By: Omar Silva, NP Staff Writer

Belize City, Tuesday, 11 April 2023

Los Angeles-based businessman Lev Dermen has been sentenced to forty years in prison for his role in a billion-dollar bio-fuel tax conspiracy. Dermen was one of five people convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering. His business partners, Jacob Kingston, Isaiah Kingston, Rachel Kingston, and Sally Kingston were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to eighteen years. The group fraudulently claimed more than a billion dollars in refundable renewable fuel tax credits from 2010 to 2018. The Internal Revenue Service paid out more than half of the amount in credits to Washakie Renewable Energy, a Utah-based biodiesel company owned by the Kingstons, who then distributed the money among themselves and Dermen. They then conspired to purchase millions of gallons of biodiesel and rotate it through the U.S. shipping system to create the appearance that qualifying fuel was being produced and sold by their company.

Dermen made headlines during his trial in February 2020 when former Minister of National Security John Saldivar was named as receiving money in tranches from him. Jacob Kingston testified that he had communicated with Saldivar via text messages on Dermen’s behalf on how he would get the monies to Saldivar. Saldivar was accused by the United States of accepting bribes for the improper acquisition of Belizean immigration documents and interfering in public processes for his personal benefit during his tenure as a government official. Saldivar and his immediate family members were effectively banned from setting foot on U.S. soil. Saldivar denied the allegations, but the United Democratic Party's Special Committee voted that he could no longer run as a candidate for the party in Belmopan. In January, however, Saldivar went on to contest and win the convention for the U.D.P in Belmopan, the area he represented prior to losing the last general election.

The guilty verdict for Dermen and his coconspirators brings them to justice for creating and implementing the massive biofuel scheme to fund their greed at the expense of taxpayers. The conviction serves as clear notice to criminals who engage in any form of tax fraud in the U.S. The biofuel tax credit program was established by the U.S Government to promote a clean fuel alternative to traditional fuel options. Upon Dermen’s sentencing, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the L.A. Justice Department’s Tax Division, Stuart Goldberg said that Dermen and members of the Kingston family cost law-abiding taxpayers more than five hundred million dollars and attempted to steal double that. In addition to the prison sentence, Dermen was ordered to pay over four hundred thousand dollars in restitution to the I.R.S. and a money judgment of more than a hundred and eighty thousand dollars against him.