SAN ANGELO, Texas -- While many have wondered how a Mormon splinter sect financed its multimillion-dollar West Texas spread, one man thinks he knows the answer.

Bruce Wisan, a court-appointed officer for the polygamist sect's $100 million real-estate trust, said he believes sect spiritual leader Warren Jeffs drained the trust to buy the land for the Yearning For Zion Ranch, then build the sprawling compound in Eldorado, Texas, and keep the operation going for years.

"Warren was converting trust assets into cash at fire-sale prices to get the cash to build up the community in Eldorado," Wisan said in a telephone interview.

Rod Parker, an attorney who has acted as a spokesman for the sect, could not be reached for comment.

Wisan, a Salt Lake City accountant, was appointed long before the current controversy over alleged underage sexual abuses at the compound to be the special trustee for the United Effort Plan Trust, a holding company that owns the sect's Schleicher County property on behalf of all its members.