The essay, "Rogue Bureaucracy" (<http://www.dickshovel.com/rogue.html>) in
which it is asserted that the U.S. Department of Interior has been in the
past, as an agency, essentially a co-conspirator with major oil and gas
industry companies to defraud the Federal government, some states and some
Indian tribes...has just been updated with the following information:
"A False Claims Act "quitam" or action has been filed on royalty fraud for
44 of the lower 48 States, as of mid-summer 1996, according to inside
sources. As the law provides, the Justice Department chose to take up the
investigation - in order to decide whether the Federal Government will
pursue the suit on behalf of the claimant or legally give it to him to
pursue with his own resources.
Sources say the claimant is a former major oil company employee who
marketed oil for the company, and thus has the expertise and the insider
knowledge to detail how that company and others not yet named would post a
low price for royalty computation and then sell or trade the oil at higher
prices. Thus, the seven to ten percent underpayment pattern detailed in
every report I've read - going back 15 to 30 years.
Sources also say that his analysis and claims have been independently
confirmed by experts. Interior is said not to have disagreed.
One other interesting source finding: The major oil company is said to
have been making unilateral settlements with every State where it does
business, starting about January of 1996 or a bit earlier. When the same
offer was made to Interior...well, we just don't know what happened.
The claimant is known, but cannot speak openly at this time.
[According to Bill Robinson, the author of this essay] this validates
every finding in Rogue Bureaucracy <http://www.dickshovel.com/rogue.html>,
and I've been saying this for 13 years in writing. The only conclusion I
can draw is that Interior knew all along that the US taxpayer and the
Indians and the States were being cheated, and the agency as a whole
(without reference to any particular officials) was an accomplice during
and after the fact.
Indians and States officials should track this False Claims Act action as
closely as possible. At this time the full dollar value of the claim is
not known, but it is surely in the low billions of dollars. If the Statute
of Limitations does not apply, well, the claim could be much higher.
Ayatohihi...
First Nations/First Peoples Issues (4 Star Magellan site)
Wounded Knee Home Page
American Indian Movement
<http://www.dickshovel.com>
PGP public key available upon request...