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Federal prosecutors are seeking to seize nearly $200,000 from businesses associated with alleged food stamp fraud by members of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

A forfeiture complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court seeks cash in bank accounts belonging to the Meadowayne Dairy Store, Vermillion Cliffs Produce, Quality Wholesale Distributors, Prime Wholesale Supply and Products Unlimited — businesses in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., collectively known as Short Creek, which is home to the FLDS church.

The cash, $191,550.09, represents proceeds from the alleged conspiracy to defraud the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), according to the complaint.

On Feb. 23, 11 leaders and members of the FLDS Church were indicted on federal charges of food-stamp fraud. They are accused of diverting the proceeds of food stamp debit cards to personal and church accounts.

From 2011 to 2013, FLDS leaders allegedly directed their members to divert their SNAP benefits to the FLDS storehouse, by either buying food at Meadowayne Dairy Store and Vermillion Cliffs Produce and taking the food to the storehouse, or swiping their SNAP cards there without buying anything, according to the complaint.

The two small convenience stores registered larger and more frequent SNAP transactions than stores like Walmart and Costco, the complaint adds.

Investigators allege that the managers of the two stores then transferred the funds to companies acting as fronts for the storehouse, which included Quality Wholesale Distributors, Prime Wholesale Distributors and Products Unlimited. The transfers "concealed and disguised the nature, location, source, ownership and control of the proceeds corresponding to the fraudulent transactions," according to the complaint.

FLDS leaders then allegedly directed the funds for purposes other than buying eligible food for authorized SNAP recipients, the complaint adds.

Among those indicted were Lyle Steed Jeffs, who handled day-to-day affairs of the church for his older brother, Warren Jeffs, who is serving up to life in prison plus 20 years in Texas for crimes related to marrying and sexually abusing underage girls, according to prosecutors.

Also indicted were managers of some of the businesses named in the forfeiture complaint.

Lyle Jeffs and three other men, including Seth Jeffs — a younger brother to Lyle and Warren — also have been detained pending trial. One of those men, business owner John Wayman, has a hearing Friday to redetermine that issue.

Seven other co-defendants — two of them women — have been released pending trial.

mmcfall@sltrib.com Twitter: @MikeyPanda