Home › Opinion › Opinion Columnists
VanDevelder: The other multibillion-dollar scandal
STORY TOOLS
- E-mail story
- Comments
- iPod friendly
- Printer friendly
- News alerts
- Subscribe to the paper
- Submit a news tip
More Opinion Columnists
- Meyerson: Americans are already looking past Bush
- Sowell: Assaults on freedom sound so innocent
- Elias: Heedless votes for bonds dig hole deeper
SHARE THIS STORY [?]
As the last vestiges of laissez-faire capitalism were being lowered into the ground on Wall Street last month, out on the Western edge of the high plains an administrative circus of a similar nature was unraveling. Its center was the Minerals Management Services division of the Interior Department, in Lakewood, Colo.
On Sept. 10, Earl Devaney, the Interior Department's inspector general, released a report to Congress that documented - in lurid and embarrassing detail - the widespread use of sex, bribes and drugs by MMS employees to lubricate their professional relationships with officials of the oil and mineral industries.
What, you may ask, is the Minerals Management Service?
This is the office responsible for collecting royalties from energy companies that drill for oil and gas on public land owned by you and me. Last year alone, more than $14 billion in royalties was collected by MMS and deposited in our account. We cannot be sure of the real total, however, since MMS accounts are so bungled that no one can be sure if the reckoning is close to correct. Coincidentally, the MMS is also responsible for collecting royalties for resources taken from more than 11 million acres of Indian land.
It's a shame the Devaney report didn't stop with the drugs and orgies, since taxpayers deserve just a little vicarious entertainment along with all the bad news. But while the story's entertainment value was mostly swamped by the meltdown on Wall Street, few of its particulars were lost on the 400,000-plus plaintiffs in a lawsuit known as Cobell v. Interior.
Indian plaintiffs have been waiting patiently to be paid $47 billion dollars in royalties they allege were stolen from Indian trust lands by government and industry officials since 1887, when Uncle Sam first began to manage Indian resources. For those who have not been following the American saga of Elouise Cobell, a community organizer for the Blackfeet Nation in Browning, Mont., and the lead plaintiff in this case, here's a recap of the highlights of her quest.
In 1996, Cobell filed a lawsuit against the federal government for failing to account for tens of billions of dollars in mineral royalties that were never credited to Indian trust accounts. The suit quickly grew into the largest class-action lawsuit in American history.
Accountants for Price Waterhouse studied the records and concluded that $50 billion in absconded revenues was probably a conservative number. Cobell played it safe and sued for $47 billion.
Federal District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, a conservative from Texas who was appointed by the senior George Bush, oversaw the case until 2006. During that decade, Lamberth cited foot-dragging Interior secretaries three times for contempt of court.
In 2006, Lamberth had heard enough from federal officials. He was irate, declaring the Interior Department to be "the morally and culturally oblivious hand-me-down of a disgracefully racist and imperialist government that should have been buried a century ago. ... For those harboring hope that the stories of murder, dispossession, forced marches, assimilationist policy programs and other incidents of cultural genocide against the Indians are merely the echoes of a horrible, bigoted government-past ... this case serves as an appalling reminder of the evils that result when large numbers of the politically powerless are placed at the mercy of institutions engendered and controlled by a politically powerful few."
A month after throwing down that gauntlet, Lamberth was removed from the case at the request of the second Bush administration.
On Aug. 7, 2008, Lamberth's replacement, Judge James Robertson, tried to end the case by awarding the Indians $455.6 million. Cobell scoffed at the figure and declared that Robertson's decision would not stand: "It's factually wrong and legally wrong, so we have to challenge it." Attorneys for the Interior Department filed their own appeal, arguing that Robertson had no right to award the Indian landowners any money at all.
If you look hard enough, eventually you'll find a cool head who can make sense of all this. One such observer is Craig Miner, author of "The Corporation and the Indian." He said that the real significance of the federal government's looting of Indian trust funds is this: The money was not only held back from its rightful owners, it was also used to help private industry exploit the mineral wealth on Indian lands.
An honorable people would have brought this shameful story to a just end long ago.
Paul VanDevelder is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). He lives in Corvallis, Ore., and is the author of several books. His latest, "Savages and Scoundrels: The Untold Story of America's Road to Empire Through Indian Country," is due out in 2009.
Posted by randy on October 13, 2008 at 7:01 a.m.
Thankyou Paul VanDevelder, The extent of corruption in our government body makes me very concerned about what the future will bring. How can a rotten tree stand?
Posted by Buzz_Fledderjohn on October 13, 2008 at 9:20 a.m.
I'm shocked -- SHOCKED! -- that under the Bush Administration, the federal agency charged with management of offshore gas and oil concessions (including the collection of royalties on behalf of taxpayers) became a prostitute to the oil and gas industry that spawned the Bush Administration in the first place.
Posted by Cato on October 13, 2008 at 9:28 a.m.
