Already embroiled in court fights over plans to store spent nuclear fuel and allegations of financial misdeeds, the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes and its chairman are facing another legal battle.
On Dec. 23, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson ordered tribal chairman Leon D. Bear, 47, and the Tooele County tribe to turn over documents related to Starlike Properties Inc., a company owned by the Goshutes, and to appear in court next month to explain why he and the tribe failed to comply with summonses seeking such documents in March 2003.
The summonses, part of an Internal Revenue Service investigation into Starlike's federal tax liability, sought all documents related to the tribe's acquisition of the company and its operations since then. They specifically mention a "yen currency put option" — a contract that gives the holder the right to sell the currency at a specified price within a certain time.
U.S. Justice Department spokesman Blain Rethmeier said details on the investigation and how the put option figures into it are not available, though he expects things to become clearer as additional court documents are filed. He expects Bear and the tribe to file responses to Benson's order early next week.
The summonses also call for documents sent to and received from several companies and individuals involved in the establishment of tax havens including a Swiss bank, an attorney and a shadow company based in the British Channel Islands.
IRS court documents claim that Bear refused to testify and that he has produced "only three documents," all related to Starlike's incorporation and its operating agreement.
Bear was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah, emphasized that the latest court documents are civil filings. They contain "no allegation of criminality" and are "completely unrelated" to the tribe's plans to store spent nuclear fuel on its reservation and to federal indictments brought in December against Bear and several tribal dissidents.
The Goshutes are best known for the fuel storage plan. After December's indictments, which followed more than two years of federal investigations, critics of the plan said the allegations cast doubt on the tribe leadership's credibility. They called for a moratorium on the storage proposal.
Bear is accused of paying himself off with tribal money through various schemes and of claiming to have been jobless on three years' tax returns when he actually worked for the tribe. He will be arraigned in federal court Monday.
A federal grand jury has also returned indictments of Marlinda Moon, Sammy Blackbear and Miranda Wash, tribal members opposed to Bear's fuel storage plans and critical of his leadership, as well as their attorney, Duncan Steadman. Their charges stem from a tribal election that was never recognized by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, during which the three say they took leadership from Bear. They are accused of using false certification of that election to transfer tribal money among bank accounts and make several withdrawals.
They will be arraigned in federal court this morning.
The nuclear waste storage plan continues to progress, despite opposition. An administrative panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Dec. 31 partially cleared the way for Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of utility companies that have an agreement with the Goshutes, to construct a rail line that would deliver spent fuel 26 miles down the west side of Skull Valley, along the Cedar Mountains. The ruling wrapped up one of the last remaining issues the state and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance raised to put the brakes on nuclear waste ending up in Utah.
E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com