entities . '' `` It was my understanding that Western Precision was paying roughly $ 50,000 a week into the coffers of the church , '' former sect member Richard Holm said . `` It would have been close to $ 200,000 a month . '' Holm said he helped build Western Precision . A court affidavit signed by a man whose father was the president of Western Precision makes similar allegations . `` During 2003 , the amount being sent to the storehouse and the FLDS was around $ 100,000 per month , '' John Nielsen said in the October 26 , 2005 , affidavit . `` I have personal knowledge that checks sent to the FLDS Church/Warren Jeffs by -LSB- Western Precision -RSB- are payable to the FLDS Church and/or Warren Jeffs . '' Private investigator Sam Brower , who monitors the sect , said money earned through business dealings with the U.S. government was used to build Jeffs ' compounds across the country , including the one recently raided in Eldorado , Texas . More than 400 children , including teenage girls , were removed from that ranch amid claims of child abuse and forced marriage and
NEW YORK -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The U.S. government paid more than $ 1.7 million in defense contracts over the last decade to companies owned by leaders of Warren Jeffs ' polygamous sect , with tens of thousands allegedly winding its way back to Jeffs and his church . The Pentagon had contracts with three companies with ties to Warren Jeffs ' polygamous sect . In fact , some of the deals were made after Jeffs was named to the FBI 's `` Most-Wanted List '' and remained in place while he was on the run . CNN has learned that between 1998 and 2007 , the United States Air Force and Defense Logistics Agency purchased more than $ 1.7 million worth of airplane parts from three companies owned by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , which practices polygamy . Those companies are Utah Tool and Die , Western Precision and NewEra Manufacturing . Today , the companies all operate under the name NewEra Manufacturing , a company based in Las Vegas , Nevada , that says it supplies precision components `` for the aerospace , military , medical , recreational and other commercial