1: Jacob's Ladder

Summary

Kingdom of Fraud – Episode 1: "Jacob's Ladder"

Podcast: Kingdom of Fraud
Host: Michelle McPhee
Release Date: May 12, 2026

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Episode Overview

In the premiere episode of Kingdom of Fraud, investigative reporter Michelle McPhee delves into the improbable partnership behind a billion-dollar tax fraud: the union of Jacob Kingston, a devout polygamist from Utah's secretive Kingston clan ("The Order"), and Levon Termendzhyan, a charismatic Armenian fuel tycoon from Los Angeles known as "the Lion." This first chapter traces Jacob Kingston’s upbringing within The Order, its shadowy practices, the family’s pursuit of wealth, and the early steps down the path that would lead to one of the largest tax scams in U.S. history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Order: A Secretive Polygamist Dynasty

• A family picnic in 2013 becomes a lens into Order life:
  McPhee reconstructs the scene: hundreds of Kingston relatives, traditional potluck fare, carnival attractions, and the strict social order underlying the festivities.

  • [03:04]: “Picnic tables overflow with potluck food.”
  • [04:25]: “Virtually every single person in this crowd of hundreds of people is related to each other. And I don’t mean like distant aunts or third cousins. I mean men who are married to their half sisters, cousins or nieces.” (Narrator)

• Origins and structure:

  • Founded in the 1930s by Eldon Kingston as a cooperative during the Great Depression ([14:18]).
  • Legacy of polygamy, incestuous marriages, and self-identity as the “true” Mormons, diverging from mainstream LDS doctrine ([14:41], [16:47]).
  • Money, labor, and spiritual salvation are closely entwined.

• Control and hierarchy:

  • Leader “Brother Paul” is depicted as untouchable—“He’d be the capo di capi to the Order. He’s the man on the watchtower.” ([05:44], Michelle McPhee)
  • The “law of one above the other” enforces submission: the instructions of your superior must be followed, even if morally questionable ([30:20], Andrew Robinson).

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Inside The Order: Life, Labor, and Liminal Borders

• Life as a member:

  • Members work constantly, often for Order-run businesses, with children laboring long hours ([17:56], Amanda Ray Grant).
  • Many experience poverty despite the Order’s wealth—from dumpster diving to sharing meager resources ([19:18], Andrew Robinson).
  • Inner vs. outer circles: resources, privileges, and power flow disproportionately to those closest to the leadership ([18:37]–[19:13]).

• Financial schemes and “bleeding the beast”:

  • Welfare and tax fraud are described as commonplace survival strategies, though officially denied by leadership ([19:58]–[21:13]).
  • “Bleeding the beast” refers to defrauding the U.S. government, deemed legitimate by some in the community ([21:13]).

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The Kingstons: Abuse, Hierarchy, and Scarcity

• Daniel Kingston’s family:
  • Jacob’s father, Daniel, held more than a dozen wives and around 170–180 children ([29:03], Andrew Robinson).
  • Reports of harsh physical and emotional abuse, corroborated by court records ([26:33]–[27:57]).
  • Siblings are often more like laborers than family. “I was a tool in his toolbox to use even as a little kid.” ([31:56], Andrew Robinson)
  • Privilege and opportunity are reserved for favored wives’ children—Jacob’s branch among them ([32:41]–[33:11]).

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The Genesis of Fraud: Jacob’s Ambition

• Education and restless ambition:

  • Jacob earns a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Utah ([33:33]).
  • Founds Washakie Renewable Energy (WRE), a company intended to turn restaurant grease into biofuel ([39:18]).
  • The Order is in financial distress; biofuel seems a potential “new mine” ([41:00]).

• Struggles and first fraudulent steps:

  • WRE is beset by technical/operational woes and the pressure to succeed is intense ([44:43]).
  • Early networking introduces Jacob to Andre Bernard—“Discarded oil and fraud”—who helps Jacob fabricate paperwork to claim unearned government biofuel subsidies ([45:18]–[46:04]).
  • In 2011 alone, WRE fraudulently claims nearly $40 million in tax dollars ([47:09]).

