Colliflower gets six months in prison for embezzlement

Wade Christopher Colliflower, the former president of the Bear Paw Indian Rodeo Association, was given a prison sentence of six months and six months of house arrest for embezzling funds from the reservation.

Thursday at the Missouri River Federal Courthouse in Great Falls, Judge Brian Morris also ordered Colliflower to pay restitution of $44,750, jointly or severally.

In December 2014, Colliflower agreed to plead guilty on one count of theft and one count of aiding and abetting theft.

Prosecutors were seeking an 18-month sentence and $149,000 in restitution. The prosecutors contended that of the $209,000 taken from the Bear Paw Indian Rodeo Association account, only $60,000 was used for legitimate rodeo expense, the AP reports.

The original indictment reads that Colliflower worked alongside John “Chance” Houle in misappropriating funds given to the tribe for use of the government for its people.

Colliflower was president of the association in 2010 and Houle was vice chairman of the Chippewa Cree Business Committee at the time. Through 2010 to 2012, the two misappropriated funds from the rodeo account for their own use.

According to a press release from United States prosecutors, Colliflower admitted his role in assisting Houle’s embezzlement of funds from the rodeo association by making kickbacks to Houle from payments processed through a separate rodeo association bank account.

Colliflower’s case is one of many that have resulted due to the work of the U.S. Attorney Office’s Guardians Project, which has convicted 17 defendants other than Colliflower from Rocky Boy and 24 on the Blackfeet, Crow, Fort Belknap and Fort Peck reservations.