SALT LAKE CITY _ A high-ranking leader of a polygamous sect has been released from jail after pleading guilty in a multimillion-dollar food stamp fraud case.
Seth Jeffs agreed to a deal Wednesday that spares him more jail time or a fine. The 43-year-old became the second of 11 defendants to plead guilty, and more deals are reportedly in the works.
Jeffs pleaded guilty to fraud for misusing food stamps, a felony punishable by up to 20 years behind bars. In return, conspiracy and money laundering charges were dropped.
U.S. prosecutors said they were satisfied with the six months that Jeffs has served in jail since he was arrested in February following a multiyear federal investigation.
Jeffs runs the South Dakota compound of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and is a brother of its imprisoned prophet, Warren Jeffs. The FLDS is not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the formal name of the Mormon Church, which banned polygamy in 1890.