• Notable quote:

  • “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.” ([46:20], Michelle McPhee)

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Jacob’s Perspective: Testimony Excerpts

• Producer Jake Otajevic joins to dissect Jacob’s federal testimony ([47:52]):
  • Living situation in 2011: “I was living in an old cabin that didn’t. The heat didn’t work, the water didn’t work and it had rats and snakes.”
  • Vehicle: “I had a Toyota Tercel.”
    (Quotes at [48:45]–[49:06])

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The Lion Enters: The Beginning of the Big Con

• Turning point:
  • After a disastrous international deal, Jacob faces a $2 million loss. He’s put in touch with Levon Termendzhyan, "the Lion," a mysterious Armenian kingpin who offers rescue ([50:00]–[51:12]).
  • Their alliance will propel the fraud to unprecedented scales, setting up the next act in this saga.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the insularity and structure of The Order:
  • “It’s a little like saying the surface of the sun is a little warm.” ([04:25], Narrator)
• On spiritual coercion:
  • “The men had this thing where, like, we’re the gatekeepers of your path to heaven, so you better please us.” ([16:29], Amanda Ray Grant)
• On poverty in the Order:
  • “A lot of them just think that my suffering on this life will just lead to more blessings on the afterlife.” ([19:36], Andrew Robinson)
• On the law of hierarchy:
  • “Even if the one above you tells you to do something you know is wrong… 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.” ([30:35], Andrew Robinson)
• Revealing Jacob’s motivation:
  • “Jacob had this grand idea, and at the beginning, it didn’t sound like we had any plans of committing fraud.” ([33:47], Andrew Robinson)
• On the ease of fraud:
  • “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.” ([46:16], Michelle McPhee)
• On first meetings with “the Lion”:
  • “A mysterious Armenian fuel titan, Lavon Tremendzian might be willing to buy all the biofuel Jacob currently has stranded in India and save his ass.” ([50:49], Narrator)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:36] – [05:44]: The Order’s annual picnic; the culture and clan revealed
• [09:08] – [12:00]: Introduction to Jacob Kingston and the criminal partnership
• [13:01] – [16:40]: Amanda Ray Grant details life and rules inside the Order
• [19:13] – [21:13]: Poverty, resource hierarchies, and “bleeding the beast”
• [26:00] – [33:16]: Jacob Kingston’s childhood and family dynamics
• [39:11] – [47:09]: Founding WRE and the first steps into fraud
• [47:52] – [49:16]: Jacob Kingston’s own account (testimony excerpts)
• [50:00] – [51:12]: Jacob’s first meeting with the Lion

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Tone & Style

Kingdom of Fraud is storytelling at its grittiest: candid, sharp, and laced with dry humor and Massachusetts directness from host Michelle McPhee. The episode shifts from vivid ethnographic detail—picnics, poverty, polygamy—to the mechanics of high-level white-collar crime, never flinching from the darkness or the human cost.

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Closing

The episode ends on a cliffhanger: Jacob, now tied to Levon "the Lion" Termendzhyan, is poised to expand his hustles from the insular world of The Order to the limitless, lawless sphere of international oil and money laundering. The seeds of the great fraud have been planted—next episode promises to follow their explosive growth.

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For true crime and scam enthusiasts, “Jacob’s Ladder” is a gripping table-setter. The stakes are spiritual and financial, and the central figures are unforgettable—flawed, ambitious, and now on a collision course with the law.

Transcript

[Michelle McPhee]

Hi, I'm Michelle, host of Kingdom of Fraud and I'm excited to share episode one of the podcast with you, but I'm even more excited to tell you that you can listen to this and all new Kingdom of Fraud episodes 100% ad free and one week early with an iHeart True Crime plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Foreign

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[Michelle McPhee]

Novel. In the height of summer 2013, the

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Kingstons gather for a big family picnic north of Salt Lake City in the Brushlands of Utah.

[Andrew Robinson]

It would be just hundreds of cars down the street, filling parking lots all around.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

There are hundreds of people, maybe even a thousand. Picnic tables overflow with potluck food.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

Potato salad, pasta salad, cakes, chili.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

It's nearly 100 degrees today. The sun is blazing.

[Order Member / Picnic Attendee]

There's like these really big bleachers and this little stage where people would show off their talents or like sing.

[Andrew Robinson]

There was a big field, so there would be football, basketball, volleyball.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

There's even one of those dunk tanks like at a carnival.

