Rocky Boy embezzler pleads guilty

John “Chance” Houle, a former Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation tribal council member, pleaded guilty to several charges Monday in the ongoing probe in corruption at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation..

Houle attended his change of plea hearing at the Missouri River Federal Courthouse in Great Falls Monday to admit to four charges.

He pleaded guilty to corruptly accepting $5,000 or more from Hunter Burns Construction LLC and James Howard Eastlick Jr., with the intent to be influenced and rewarded in connection with a transaction and series of transactions of the Chippewa Cree Tribe, one of the indictments read. The indictment says he accepted $306,987, more or less, in payments. The maximum sentence for this offense is 10 years imprisonment with three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to evade a large part of his federal income tax that he owed in 2010. He stated his taxable income that year was $72,310, when it was actually $282,328, court documents said. The false income statement would have him owe the United States $9,657 when he should have paid $71,371. The maximum penalty for this count is five years imprisonment with three years in supervised release, along with a $250,000 fine and costs of prosecution.

The third count was of embezzling money from the Chippewa Cree Rodeo Association. Through a plan he devised with Eastlick, they embezzled tens of thousands of dollars from the funds meant for the association from the Chippewa Cree Business Committee. The embezzled funds were placed in separate bank accounts and the accounts of other notable people wrapped up in the federal investigation of Rocky Boy’s finances. The maximum penalty for this count is 10 years imprisonment with three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Eastlick pleaded guilty April to aiding theft from the tribal government.

In the fourth charge, Houle admitted to conspiring with Mark Craig Leischner, Eastlick and others in altering, falsifying and making false entries on records to cheat a federal investigation by the United States Department of the Interior, which was looking into wrongdoings at Rocky Boy.

The maximum penalty for this charge is 20 years in prison, three on supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Houle is scheduled to be sentenced March 19 in Great Falls.