Guardians tout success on reservations

GREAT FALLS — Many representatives from the various government entities that collaborate to fight fraud and corruption in Montana Indian reservations under the Guardian Project met Wednesday in Great Falls.

As of Dec. 8, 40 felony convictions have been made at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation alone, and the Guardians have made progress in their goal of weeding out corruption at the Blackfeet, Crow, Fort Belknap and Fort Peck Indian reservations as well.

Mike Cotter, the U.S. Attorney for Montana, is one of the organizers of the Guardians. He said the success of the project has led them to look at it as a template in which they may base other initiatives to combat fraud and corruption.

Under the Guardians Project, federal prosecutors work with inspectors general of other departments to uncover corruption. Inspectors general are independent officers who look for corruption and mismanagement in federal departments.

“This partnership that we have had … has been a very robust, great partnership with tremendous results identifying corruption.” Cotter said. “It’s terribly unfortunate when federal dollars come into various programs and the money is skimmed off and used for purposes it was not intended to be used for.”

Cotter added that the inspectors general of various U.S. government departments involved with the project can take their findings to make recommendations to Congress for reform to “make sure the money is appropriately used” and to prevent a recurrence of the thievery.

Michael Horowitz, the inspector general for the Justice Department, said the largest section of his staff are auditors who do systematic reviews of issues in programs. They have investigators and auditors stationed around the country and have been involved in the Guardians Project since the beginning.

“One of the things we try and do when we’re doing our cases is not only get the bad guys and make sure that they are brought to justice, … but we also look to work not only on the criminal side, but with the civil division as well,” Horowitz said, adding that they do this to go beyond the judicial portion of the cases they oversee.

Joanne Chiedi is the principal deputy inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, the largest source of federal money that goes to Indian reservations. The department is the largest grant-making agency and the third-largest contract-making agency, Chiedi said.

“We pretty much touch every single American,” Chiedi said.

She said the mission of the Guardians Project protects the most vulnerable population — those who need the money that is being taken away from them.

Patrick Sullivan, assistant inspector general for the Environmental Protection Agency, said he is in charge of the investigations and his top priorities are grant and contract fraud.

“When it comes to grant fraud cases that are here in Montana, we try to leverage our resources by forming task forces usually under the umbrella of the U.S. Attorney’s office,” Sullivan said.

The Guardians Project, through the banding together of many other governmental departments including the departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development and the Treasury, have caused Montana to lead the nation in corruption prosecution cases, Cotter said.

Just before leaders of the Guardians Project met with the press in Great Falls Wednesday, Brenden James Leischner, who was indicted in relation to the investigations led by the Guardians Project at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, was sentenced to six months of federal custody and five years of probation and ordered to pay $82,237 in restitution. Leischner pleaded guilty to falsifying federal financial aid applications inlcuding leaving out money embezzled from Rocky Boy by his family.