Probe of alleged BIA conflict launched

Don Thompson

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004 | 9:22 a.m.

SACRAMENTO -- The U.S. Interior Department's inspector general and Congress' General Accounting Office said Tuesday they are launching probes into alleged conflicts of interest involving officials of the Sacramento-based regional office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Interior Department investigators hope to fly in from Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to begin interviews and gathering documents, after the Associated Press disclosed that regional BIA officials opened the membership roll of the Ione Band of Miwok Indians and authorized a new leadership election when they stood to gain personally from those decisions.

The inspector general's office conducted no significant review of similar allegations raised by four congressmen two years ago, but is acting now because of the weekend AP story; a congressman's subsequent call Monday for a renewed probe; and a citizen's complaint raising many of the same concerns, said Steve Hardgrove, director of the program integrity division.

"It's certainly being aggressively investigated at this point," Hardgrove said.

Rep. Frank Wolf said the General Accounting Office told him Tuesday it too would open a probe at his request. Wolf, a Virginia Republican whose Appropriations subcommittee oversees the budgets of the FBI and Justice Department, called Monday for investigations by the inspector general, FBI and GAO.

Acting against the wishes of original tribal members, the regional BIA office opened the tribe's membership rolls. The then-acting regional director who approved the tribal election was then added to the tribal roll along with 68 relatives, including an uncle and a niece who also work for the BIA. A different BIA official who oversaw the election had three relatives added to the tribe.

As a result, the original tribal members have no representatives among the tribe's new leadership, which now is seeking to build a $100 million, 2,000-slot machine casino in Plymouth, in one of California's fast-growing wine regions.

Meanwhile, after more than a year, the FBI has assigned a new case agent to review allegations of alleged BIA conflicts and influence-peddling involving a nearby but unrelated Amador County tribe that also is seeking a casino.

The inspector general's office conducted its investigation of the Buena Vista Me-Wuk band about the same time congressmen raised questions about the BIA's involvement with the Ione band, but says completion of that probe has been stalled by the FBI's review.

The FBI agent who had been supervising the case was promoted to Washington, D.C., last year, but discussed the case during a return trip to Sacramento last week.

"The case is still an open case," Sacramento FBI spokeswoman Karen Ernst said Tuesday.

Controversy over the BIA's handling of the Buena Vista band led to the firing in May 2002 of the Interior Department's deputy assistant secretary for Indian affairs, Wayne Smith.

Investigators were probing allegations that Smith's friend and former business partner, Philip Bersinger, had asked at least three West Coast Indian tribes to pay him for his influence with Smith, and that Smith aided Bersinger's activities.

However, Smith alleged he was fired after he complained that the White House was making "highly inappropriate" calls urging him to reverse a decision by the Sacramento regional office that gave control of the Buena Vista tribe to a descendant who opposed the tribe's plans for a $150 million casino. The tribal leadership issue is now in a federal court.