Rocky Boy pharmacist pleads guilty to tax charges

Another case of corruption at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation is close to an end with Darin Lee Miller, 43, of Havre pleading guilty Tuesday in federal court in Great Falls to filing false income tax returns and agreeing to a nine-month sentence in jail.

In the agreement, Miller agreed to pay a $90,000 fine and pay Internal Revenue Service $73,125.50 in taxes, penalties and interest within 18 months of his sentencing, set for Jan. 21.

Judge Brian Morris could reject the plea agreement at the sentencing and let Miller go to trial on felony charges of tax evasion.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Miller failed to report interest he earned on extensive tribal loans as a partner in James Howard Eastlick Jr.’s loan program, JE Loan Program, which he operated with the Chippewa Cree Tribe of the reservation and in which he loaned money to both the tribe and individual tribal employees.

Eastlick, a Havre resident, was the psychologist at the tribal clinic at the time and a former CEO of the tribe’s health board. Miller was a pharmacist at the clinic.

The press release says Eastlick, who is serving a sentence of six years in prison followed by three years probation in a complex plea agreement involving multiple cases and numerous tribal officials and people off the reservation, brought Miller in as a partner in the loan company with the intent of turning the business over to him.

The loan program to the tribe and its employees generated a 70 percent to 80 percent return and up to 100 percent return with some entities such as the health clinic and school district, the release says.

Miller claimed $10,000 interest income on his 2010 tax return, but did not claim any on subsequent returns, the release says.

Once the U.S. Attorney’s Office program the Guardians Project, established to investigate fraud and corruption on Montana’s Indian reservations, began investigating, Miller hired an accountant to amend his returns, the release says.

Miller had failed to report large amounts of interest income, the release says.

Miller earned $17,148.68, $76,373.37, and $23,378.17 in interest income from tribal loans in 2009, 2010, and 2011 respectively. The accountant Miller hired said he had not kept track of the interest in the tax years in which it was realized, and Miller and his accountant had to retrieve records from the tribe to have his tax returns amended, the release says. Even when amended, Miller’s returns failed to account for significant interest received.

The accountant also said Miller failed to report that he had raised the interest rate on individual loans from 10 percent to 12.5 percent until after the returns were amended.

From 2009, when Miller first became involved with Eastlick’s loan program, to 2011, Miller deposited $635,818.48 in tribal loan checks into his Wells Fargo Bank account, the release says. This figure does not include any checks Miller transacted into cash at Wells Fargo.

In addition to the bank account with Wells Fargo, during the same time period, Miller cashed $71,109.53 in checks at Leon’s Buy & Sell and another $142,042.87 at Leon’s Finance, businesses operated by Havre businessman Shad Huston.

Huston has pleaded guilty to not reporting transactions at his businesses in a case filed in 2014 and is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 16. He is scheduled to change his plea Nov. 2 in two cases filed this year, accusing him of conspiracy to file false claims, scheming to defraud the tribe, bribing tribal officials and making false claims against a federal project.