-paul vandevelder
A pretty good article.
Reporting on government corruption is important.
~~~
Yet, I sense a bit of either hypocrisy, or ignorance in your very first sentence.
You assert that, "... the last vestiges of laissez-faire capitalism were being lowered into the ground on Wall Street last month ..."
~~~
You completely miss the FACT that the failures of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the banks are not the failure of the free market system.
Government involvement, government regulations, and government guarantee's caused these failures.
~~~
Once again we see, the government causes the sickness and then prescribes the medicine to "heal" the sickness. Then the government pats itself on the back for "fixing" the problem it created in the first place, and the media perpetuates the "official story" to keep the people in the dark.
~~~
Corrupt politicians, and businessmen get rich.
The government gets more power.
And the American people pay the price.
Posted by Buzz_Fledderjohn on October 13, 2008 at 10:13 a.m.
> You completely miss the FACT that the failures of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the banks are not the failure of the free market system.
Government involvement, government regulations, and government guarantee's caused these failures.
FACT: Our banks and lending institutions were doing fine before we went down the path of "Reagan Revolution" deregulation.
OPINION: We should have seen the dark side of deregulation coming when we had the Savings and Loan Crisis. Or when we had the Telecon Crisis (WorldCom fixing the books, etc.). Or when we had the Energy Crisis (ENRON fixing energy prices, etc.).
FACT: In the world today, the banks in the most deregulated nations are the ones that are sucking tailpipe: The United States, Great Britain, Iceland. The "anything goes" economies are the ones that are being hit the hardest. The banks in Switzerland, where by law loans have to be secured by deposits, are doing fine.
THEORY: We should have let the banks and markets crash and burn, which would sort out the winners from the losers. That's how free markets work. The companies that deserve to die would die.
FACT: That's what started the Great Depression. People lose their entire net worth in such disruptions.
FACT: None of the world's leaders, and very few leading economists, agree with your knee-jerk, simplistic, puritanical Reaganomics.
SPECULATION: The party's over for you anti-government, free-market wackos. You've damn near destroyed the economy, and people are ready to try something new. A lot of people would prefer the security of a little government regulation to your blindly fanatical faith in Reaganomics, which you maintain even in the face of its failure.
Posted by Buzz_Fledderjohn on October 13, 2008 at 10:21 a.m.
in response to mk
If you read more carefully, fool, you'll realize that I was referring to the more recent MMS scandal having to do with the MMS under the Bush Administration cutting sweet deals with oil companies in exchange for party favors. The partying included shared vacations, drugs, and sex.
I wasn't referring to the older "tribal royalties" debacle and subsequent lawsuit, which probably has more to do with incompetence than dishonesty.
Dolt.
Posted by Zebrareader on October 13, 2008 at 11:53 a.m.
Thank you Paul VanDevelder for writing about this injustice. I agree: "An honorable people would have brought this shameful story to a just end long ago."
Posted by yellowhak1 on October 13, 2008 at 1:47 p.m.
in response to Buzz_Fledderjohn
I would say both but what would i know being you all seem to be the experts on everything.
Posted by Buzz_Fledderjohn on October 13, 2008 at 3:17 p.m.
in response to mk
> Where does it say it started under the Bush administration?
You must think that this Op-Ed is the only source of information about the MMS scandal, and that, like you, I hadn't heard of it before today.
This isn't breaking news. The MMS scandal has been around for a few months.
In three reports delivered to Congress, the Interior Department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government’s largest sources of revenue other than taxes.
"A culture of ethical failure" pervades the agency, Mr. Devaney wrote in the cover memo to the reports.
The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch, and especially after 2002.
Idiot.
Posted by randy on October 13, 2008 at 6:51 p.m.
in response to mk
Much of this corruption can be heaped on Bush simply because he has been our president for 8 years and the people have witnessed his complete incompetence, and complete devotion to big oil corporations.
Posted by Zebrareader on October 13, 2008 at 9:18 p.m.
in response to mk
"Just drink the kool-aid and never ask questions, that's how you get to be a partisan hack."
Why are you so defensive? Can you not see the subject of the article above? Can you not see the severe injustice that was done to a group of people?
(Requires free registration.)
We're happy to offer a home for your discussions, but please be respectful and follow the house rules:
Stay on topic - Life's too short to waste.
Be nice - If you want your comment gems to survive, you won't defame, threaten or be abusive to other readers or the subjects of our stories. Victims have feelings too. Out of concern for them, we may not allow comments on certain stories.
Keep it clean - This is a public forum, open to civil adults and children who do not appreciate your vulgarities or obscenities.
You are deputized - Police these comment threads. If you see a comment that violates the rules, click "Suggest removal" to flag that comment for review by our staff.
There are consequences - Rule violators may be banned from commenting.
Click here for our full user agreement.
If you wish to participate in off topic discussions, please go to the Redding.com Forums.