Jacob Kingston waited anxiously at the tiny airport in Brigham City, Utah, for the private jet. His new business partner from Los Angeles was arriving on this frigid January day in 2012, and Jacob desperately wanted to make a good impression. Too I embarrassed to bring his humble Toyota Tercel, he had rented a Cadillac Escalade to pick up his guest. Jacob, a beefy 35-year-old with a large forehead topping a rectangular face and wide-open eyes, had high hopes for this visit. After all, he had three wives and many children to support. Jacob was already one of the top earners of the Davis County Cooperative Society—also known as the Order—a breakaway Mormon polygamist sect based in Salt Lake City that emphasized "consecrating" its members' income back to the group. But, of course, one could always do better. Jacob had known his new partner, Lev Dermen, for only a couple of weeks, but the man obviously knew something about making money. The thickly built Armenian immigrant who stepped off the plane, a pair of bodyguards in tow, controlled a small empire of truck stops and gas stations across Southern California. *1 Once they had settled in to the capacious Escalade's leather seats, Jacob drove Dermen half an hour north through high mountain-rimmed flat-lands to the remote hamlet of Plymouth. The town is home to some 460 people, and to the operation Dermen had come to see: Jacob's biodiesel plant, a recently built complex of storage tanks, prefab buildings, and trucks. Jacob's wife Sally and other staff members turned out to greet Dermen with a gift basket of Armenian fruits and a cowboy hat. The visit went well. After touring the plant, Dermen invited Jacob and Sally to dinner. "We're going to Seattle," he explained casually. A few hours later, Jacob and Sally found themselves aboard Dermen's jet, en route to Washington. That evening in Seattle, Dermen took them to a friend's house where they dined on sushi while a hired Russian singer serenaded the group. Dermen and his friends were still partying at 2 am when Sally and Jacob— whose religious beliefs discourage drinking alcohol—went off to the hotel room Dermen had arranged for them. On the way to the airport the next day, Dermen stopped off at a seafood store. "Do you like crab and lobster?" he asked. They did. According to Jacob, Dermen proceeded to buy out the store's entire stock—about 15 boxes—and give it to the couple as a gift.
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