U.S. Alleges Fraud, Seeks to Seize Krishna Property : Indictment: Officials contend that everything but the commune temple was purchased with money obtained under false pretenses.

Federal officials say they will attempt to confiscate everything at the Hare Krishna New Vrindaban commune except the temple, alleging that it was all purchased with money obtained through fraudulent means.

Three members of the Hare Krishna community--including its founder-leader, Keith Gordon Ham, 54, also known as Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada--were indicted by a federal grand jury last week, accused of conspiring to murder two dissident members of the sect in West Virginia and Los Angeles.

U.S. Atty. William Kolibash said the government will attempt to seize the religious sect’s 4,000 acres of land with buildings and residences in West Virginia’s Marshall County, alleging that it was bought with $10.5 million obtained fraudulently.

The 11-count indictment, which included racketeering charges, culminated a two-year investigation by the federal authorities and officials in West Virginia and California.

The murders include the 1986 slaying of dissident ex-member Stephen Bryant on a Los Angeles street and the 1983 killing of Charles St. Denis in Marshall County. St. Denis’ body was found on land at the community. Thomas Drescher is serving a life term in the West Virginia Penitentiary for committing that murder.

The government also alleges that Drescher, who faces charges in California for Bryant’s murder, was promised $8,000 by Ham in May, 1986, to commit the murder and that of another community resident, Terry Sheldon, 31.

Ham has been in India, but Kolibash said he expects him to return to the United States of his own accord. Sheldon and another community member, Stephen Fitzpatrick, 36, who was also named in the indictment, are both missing and Kolibash said one of the two is outside the United States.

The New Vrindaban community has been the subject of several other investigations, leading to the expulsion of the commune by the national leaders of the Hindu sect two years ago, and its leader a year earlier.

“There was no one particular event that triggered the indictment, it was a combination of things,” Kolibash said.

One count alleges that Ham and three of the community’s corporations that were also indicted violated racketeering statutes. New Vrindaban Community Inc., Cathedral Healing Inc. and Govardhan Inc., also known as Govardhan Dairy Inc., invested the $10.5 million received from fund-raising scams into property and buildings at Krishna community.

The three men and the corporations, the indictment alleges, used the mail to defraud the public of the money by fraudulently soliciting contributions for the community across the nation.

They allegedly solicited funds for a school, but failed to tell those contributing that “children were sexually molested” at the school.