[Michelle McPhee]

A dude in a truck hands out

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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.

[Andrew Robinson]

It was a really big get together. We'd kind of separate into families. Daniel's family would be here. Jesse's family is further down.

[Michelle McPhee]

But there is something unusual about this summer party.

[Andrew Robinson]

Everyone kind of knew each other. In a sense. We're all somewhat close.

[Michelle McPhee]

Andrew saying they're all somewhat close is

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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 aunts or 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 fashioned capitalism. They go by a few different names. The Davis County Cooperative Society, the Kingston clan, but mostly then known as the Order. The picnic is held on family land in a town called Bountiful.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

The story goes that brother Eldon was praying up in, like, this cave in Bountiful, and he was given the keys and he became God's spokesperson on earth.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

That was nearly 100 years ago. Today, Eldon's nephew, brother Paul, is running the show in a Moab family.

[Michelle McPhee]

He be the capo di capi to the Order. He's the man on the watchtower.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Brother Paul is holding court at the picnic.

[Order Member / Picnic Attendee]

Paul would have his little meetings off to the side where people would voice their concerns or whatever.

[Michelle McPhee]

So it's like a scene out of the Godfather where everybody's trying to see the Godfather. Yeah.

[Order Member / Picnic Attendee]

Yep. Lining up to shake brother Paul's hand.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

When you look a little closer, this seemingly idyllic picnic scene doesn't look so wholesome anymore.

[Order Member / Picnic Attendee]

They also had this pool. That was absolutely disgusting. It was just a hole in the cement.

[Michelle McPhee]

Was there water in the pool?

[Order Member / Picnic Attendee]

Yeah, but it was just dark, murky water. And there are always leeches in there.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

This particular year in 2013, something unheard of happens. Out of nowhere, a strange roar turns everyone's heads. Seconds later, a convoy of cars descends upon the picnic. Two black SUVs. Then a blinding cross from Lamborghini.

[Order Member / Picnic Attendee]

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, wow.

[Michelle McPhee]

Burly bodyguards 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 its owner, the Lambo's driver.

[Order Member / Picnic Attendee]

Who is that? We're not used to seeing anybody other than order members.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

He's built like a mini refrigerator, all tanned muscle and swagger.

[Andrew Robinson]

The big guy, he was dressed really nice, looked pretty demanding.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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 eyes and mousy 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 swarthy 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.

[Order Member / Picnic Attendee]

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

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

The Lion's entrance makes quite an impression, and so does his chrome Lamborghini. It shines like a ufo. Curious Order members group 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.

[Michelle McPhee]

Then the Lamborghini screeches off with Jacob behind the wheel.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

The Order's incredibly insular world has just been pierced. Strap in, folks.

[Michelle McPhee]

We're in for a wild ride. This is the most unlikely of partnerships. On one hand, you have this devout polygamist from Utah. 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 unprecedented 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 on opulent mansions, private jets, plus fuckton 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 McPhee, and from the teams at Novel and I Heart podcasts, this is Kingdom of Fraud. Episode one, Jacob's Ladder.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Before we get into it, I want to introduce myself. I'm a longtime investigative reporter. I've written a bunch of true crime books, and I'm from Eastie, a hardscrabble 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 at gunpoint. But that terrifying experience also catapulted me into a job covering crime in New York City. Since then, I've spent my entire journalistic 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 underreported. 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 to none other than the Lion. Thus started my descent down the rabbit hole of the story.

[Michelle McPhee]

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 coterie of dirty cops. But let's take it one step at a time, starting at the very beginning with Jacob Kingston.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

I want to understand what first brought a guy like him into the Lion's orbit. And it's clear to me it has everything to do with Jacob's family.

[Michelle McPhee]

The order. Okay,

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

can you introduce yourself, please?

[Amanda Ray Grant]

Okay, I'll give you the short version,

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

you can give me the long version.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

Oh, okay. I am Amanda Ray Grant. I am of the second wife of three wives of my dad.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

So her mom is her dad's second wife. He has three in total.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

Grant is a fake last name because the second wives are the ones that do not obviously get legally married because it's not Legal to live polygamy. So they have these 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's.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

I'm talking to Amanda in my hotel room in Salt Lake city. She's young, 29, impossibly 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.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

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 gonna be telling everyone what the fuck they're doing here. I'm not gonna be keeping their dirty little secrets.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Introduce the Order.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

So it was started in 1935 by Eldon 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 put our resources together.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

This is why the group still calls itself the Davis County Cooperative Society.

