Eight-Year Poaching Probe Nets Convictions From Wyoming to Minnesota

What started as a few red flags on hunting paperwork turned into an eight-year, multi-state poaching case that wrapped up in Sweetwater County on Sept. 26. Wyoming Game and Fish says the investigation centered on Farson outfitter Sean Thomas and stretched from southwest Wyoming to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Utah — snaring family members, friends and clients along the way, Outdoor News reports.

Wardens first crossed paths with Thomas — operating as Great Basin Outfitters—in 2017 while chasing unrelated cases. By 2018, a full probe was underway into false residency statements and the illegal take of black bears, pronghorn, deer, elk and other wildlife dating back to the Thomas family’s move to Wyoming in 2014. On July 15, 2021, Wyoming officers — working with counterparts in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Utah — served search warrants and interviewed dozens tied to the alleged crimes. What they found: dozens of violations, from tag fraud to wanton destruction.

The lead defendant’s case closed last month. On Sept. 26, 2025, Sean Thomas pleaded guilty to a stack of charges, including making a false statement to obtain a Wyoming resident license; acting as an accessory to the intentional take of multiple pronghorn, a cow elk and a bull elk; wanton destruction of a calf elk; taking a calf elk with a vehicle; and a Game and Fish rules violation. His sentence: fines totaling $9,070 (with $7,070 suspended), $6,000 restitution to the Wyoming Wildlife Protectors Association, 36 months of unsupervised probation (two years consecutive plus one year concurrent), and 365 days in jail with all but 40 days suspended (credit for one day served). He also can’t possess firearms during probation, lost hunting/fishing/trapping privileges for 20 years, and forfeited all wildlife seized in 2021, plus a .300 WSM Browning rifle with scope and case.

The fallout didn’t stop there. Investigators say the 2021 warrants helped uncover crimes tied to Michael Jordan of Stillwater, Minnesota, and his sons, Austin and Joseph, along with several Thomas family members and associates. In separate plea deals across 2023–2024, the Jordans admitted to amended Game and Fish violations linked to unlicensed pronghorn kills; collectively they drew short jail stints (credited), fines and five-figure restitution, one-year hunting/trapping suspensions, and forfeited mounts, meat and firearms — including a .338 Lapua rifle and shoulder-mounted pronghorn, mule deer and bull elk seized from Thomas’s residence.

Closer to home, Kristine, Wesley, Taylor and Roger Thomas each pleaded guilty to select counts ranging from false statements for resident licenses to illegal take and possession violations. Sentences included suspended jail time, multi-year license suspensions, thousands in fines and restitution, and forfeitures that ranged from a .300 WSM Safari Browning to bull elk and pronghorn heads, a green bobcat pelt, and a black bear hide and skull. Two other defendants — Tommie Mount of Rock Springs and David Pehrson of Delta, Utah — were convicted on false oath and Game and Fish violations, respectively, with fines and forfeited wildlife (including an elk head taken in the wrong area).

Wyoming officials say the case would have stalled without tips from concerned citizens and help from Minnesota DNR, Wisconsin DNR and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. County attorneys in Sweetwater, Lincoln, Teton and Sublette also worked the prosecutions. The message from Game and Fish is simple: residency fraud and illegal take aren’t victimless paperwork crimes — they steal from Wyoming’s wildlife and law-abiding hunters. In this case, it took years, four states and a small convoy of search warrants to prove it.