Episode Details

What do a devout polygamist from an insular Utah sect and a shadowy Armenian tycoon from Los Angeles have in common? More than you'd think. Together, they defrauded the American government out of nearly one billion dollars. "Kingdom of Fraud," a brand new series co-produced by Novel and iHeartPodcasts, has launched.Over seven episodes, Emmy-nominated journalist, investigative reporter and host Michele McPhee traces the extraordinary and unlikely criminal partnership between Jacob Kingston and Levon Termendzhyan, a reputed Armenian crime figure known to those around him as "The Lion." Together, they built a billion dollar fraud conspiracy out of a biofuel subsidy program, and triggered the largest tax investigation in American history.McPhee travels from Salt Lake City and its outskirts where Mormon fundamentalist groups laid roots, to gritty neighborhoods in Los Angeles and beyond to understand how Jacob Kingston, one of his father's more than 100 children and a man desperate to prove his worth to his powerful polygamist clan, The Order, ended up in business with one of LA's most feared operators. And how, once their scheme started generating tens of millions of dollars, they needed to find somewhere far from Utah to hide it all.But this story isn't just about two men and their money. Around Jacob and Levon sits a web of dirty cops, political connections and transnational money launderers that reaches further than the federal agents investigating the case could have imagined.Jacob Kingston was put under unimaginable pressure as law enforcement started circling, but Levon assured him that a shadowy network known only as 'The Boys" - paid badges from the highest levels of federal law enforcement who sold their access to the highest bidder would spring into action to keep the cops at bay.Was Jacob right to put his life in The Lion's hands, or will their billion dollar biofuel empire go up in smoke?"Kingdom of Fraud" is a story about what happens when the most unlikely of alliances is corroded by greed and selfishness - a story of rampant corruption in which every American citizen was a victim.Episodes available here:https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-kingdom-of-fraud-329335210 

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