[Michelle McPhee]

The mainstream Mormons, the Church of Jesus

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Christ of Latter Day Saints, outlawed polygamy in 1890. But the order men were not giving up their plural wives.

[Michelle McPhee]

Amanda 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, incest apparently became common. The Order has a different explanation for it. They told us that smaller, insular populations create situations where more closely related parties marry on occasion.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

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.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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 who are much, much older than them.

[Michelle McPhee]

The Order had a response to this, too. Although friends, family, and colleagues may seek to influence one another, ultimately the choice of who to marry must remain solely within 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.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

She says that only men are guaranteed a spot in heaven. Women can only ascend up to the pearly gates as an appendage of their husbands.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

The men had this thing where, like, we're the gatekeepers of your path to heaven, so you better please us.

[Michelle McPhee]

A lot of these rules in the Order developed over time, detached from the teachings of the mainstream Mormon Church.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

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 Paul at any point, because it's the work of the Lords.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

The Order seems extremely focused on amassing 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

[Michelle McPhee]

printer in the Order's printing shop.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

But their members also run major operations

[Michelle McPhee]

like a coal mine and a gun manufacturing company where they make semiautomatic rifles. This is how the Order sustains itself

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

and how its members work towards heavenly glory. Even the children, we were basically, like,

[Amanda Ray Grant]

trafficked into working for the Order businesses. So we would go to school early in the morning, and then we would not come home till the sun was down because we were working.

[Michelle McPhee]

The Order strongly denies this, but several former 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 bank, 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.

[Andrew Robinson]

They claim that it happens in practice, but it's only to the inner circles.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Andrew Robinson is another former Order member. Amanda introduced us.

[Andrew Robinson]

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, like, 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 a worker bee as a result.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Andrew says that a lot of Order members live in extreme poverty.

[Andrew Robinson]

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.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

It sounds unbelievable, but Andrew says that's just how people live in the Order.

[Andrew Robinson]

A lot of them just think that my suffering on this life will just lead to more blessings on the afterlife.

[Michelle McPhee]

We asked the Order about that, too. Their response was, 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

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

people come up with, let's say, creative ways to make up the difference. Back in 1983, Ortel Kingston, the then leader, 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. Andrews says this kind of thing is commonplace. That, for example, mothers in the group cheat the government with exaggerated child tax credits, too.

[Andrew Robinson]

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 direct 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 in an audit, so I had no idea what was going on.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Andrew says not everyone runs these kind

[Michelle McPhee]

of schemes, though, nor is it mandated by the Order. They say that they absolutely do not encourage fraud and that it goes completely against their values. But Amanda says it was common practice

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

for people in her circles, too. There's a phrase associated with what Andrew was describing. Bleeding 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.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

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.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

But I'm in luck, because it turns out Andrew Robinson isn't just any former Order member.

[Andrew Robinson]

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

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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

[Andrew Robinson]

It's either you just do what you're told, or if you fight back, you get abused more.

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[Michelle McPhee]

In 1976, Jacob Kingston was born to Rachel and 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.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Like so many others in the order, they were dirt poor and by the sounds of it, Daniel, Jacob's dad, has quite the reputation.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

People say he's sadistic.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

In my reporting. I hear this over and over again and court records too support this reputation.

[Michelle McPhee]

Back in 1998, when Jacob was in his early 20s, his dad Daniel physically attacked his 16 year old daughter, one

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

of Jacob's half sisters. She had been forced to become her

[Michelle McPhee]

own uncle's 15th wife.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

She later said that one night Daniel took her out 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.

[Michelle McPhee]

Somehow she survived.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

She stumbled to the nearest truck stop and reported her father to the police. Daniel was arrested and later pleaded no contest to the charges. He was sentenced to just over six months in jail. The uncle the girl married, he went to prison for felony incest, but Amanda says the abuse wasn't a one off.

[Amanda Ray Grant]

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.

