinking, what he's feeling, and remember, it's his narrative. But his interactions with the”

federal prosecutor give a fascinating insight into what Jacob's life looks like at this point. Michelle, can you read out the part of the prosecutor? Absolutely, so the prosecutor asks,

the heat didn't work. The water didn't work, and it had rats and snakes."

“"Who were you living with?" "My wife and my family." "What kind of car were you driving?"”

"I had a Toyota to sell." "Who on the cabin?" "It was on my dad's property." "It had no heat?" "Not very well." "How could you live in a house in northern Utah without heat?" "We had our challenges." Jacob and Sally aren't exactly moving on up. At best they're staying afloat. But that's all about the change. Towards the end of 2011, Jacob is running another scam. And it's a huge deal. He's selling biofuel he didn't make to accompany in India around 700,000 gallons.

A great piece of business in theory, a shitshow in practice. Here's Jacob's testimony about what happened when the biofuel arrived in India. Some of it was received, and the rest we was informed

“that we was not going to get paid for it. The buyer in India tells Jacob he wants to pull out of”

this deal. Jacob could lose more than $2 million. That was going to be a devastating blow to our

company. But then the lion first catches a whiff of Jacob and lifts up his head. The prosecutor asked Jacob, "When did you meet Levon to men's in?" December of 2011. My salesman that worked actually he lived in Southern California. He found him somehow and called me. I happened to be in Texas at the time with my head sales guy and he says, "We found a buyer that can take our biodiesel." A mysterious Armenian fuel titan, Levon Tremenzian, might be willing to buy

all the biofuel Jacob currently has stranded in India and save his ass. It might sound too good to

“be true. But Jacob doesn't hesitate and picks up the phone. Next time on Kingdom of Fraud,”

Jacob makes a deal with the lion. It gets a taste of a whole new kind of life and his small time fraud escalates to big-time numbers. Kingdom of Fraud is produced by novel from iHAR podcast. For more from novel visit novel.odio. The show is hosted by me, Michelle McFee, and produced by Jake Otayovich. It's reported by me and Jake Otayovich. Our assistant producers are Megan Dean and Amalia Sortland, with additional production from

Miron Kaplan and Liz Sanchez. Our editor is Sandra Schmuelli, production management from Sheree Houston, Joe Savage, and Charlotte Wolf. Our fact chapter is Fendell Fulton. Sound designed and mixing by Mark Pittum. Original music composed and performed by Nicholas Alexander in Daniel Kempson. Music supervision from Jake Otayovich, Sandra Schmuelli, and Max O'Brien. Willard Foxon is creative director at novel. Our executive producers are me, Michelle McFee,

Max O'Brien, and Craig Stracken for novel, and Stephanie Lange. Katrina Norbell and Nicky E. Tore are the executive producers for iHAR podcast, and the marketing lead is Alice and Kinter. Special thanks to Carrie Lieberman, Will Pearson, and the whole team at WME. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guide, not quite on humor me with Robert Smigle and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Oden Kirk to David Letterman,

help make you funnier this week. My guests, SNL's Mikey Day and Headwriters, Streeter Side L helped an Occupella band with their "Between Songs Banner." Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigle and Friends on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games, and with the athletes for

“a full year. Within probably 10 days I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having troubles”

stopping the muscle grave. Listen to superhuman on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what

“you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro,”

and these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of family secrets. He kind of showed me out of the way and said move, and he went out of the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off, and that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season

“14, a family secret. On the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.”

On paper, the three hosts of the Nick Dick & Paul show are geniuses. We can explain how AI works, data centers, but there are certain things that we don't necessarily understand. Better version of play stupid games when stupid prizes. Yes, which by the way wasn't Taylor Swift

who said that for the first time. I actually thought it was. I got that wrong. But hey,

no one's perfect. We're pretty close though. Listen to the Nick Dick & Paul show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.