The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Great Falls, on April 7, 2011, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong, ARTHUR GEORGE GREYBULL, III, a 37-year-old resident of Poplar, pled guilty to theft from an Indian tribal organization. Sentencing has been set for July 21, 2011. He is currently released on special conditions.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl E. Rostad, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

From August 12, 1999, to May 29, 2009, hundreds of fraudulent checks exceeding $1 million were issued from the checking accounts of the Fort Peck Tribal Credit Department which is an agency of the Fort Peck Tribes tasked with providing short term loans, to a maximum of $2,000, to qualifying tribal members. The checks were the consequence of a fraudulent scheme whereby the Credit Program employees, and others, conspired to steal money from the Tribal Credit Department by securing unauthorized loans and direct payments for themselves. These disbursements purported to represent legitimate loans, overtime payments, and miscellaneous reimbursements to the employees when in fact the employees had far exceeded the maximum loan amount threshold of $2,000 and their salary was paid separately through the Tribe's Payroll account. In many cases, the employees circumvented the approval authority of the oversight board, the Credit Committee, by falsely representing that approval for the disbursement had been obtained.

Toni Greybull, a federal employee with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for 34 years (January 1974 - March 2008) became an Administrative Officer for the BIA in February of 2001, and in that position she maintained supervisory authority over Shelley Pipe, Supervisory Credit Manager for the Credit Program from 2001 until Greybull's death in 2008.

Toni Greybull's son, GREYBULL, received 31 disbursements from the FPCP short term loan program between August 25, 2000, and November 27, 2007, totaling $53,900.

Investigators were able to locate 13 of the 31 checks. When questioned, GREYBULL admitted negotiating all thirteen checks. He claimed that he did not retain the proceeds but gave the cash to his mother. He also admitted, however, that he did routinely receive nominal amounts of money back from his mother ($30-$40) from the proceeds of the loan checks he negotiated at her request. GREYBULL confirmed that he was unemployed and broke most of the time and that she would give him this money for fuel, food, and general expenses. The remaining 18 checks - those transacted prior to May 2005 - could not be located but investigators discovered a combination of electronic records and loan files that confirm the loans were issued to GREYBULL.

GREYBULL faces possible penalties of 5 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and 3 years supervised release.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Interior - Inspector General's Office.

A copy of the Offer of Proof can be obtained by contacting Sally Frank at (406) 247-4638.

 

 

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