[Michelle McPhee]

We've tried to reach Daniel Kingston for comment about what Amanda says, but we haven't heard back from him.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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 in Daniel Kingston. Andrew was one of those shy kids who said very little but observed a lot.

[Andrew Robinson]

Just being beat down so much, you have no respect for yourself. I did have fear of talking to other people, making myself look dumb.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

In older 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.

[Andrew Robinson]

I don't know all my siblings. I don't even have an exact number. When we try to count, it's like 170, 180 kids.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

A lot of Daniel's kids share the

[Michelle McPhee]

same experiences of growing up.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

For example, when they're around 10 years old, he puts them to work.

[Andrew Robinson]

We started getting pulled out of our mother's home and moved up on the Washakie ranch to start working on the farm.

[Michelle McPhee]

The farm is remote, about an hour's drive north of Salt Lake City. For miles around it's just scrubby yellow and green flatland. A couple of old homes are dotted around. Here and there, snow capped mountains decorate the horizon. The farm was run by Daniel and manned mostly by his sons. He worked them hard morning to night,

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

herding cows, laying pipes, back breaking labor.

[Andrew Robinson]

I remember a particular moment that my older brother sees me smile and he just says, what do you have to be happy about? Like you have no reason to be happy. And I guess that in itself made us laugh a little bit because we're kind of like man, our lives are messed up

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

in the order you do

[Michelle McPhee]

as you're told, whether it makes you happy or not.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

They even have a rule about it, the law of one above the other. You always follow the orders of the

[Michelle McPhee]

man above you in the hierarchy, which

[Andrew Robinson]

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 is wrong and 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.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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,

[Michelle McPhee]

Andrew and Jacob's dad, came up with business after business trying to make a profit.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

He pulled in his sons to get

[Michelle McPhee]

these ideas off the ground.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Their childhoods were spent laboring.

[Michelle McPhee]

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.

[Andrew Robinson]

But most of his projects don't make.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Andrew says Daniel doesn't really talk to his kids like people, unless he's berating them for not working hard enough. We asked Andrew whether he has ever felt any love from his dad.

[Andrew Robinson]

Not really. I kind of just see it for. For what it is, 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.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

He believes that Jacob and his siblings had it much harder. Their mom, Rachel, she was harsh, too.

[Andrew Robinson]

Daniel did treat Rachel Ann's family the best. But I would hear from Rachel Ann's kids that their mom was really abusive. They had names for the spanking sticks that their mom used.

[Michelle McPhee]

But Andrew does think that Jacob had a more emotional relationship with their dad

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

because Andrew says Daniel always loved and

[Michelle McPhee]

favored Rachel the most out of more than a dozen wives.

[Andrew Robinson]

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. Their dad loves them the most, and they had more opportunities to run companies, run projects, and we were just the workers.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

As the son of an ambitious, hard man like Daniel Kingston, Jacob felt a

[Michelle McPhee]

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

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

doctorate in mechanical engineering. And then he found his path to money, respect, maybe even his dad's love. Or at least he thought so.

[Andrew Robinson]

Jacob had this grand idea, and at the beginning, it didn't sound like we had any plans of committing fraud.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Only that resolve won't last very long. More on that after the break.

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[Michelle McPhee]

I mean, it is super creepy land out here. There's literally nothing except for solar panels as far as the eye can see.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

The land around me is desolate. I'm driving down the long dirt roads

[Michelle McPhee]

between remote towns just north of Salt Lake City. This is order territory. The weather today is grim. Rain and wind that whips right through your body. We're pulling up now.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

It's a paved road. On the right are a herd of cows.

[Michelle McPhee]

It just is like a nondescript plant with giant oil tanks. It looks like any sort of oil or gas terminal. And it's built right on a railroad track.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

The place looks haunted. It's clearly been sitting empty for years now.

[Michelle McPhee]

There's an old security guard check here that looks long abandoned. This place is clearly shut down, but wow, what an operation.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

There are abandoned rail cars, train tracks covered in grass, and these white round tanks with metallic tubes linking this whole mess together like some sort of giant futuristic neural pathway system. I came here because this place is the jumping off point for Jacob's story. It's A biofuel production plant.

[Michelle McPhee]

Which sounds boring, I know, but when

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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, an idea crystallizes in Jacob's mind.

