FLDS Church seeks $8.8 million in UEP Trust lawsuit

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10339447


I had to post the whole thing cause its a lot of info! From the Salt Lake Tribune.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints filed a lawsuit Friday asking a Utah court to set aside a 2007 judgement that awarded nearly $8.8 million to a trust once overseen by Warren S. Jeffs.

The suit, filed in 3rd District Court, claims the United Effort Plan (UEP) Trust, run by court-appointed fiduciary Bruce R. Wisan since 2005, obtained the award fraudulently.

"The judgement was entered based upon false, incomplete, and misleading evidence [the] defendant presented at a hearing on March 1, 2007," the suit states.

It goes on to say that Wisan falsely argued that the church sold real property for less than full value and that personal property had been wrongfully removed from the trust by the church. It disputes attorneys' and fiduciary fees incurred as a result of property transfers.

In 2007, Judge Denise Lindberg found that Jeffs and other trustees had harmed the trust by selling off property and ordering the removal of buildings and farm equipment. The trust holds nearly all land and buildings in Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz., the home base of the FLDS Church.

In some cases, FLDS members have asserted that some of the property was private rather than assets of the UEP trust. But Wisan has provided evidence that they were contributed to or bought for the trust.

Wisan also identified 596 acres in an area known as Apple Valley that were transferred at Jeff's direction to private individuals.

Wisan, contacted by phone Friday, said he thought Friday's suit was a desperate attempt "to undue a decision that already has been decided."

The judgement, "certainly wasn't fraudulently obtained," he said. "I certainly think [the suit] is totally without merit."

FLDS attorney Rodney Parker said the church waited as long as it did to respond to these actions because it has "been pushed beyond the breaking point."

He said the $8.8 million judgement is now being used to destroy the FLDS Church, "by systematically taking away its property."

"Although the church and the trustees defaulted in this case, that didn't mean the other side was free to take advantage in providing the court false and misleading information," Parker said.