The perp and his lawyer.
Posted on 03/02/2011 12:01:41 AM PST by Libloather
Lawyer: Fake Utah drilling bids were 'sabotage'
Posted: Wednesday, March 2, 2011 12:00 am
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Tim DeChristopher, ex-wilderness guide, looked like trouble.
He stood out among the bidders at an oil-and-gas lease auction. He didn't bring with him any experts, diagrams or maps. Dressed shabbily, all he had was a backpack.
As his fellow environmentalists protested outside, he began bidding. When it was all over, he owed $1.7 million on more than a dozen leases near Utah's Arches and Canyonlands national parks.
He had no way of paying, no doubt that he would get in trouble and no qualms about any of it.
To Hollywood stars and activists, the 29-year-old DeChristopher has become a folk hero, standing up against a federal agency they say violated environmental laws in holding the auction. Prosecutors on Tuesday called him a saboteur.
DeChristopher is accused of placing fake bids on the leases to run up prices. He has pleaded not guilty, but doesn't dispute the facts of the case and has said he expects to be convicted.
In opening statements in federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Romney said the trial isn't about "Big Oil" or federal government. He said DeChristopher knowingly placed millions of dollars in bids at the 2008 auction without any intention of paying.
Defense attorneys passed on making an opening statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at idahopress.com ...
The perp and his lawyer.
If only part of the verdict included the confiscation of all the vehicles and gas heaters in Hollywood.
Simple answer: Require posting of a bond before submitting a bid.
You would think in business like this...a bond would be absolutely mandatory and prevent crazy folks from walking in the front door to bid. Heck...you could have some Grandma walk in off the street and bid...or some 14-year old kid who just cut classes for the day.
This is why you don’t place surplus Soviet fighter jets up for auction on EBay,,,
How can you run an auction system without posted bonds? This system doesn’t have sealed or phone bids? How do they comply with Patriot Act and money laundering regulations for transactions over $3000?
No doubt dirty money has been flowing through these cozy auctions with full knowledge of complicit Federal employees and contractors...
Note the turn of phrased used in the article, “Federal prosecutors say DeChristopher is the only person ever charged with failing to make good on bids at a lease auction of public lands in Utah.”
Captain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
Totally nuts.
I wish these morons could be forced to do without petroleum based fuel, and petroleum based products in their lives for only a month. I’d bet within days, they would be begging to get their ‘normal’ lives back.
“I wish these morons could be forced to do without petroleum based fuel, and petroleum based products in their lives for only a month. I’d bet within days, they would be begging to get their ‘normal’ lives back.”
Or, drop him off with his backpack loaded with high technologies supplies, into the middle of nowhere, without enough said supplies, and see if he can survive.
Nothing against backpacking, but too many have an unrealistic view of nature that purport to be defending it against evil society.
I spent 1 1/2 years in Alaska and 2 years in Hawaii, serving in the Coast Guard, and if I was forced to make a choice between the two, I’d choose Alaska....it’s real and dangerous, and you best be functioning on a level of reality....if you’re going to survive.
See my tagline....
When I saw that picture my “Gaydar” pegged the meter.
I hope he does some jail time and it ruins the rest of his life.
Even if this LIB moonbat asshat doesn’t go to jail, his life is already ruined. He is a LIB.
That could describe any city, county, state or federal government agency these days...
One can only wonder why there is no bid bid requirement
****When it was all over, he owed $1.7 million on more than a dozen leases near Utah’s Arches and Canyonlands national parks.***
My dad took us to Dead Horse Point back in 1955. Every inch of land had “Uranium Claims” (stacks of stones with paper claims in a pint jar) all around the area.
It was a business of honorable people up to this point.
Garnish his wages for the rest of his life if needed.
Numerous boiler room stock scams, false SEC filings, ponzi scheme investment frauds, and money flowing into back pockets around the region over the decades. An entire cottage industry of "analysts" and "engineers" who will write up any dang thing the miners want to report regarding proven or expected reserves. The watermelon bureaucratic shakedown artists were an extreme backlash against Wild West cowboy miners who truly destroyed the groundwater supply in the area.
The region and the country needs this proper uranium mining industry to function above board for long term commitment to alternative sources of energy to volatile petroleum imports, hopefully something like this guy's stunt here can result in better controls in the auctions...
Been trading Uranium stocks for several years, Denison Mines and Energy Fuels, Inc being the big players in the region, but others coming and going over time. This punk materially affected the cost basis of stocks I own who were probably bidders in this auction, so I got little sympathy for him, though I got to say, he deserves some credit for on the spot ingenuity.
I won’t dispute anything you say, but any environment where in many decades not a single person has welshed on a promise until this a-hole is pretty remarkable.
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