[Andrew Robinson]

Jacob finally got out of school, got his PhD and had this grand idea.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Andrew was sitting there when Jacob announces this revelation at a family meeting. He proudly reveals that he wants to start a biofuel production company. If you squint hard enough, Jacob's business plan can almost pass for a miracle.

[Michelle McPhee]

That plan, old disgusting cooking oil would

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

be collected from the backs of restaurants and fast food joints all over Salt Lake City and turned into pristine, clean biofuel.

[Andrew Robinson]

I thought it sounded pretty cool. Making the biodiesel out of cooking oil, taking some, that's garbage. And then turning it into money.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

It's unclear how exactly Jacob first gets this vision, but around this time in

[Michelle McPhee]

the mid 2000s, biofuel is having a moment.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

It's the new hot thing. Woody Harrelson, the actor, is driving around in a biofuel 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, biofuels sounds like a sure fire. Moneymaker. 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 biofuel idea comes into play, voila, a solution.

[Andrew Robinson]

The Order was really hurting on cash. They were seeing this as this could be the next mine.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

To get the operation up and running,

[Michelle McPhee]

Jacob has to build a facility. His dad has landed the Washakie Ranch.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

And Jacob is able to borrow hundreds

[Michelle McPhee]

of thousands of dollars from the Order bank.

[Andrew Robinson]

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.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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 grueling labor. Sure enough, Andrew and six to seven of his brothers are given the job

[Andrew Robinson]

of actually building the plant for six to eight months. I was working before the sun came up. And after the sun set, 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 taking like a Home school for high school. After that long day, we were expected to teach ourselves high school. It was just a pile of books.

[Michelle McPhee]

Daniel's ranch turns into a construction site. Day after day, the brothers are putting up drywall, running plumbing, setting up electrical wiring. Jacob's there too.

[Andrew Robinson]

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.

[Michelle McPhee]

Andrew says that if he and his brothers now remember these are basically kids are struggling with something. Jacob yells at them, mocking them, asking them if they're stupid. Andrew hates every second of it.

[Andrew Robinson]

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

[Michelle McPhee]

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.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

And then the plant is finished.

[Michelle McPhee]

And with big fanfare, Washakie Renewable Energy wre opens its doors.

[Andrew Robinson]

I think he just really believed in the idea and just really wanted it to work.

[Michelle McPhee]

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

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

actually seems to love.

[Michelle McPhee]

As expected, they start having kids. There will be more wives, but Sally is number one. Wre soon becomes a family affair. Sally's there. So is Jacob's mom Rachel and his younger brother Isaiah. But there is a very big problem. Among other issues, it turns out that producing biofuel is very difficult. In a place as cold as northern Utah. In the winter, it can go well below zero.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Something Jacob doesn't seem to have thought through. Pretty much as soon as the plant

[Michelle McPhee]

opens, the company sinks deep into the red. Jacob is drowning. Everyone is watching.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

He can't afford to fail.

[Michelle McPhee]

So he gets to work.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Jacob starts crisscrossing the country, jetting around the world to link up with people in the industry. Good old fashioned networking over dinners or about biofuel conventions. And then in 2010, a guy puts Jacob in touch with another guy named Andre Bernard.

[Michelle McPhee]

You know a guy knows a guy.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Andre specializes in two things.

[Michelle McPhee]

Discarded oil and fraud. Together they cook up a plan.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

He helps Jacob take advantage of those lucrative tax credits the government is offering,

[Michelle McPhee]

whether wre is eligible or not. It starts out with some biofuel that Andre Bernard needs to shift.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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 up bogus invoices and contracts, forge paperwork that makes them eligible for tax subsidies.

[Michelle McPhee]

The first time Jacob receives the subsidies, the IRS cuts wre a check for $2.5 million. The kicker, and this, to me as

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

a taxpayer, is absolutely wild.

[Michelle McPhee]

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%.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

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. And across 2011, WRE steals nearly 40

[Michelle McPhee]

million tax dollars this way.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

But it isn't like Jacob is living the high life. All of Jacob's multiple partners are taking their cut, of course.

[Michelle McPhee]

I've reached out to Jacob multiple times to give him the opportunity to tell

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

his story, but he never responded.

