sltrib.com

By Robert Gehrke

3-4 minutes

Even in what has been derisively referred to as the “fraud capital of America,” the case against Washakie Renewable Energy is a doozy.

It kind of has it all — a lavish house, a $1.75 million sports car, international banks and, because it wouldn’t be uniquely Utah without it, a little polygamy for good measure.

Four people with ties to the Kingston polygamist sect have already pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors in connection with the scam. The fifth defendant, Lev Dermen, will go on trial this week, claiming the Kingstons duped him.

Prosecutors will argue that Dermen and the Kingstons conspired to defraud American taxpayers out of $511 million of renewable energy tax credits, pretending to manufacture fuels from plant waste and instead purchasing it from other manufacturers and claiming the credit

I first highlighted the donations back in 2015. On the heels of a scandal that drove John Swallow from office, Reyes, came in vowing to clean things up, but at that time had accepted more than $30,000 in contributions from the company, which had been fined $3 million for collecting bogus biofuel credits.

Reyes went on to collect nearly $20,000 more while Washakie, it is alleged, kept scooping up fraudulent credits.

“Everything’s locked down now,” Crooks said back then, calling questions about the money “stupid.”

“I’m giving you zero comment, nothing, not even a ‘no comment,’” Crooks said. “It’s a ridiculous question.”

He was defiant. And his statement — ”Everything’s locked down now” — was utterly false.

It is an absurd claim on its face. As if the issue is tracking the exact dollar bill that Washakie executives handed over, instead of the dollar amount. It implies that the Reyes campaign divvied up the more than $1 million it has raised since the last election or the $350,000 it has in the bank by the donor source.

Crooks also suggested when I spoke with him Monday that parting with the Washakie money would be unfair to other donors. In their minds, Crooks said, donors were thinking, “We’ll give money to the campaign, but we don’t want to pay back Washakie for their dollars.”

That assumes campaigns have to answer to donors when it comes to spending money, whether it’s returning illicit funds or renting an office or paying Crooks’ company $130,000 in consulting fees. It doesn’t work that way. Or at the very least, it shouldn’t work that way. It would give credence to anyone who complains that a politician is bought by a donation.

Reyes certainly could get rid of the money and he should have done so already. Last year, Reyes’ campaign returned $5,000 to the Walmart Political Action Committee. In 2017, they returned $10,000 to a donor.

Reyes could do the same (as could — and should — Gov. Gary Herbert, who received $15,000 from Washakie and also spent it). He could donate it to charity or gift it to the U.S. Treasury, which would, in essence, return it to the victims of the crime — American taxpayers.

Or, as it appears Reyes has done, he can keep it and benefit directly from one of the largest criminal conspiracies in our state’s history.