United States of America v. Lev Aslan Dermen

Salt Lake City, Utah, Los Angeles, California, and Mimai, Florida lawyers represented the defedant charged with attempt and conspriacy to commit mail fraud.



this case concerned an alleged conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering operation orchestrated from 2012 to 2018 by Mr. Dermen, Jacob Kingston, Isaiah Kingston (Jacob Kingston's brother), and other co-conspirators. Specifically, Mr. Dermen, Jacob Kingston, and their co-conspirators designed a fraud scheme in which they filed false claims for federal biofuel incentives with the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS”) and the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA”), received payouts through the mail from the U.S. Department of Treasury, and laundered the fraud proceeds.



These false claims were tremendously valuable: the conspiracy sought over $1 billion in fraudulent tax credits and tradeable credits called Renewable Identification Numbers ("RINs”) and successfully received over $500 million in payouts from the federal government. Mr. Dermen and his co-conspirators laundered these proceeds through a variety of channels, including cycling fraud proceeds through domestic and foreign entities and accounts and purchasing houses, cars, and a yacht. In total, Mr. Dermen directly received over $70 million in fraud proceeds and indirectly received over $100 million of deposits into Turkish bank accounts in which he had an interest. The conspiracy continued until 2018, when Mr. Dermen and the Kingstons were indicted. Mr. Dermen was charged with one count of Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1349 (Count 1); one count of Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering Offenses, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h) (Count 2); and eight counts of Money Laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(a)(1)(B)(i) and 1957 (Counts 3–10).



At trial, Mr. Dermen attempted to rebut the government's case against him by alleging that Jacob Kingston and his family members were the primary perpetrators of the fraud scheme and that Jacob Kingston was scapegoating him for the fraud to

receive a lighter prison sentence. After a seven-week trial, the jury convicted Mr. Dermen on all counts, and the district court sentenced him to forty years' imprisonment. The district court also ordered a forfeiture and money udgment

against him.

Defendant was found guilty.



Affirmed