Lev Aslan Dermen, also known as Levon Termendzhyan, the alleged ringleader of the scheme, was found guilty in 2020 on multiple charges, including money laundering and mail fraud. He was sentenced to 40 years behind bars and ordered to pay over $442 million to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The other four are members of the Kingston family.
Jacob Kingston, the CEO of Washakie Renewable Energy, and his brother, Isaiah Kingston, were ordered to pay $511 million each to the IRS. Jacob also received an 18-year sentence, while Isaiah got 12 years. Rachel Kingston, their mother, and Sally Kingston, Jacob’s wife, who backdated documents and created fake invoices, were sentenced to seven and six years, respectively.
The conspiracy began in 2010 and involved multiple fraudulent schemes, including one in which biodiesel was purchased from producers in the United States that had already claimed their renewable fuel tax credit and then exported to other countries. The biodiesel was then imported back as “feedstock,” with falsified transport documents.
Washakie used such false paperwork to claim it had produced biodiesel from the feedstock and to support its filing of fraudulent claims for IRS biofuel tax credits. The IRS paid out over half a billion in credits to the family’s company.
The proceeds were distributed among the five and used for lavish purchases in the U.S., Turkey, and Belize.
Dermen’s associates in Turkey bought and rebuilt a 150-foot yacht named “Queen Anne.” The yacht was seized by the government in Beirut in 2021 and then sold in Cyprus for $10.1 million. Jacob Kingston also spent more than $700,000 on behalf of Dermen to purchase land in Belize for a planned casino.
Jacob Kingston used $1.8 million to buy a 2010 Bugatti Veyron for Dermen as a “gift,” and Dermen gifted a chrome Lamborghini and a gold Ferrari to Jacob Kingston. Dermen and Jacob Kingston also laundered $3 million through Dermen’s company, NOIL Energy Group, to purchase a mansion in Salt Lake City for Jacob and his wife.
Throughout the scheme, Dermen falsely assured Jacob Kingston that he and his family would be shielded by Dermen’s “umbrella” made of corrupt law enforcement officers and that he was immune from criminal prosecution. In exchange, Jacob and Isaiah Kingston transferred over $134 million in fraudulent proceeds to companies in Turkey and Luxembourg that were laundered internationally and through the U.S. financial system.
