Press Release
Larkin Troy Chandler Sentenced In U.S. District Court
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Montana
The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Billings, on May 1, 2013, before Chief U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, LARKIN TROY CHANDLER, a 46-year-old resident of Crow Agency, appeared for sentencing. CHANDLER was sentenced to a term of:
Probation: 5 years
Special Assessment: $100
Restitution: $44,546.50
CHANDLER was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to theft from an organization receiving federal funding.
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:
The Crow Tribal Historic Preservation Office (CTHPO) on the Crow Indian Reservation was created in 2005. The CTHPO is a designated office of the Crow Indian Tribe that provides for direct Tribal involvement and leadership in the protection and enhancement of Crow lands and cultural resources. It serves to identify, inventory, and protect culturally, archeologically, and historically important resources both on and off the reservation.
Each year, the CTHPO receives grant funds from the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. A requirement for any enterprise seeking to do work on the reservation that may disturb tribal lands - utilities, construction, energy exploration, development - is that the business employ the services of a CTHPO employee (archeological technician) to monitor the project to insure that lands of cultural or historic importance are not destroyed. The company is then charged for this monitoring service and payments are made to the Crow Tribe.
The Director of the CTHPO from approximately 2005 until November 15, 2011 is identified here as X.X. During the time X.X. was Director, most of the monitors were his family members. Two other monitors were not hired as Crow Tribe employees but were assigned as project monitors and received payment directly from the companies. CHANDLER was also an employee of the CTHPO.
Sometime in the summer of 2009, X.X. approached the Vice-Chairman of the Tribe and tried to get the process changed so that the companies could make direct payments to the monitors. When he was told he couldn't do that, he indicated he would take the matter up with the Chairman. The Chairman was never approached and did not provide any approval for X.X.'s request.
Even though his request was denied, X.X. began advising companies that payments would now be made directly to the tribal monitors assigned to the project. At first, in the summer of 2009, few direct payments were arranged. However, in the summer of 2010, the CTHPO staff person who insured that companies were properly billed and that CTHPO payments went to the Tribe left the office, and direct billing - having companies pay monitors personally instead of remitting the fee to the Crow Tribe - became much more prevalent.
From July 2009 to November 2011, a total of over $500,000 in monitoring service payments from the companies doing business on the Crow Reservation were diverted to the personal use and benefit of the employees of the CTHPO, including CHANDLER, and the two non-employees assigned to projects as monitors. X.X. did not serve as a monitor in the field. According to a GCM Services company representative, "the monitors often did not show up, and, if they did, they often only worked one to three hours."
When interviewed, CHANDLER confirmed that he had been a tribal employee being paid on a per hour basis for his services as a monitor. He also confirmed that he billed the companies directly, at the direction of X.X., for performing the services for which he was already being compensated by the Tribe.
The investigation was conducted by a team of agents and auditors working with the U.S. Attorney's Guardians Project, including the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Interior, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service.
Updated January 14, 2015
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