Fraud in New Mexico (Bush allowed oil companies to cheat Native Amer)

[DoYouEverWonder]

December 3, 2004

An investigation by SmartMoney.com has found that officials in the Bush administration had detailed knowledge of fraudulent practices that allowed energy companies to cheat impoverished Native American Indians out of vast sums over dozens of years. These officials were aware that employees of the federal government were helping oil and gas companies underpay to operate on Indian lands in the state of New Mexico - and did nothing to stop it. This is the first in a two-part series.

(snip)

SmartMoney.com has investigated charges that the federal government has helped oil and gas companies deceive and cheat impoverished Navajo Indians in New Mexico for dozens of years. When evidence of these activities came to light in 2003, the Bush administration attacked the messengers, including Gambrell, and took extraordinary measures to protect the individuals implicated in the scheme.

In August 2003, Alan Balaran, the special master overseeing the Cobell v. Norton suit, filed a report with the U.S. district court alleging that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was approving lowball deals for pipeline companies using Indian property on the San Juan Basin of New Mexico. These deals were at times 90% less than what private and tribal landowners were receiving for comparable rights-of-way payments, the report charged.

Balaran found that Indian allottees on the Checkerboard generally received $25 to $40 per rod for rights-of-way easements crossing their land. (A rod, a metric for measuring pipeline length, is 16.6 feet.) Tribal and private landowners, however, often received compensation at rates ranging from $140 to $575 per rod, according to the report. A rancher with land in Bloomfield, N.M., told SmartMoney.com that he received more than $1,000 a rod for three major pipelines crossing his property (see the pipeline agreement here).


more...

edit: add link

http://www.smartmoney.com/onthestreet/index.cfm?story=20041203

[Moderator]

1. Link please

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Oops,

See revised post above.

[roguevalley]

2. one more reason they are all going to go to hell when they die.

no wonder everyone is quitting his 'cabinet'. who is the energy guy?

[GHOSTDANCER]

7. Obviously they are trying to create their own "Whites only"

heaven here on earth. I think its Article IV section X paragraph 2 of the PNAC plan.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

11. You mean Spencer Abraham...

the existing energy secretary? Don't think Shrub has named his successor yet.

[clydefrand]

4. Here's the link that I found at SmartMoney.com. I assume this is correct

SmartMoney.com

[Pirate Smile]

5. Here you go

http://smartmoney.com/onthestreet/index.cfm?story=20041203

Considering these facts, allegations that energy companies are underpaying to use Indian land is no trivial matter. Millions of dollars in future fees, as well as back interest on unpaid fees, are at stake.

-snip-

After the report was filed, Interior Department spokesman Dan Dubray told the trade journal Gas Daily that "we believe the report is faulty and biased. The special master has no authority or expertise on appraisal issues."

Soon after learning of Balaran's investigation into the dealings of energy companies on Indian land, lawyers with the Department of Justice's civil division filed a motion to disqualify him. (The DOJ declined to comment as to whether there was a connection between the special master's report and its motion to have him removed.)

-snip-

"I began to uncover evidence that Interior was putting the interests of private energy companies ahead of the interests of individual Indian beneficiaries," he continued. The government could not afford to allow his findings to be disclosed, Balaran wrote, since they "could cost the very companies with which senior Interior officials maintain close ties, millions of dollars."

6. Steal from Indians in the US -- 'slow holocaust' in Iraq n/t

[texpatriot2004]

8. They are always stealing from the poor to give to the rich.

[Pirate Smile]

9. How very "moral"!

[texpatriot2004]

10. Yeah, and it's really "Compassionate" too n/t

[Liberty Belle]

12. I'm shocked, shocked...Not!

As a San Diegan (first city in the nation to experience energy deregulation-related gouging, thanks to Enron) nothing that the energy companies would do in cahoots with Bush surprises me anymore.

[struggle4progress]

13. kick

:kick:

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. Good moral values, eh?

"allowed energy companies to cheat impoverished Native American Indians out of vast sums over dozens of years"

[dflprincess]

15. Cheating Native Americans

another traditional American value. In Minnesota, Governor Pawlenty is threatening to open state run casinos if they don't cough up hundreds of millions of their gaming dollars to the state.

[genieroze]

16. What else is new, we have been screwing over these people for a long time