[Michelle McPhee]

He has told his version of events before, though.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

In February 2020, on the stand inside a federal courtroom in Salt Lake City.

[Michelle McPhee]

Unfortunately, hearings weren't recorded, but I've managed to get my hands on transcripts of

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

the entire six days he spent testifying. It's over a thousand pages.

[Jake Otajevic]

There's a lot of excruciating detail about, like, biodiesel and money transactions in there, but you can actually also find some real gems. I mean, Jacob's testimony, it really tells a story.

[Michelle McPhee]

This is my producer, Jake Otajevic.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

I've asked him to help me bring Jacob's words to life. Jake has spent months and months weeding

[Michelle McPhee]

through this labyrinth of criminality alongside me. Obviously, a transcript of Jacob's testimony doesn't give me all the information about what

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

he's thinking, what he's feeling and remember it's his narrative.

[Michelle McPhee]

But his interactions with the federal prosecutor give a fascinating insight into what Jacob's life looks like at this point.

[Jake Otajevic]

Michelle, can you read out the part of the prosecutor?

[Michelle McPhee]

Absolutely. So the prosecutor asks where were you living in 2011?

[Jake Otajevic]

Jacob replies, I was living in an old cabin that didn't. The heat didn't work, the water didn't work and it had rats and snakes.

[Michelle McPhee]

Who were you living with?

[Jake Otajevic]

My wife and my family.

[Michelle McPhee]

What kind of car were you driving?

[Jake Otajevic]

I had a Toyota Tercel.

[Michelle McPhee]

Who owned the cabin?

[Jake Otajevic]

It was on my dad's property.

[Michelle McPhee]

It had no heat.

[Jake Otajevic]

Not very well.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

How could you live in a house

[Michelle McPhee]

in northern Utah without heat?

[Jake Otajevic]

We had our challenges.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Jacob and Sally aren't exactly moving on up. At best, they're staying afloat. But that's all about to change.

[Michelle McPhee]

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 a company in India.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Around 700,000 gallons. A great piece of business in theory,

[Michelle McPhee]

a shit show in practice.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

Here is Jacob's testimony about what happened

[Michelle McPhee]

when the biofuel arrived in India.

[Jake Otajevic]

Some of it was received and the rest we was informed that we was not going to get paid for it.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

The buyer in India tells Jacob he wants to pull out of this deal. Jacob could lose more than $2 million.

[Jake Otajevic]

That was going to be a devastating blow to our company.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

But then the lion first catches a

[Michelle McPhee]

whiff of Jacob and lifts up his head. The prosecutor asks Jacob, when did you meet Lavon Tumenzian?

[Jake Otajevic]

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.

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

A mysterious Armenian fuel titan, Lavon Tremendzian 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.

[Michelle McPhee]

Next time on Kingdom of Fraud. Jacob makes a deal with the lion,

[Narrator / Investigative Reporter]

gets a table, taste of a whole

[Michelle McPhee]

new kind of life, and his small time fraud escalates to big time numbers. Kingdom of Fraud is produced by Novel for Iheart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit Novel Audio. The show is hosted by me, Michelle McPhee and produced by Jake Otajevic. It's reported by me and Jake Otajevic. Our assistant producers are Megan Dean and Amalia Sortland, with additional production from Myron Kaplan and Liz Sanchez. Our editor is Sandra Shmueli, production management from Sheree Houston, Joe Savage and Charlotte Wolf. Our fact checker is Fendal Fulton, sound design and mixing by Mark Pittam Original music composed and performed by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson. Music supervision from Jake Otajevic, Sandra shmueli and Max O'. Brien. Willard Foxton is creative director at Novel Our executive producers are me, Michelle McPhee, Max O' Brien and Craig Strachan. The Novel and Stephanie Lang. Katrina Norvell and Nikki Etor are the executive producers for iHeart podcasts and the marketing lead is Allison Kantor. Special thanks to Carrie Lieberman, Will Pearson and the whole team at WM Me. Ready to hear more? Remember, you can get access to 100% ad free episodes with an iHeart True Crime plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts Plus. You'll get access to to all episodes one week ahead of everyone else. So open up your Apple Podcasts app, search for I Heart True Crime plus and subscribe today.

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