Four members of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes — including its chairman — and the attorney representing a faction of the tribe have been charged with federal crimes, ranging from making fraudulent statements to committing theft and bank fraud.
A federal grand jury returned two separate indictments late Wednesday. One charges tribal chairman Leon D. Bear, 47, of two counts of theft from Indian tribal organizations, one count of theft concerning federally funded programs and three counts of fraud and false statements.
The other indictment names as defendants tribal members Marlinda Moon, 43, Wendover, Utah; Sammy Blackbear, 39, Salt Lake City; Miranda Wash, 36, Grantsville; and their attorney, Duncan Steadman, 57, South Jordan. They are charged with one count each of theft from an Indian tribal organization and five counts each of bank fraud and aiding and abetting.
None of the defendants nor any of their attorneys could be reached for comment Thursday.
It would be up to tribal members regarding whether Bear would remain chairman of the tribe during the court proceedings, said Nedra Darling spokeswoman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The BIA would assist with an impeachment or election process only if they were asked by the tribe to do so, she said.
The indictment follows more than two years of investigation by the U.S. Department of Interior Office of Inspector General, the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Attorney's Office of alleged corruption within the Goshute Tribe, said Paul Warner, U.S. attorney for Utah.
"This particular crime is very egregious; it's public corruption pure and simple," said Chip Burrus special agent with the FBI. "It's greed combined with an abuse of public trust. It undermines the integrity of the tribe."
The charges speak to the controversy engulfing the 120-member tribe, whose reservation is 75 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, over the question of nuclear waste storage on tribal lands, though the indictment does not directly relate to that debate.
In 1997, Bear signed a lease agreement with Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of utility companies seeking to store nuclear waste temporarily on the reservation. A faction opposed to that storage has been wrestling for tribal control ever since.
The tribe's proposal calls for temporary storage on the Goshutes' property for up to 44,000 tons of depleted nuclear fuel, until it is sent to a permanent repository, now planned for Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
But the plan has faced political opposition, and Gov. Olene Walker recently said she would continue her predecessor Mike Leavitt's battle against it.
The Skull Valley Band was also split on the issue, and a splinter group opposed to the storage held an election naming Moon chairwoman, Blackbear vice chairman and Wash secretary. The election was held despite the fact that the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs recognized Bear as tribal chairman in October 2001.
Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah, said this is where the indictments' connection to fuel storage begins and ends.
"(The mention of PFS) is basically in there as the motivation for why they started down the road with the . . . unrecognized election and that sort of stuff," she said.
The election illustrated the divides within the tribe, not just on the nuclear issue but in general. Dissatisfied Goshutes have hurled charges of bribery and corruption at what they have referred to in press releases as the "illegitimate Bear regime."
The election, the indictment alleges, was done "in an effort to take control of tribal funds and tribal activities."
Indeed, Steadman notarized a certification of tribal election saying Moon, Wash and Blackbear were the legitmate leaders of the tribe, the indictment states. The indictment accuses the three Goshutes and Steadman of using that certification to access some tribal bank accounts and open new ones, to which they allegedly transferred other tribal money.
Federal prosecutors say the foursome used the document to secure a $45,800 check from Zions Bank, which they deposited into a Wells Fargo Bank account and used "for unauthorized purposes." The indictment claims Steadman received about $11,000 of that money.
The foursome also stand accused of using the certification to try to access the tribe's Brighton Bank account, but were turned away by a bank manager who told them a court order was needed. They later used a court order from the "First Federal District Court, Western Region," which is not a government-sanctioned judicial body, to open new Brighton accounts and transfer $384,959.47 from others, the indictment states.
Prosecutors also accused them of withdrawing $250,000 from the tribe's Bank One account.
In the other indictment, Bear is accused of paying himself off with tribal money through various schemes.
The first scheme portrayed in the document involves the Tapai Project Office, a South Salt Lake economic-development arm of the Skull Valley Band. Bear was the office's director, a job that brought him a $2,500-per-month salary. As director, he was a signatory on the office's bank account.
The indictment accuses hime of stealing or misapplying $154,651.91 from December 1998 to February 1999, accounting for the two charges of theft from Indian tribal organizations.
Another scheme the indictment alleges involved Bear paying himself two travel stipends for each official trip he went on between February 1999 and August 2001. Others who traveled with him on those trips only received one stipend per trip, the indictment claims.
He is also accused of paying himself for being tribal secretary at a time when someone else was serving as secretary.
The three fraud charges stem from allegations that Bear filed his 1999, 2000 and 2001 individual income tax return forms claiming to be unemployed and to have received little or no income each of those years. The charges state that he actually received between $61,902 and $67,167 from the tribe each of those years.
Rydalch said court appearances will now be scheduled for the defendants. She said none will be arrested but each will be issued a summons.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com
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