The facts are hardly in dispute. On December 19th, 2008 W gave his Oil and Gas crony capitalist buddy’s a parting gift by auctioning off 130,000 acres of leases on Public Lands near environmentally sensitive National Parks and Monuments.
Tim DeChristopher, an economics major at the University of Utah, registered as a bidder and succeeded in obtaining leases to 22,500 acres for the bargain price of $1.7 Million and running up the bids on even more.
“We were hosed,” said Jason Blake of Park City, shortly after the consulting geologist was outbid on a 320-acre parcel. “It’s very frustrating.”
Upon coming to office Interior Secretary Salazar suspended processing of the sales, many of which were later blocked in Federal Court. DeChristopher was arrested and his trial starts today on two counts- Making a False Statement and violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act. If convicted he faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.
DeChristopher had offered to cover the bill with an Internet fundraising campaign, but the government refused to accept any of the money after the fact.
Federal prosecutors have acknowledged that DeChristopher is the only person ever charged with failing to make good on bids at a lease auction of public lands in Utah.
“There’s people who didn’t have the money, but they didn’t have the intent to disrupt” the auction, assistant U.S. attorney John Huber told The Associated Press in 2009.
Thank you Barack Hussein Obama, fierce advocate for the environment.
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Where would an economics major get that kind of money? Who accepted the bids without a check on deChristopher’s finances? At least they decided to prosecute him instead of letting him buy his way out of the charges. That was a pretty lame offer anyway, an internet campaign to raise the money.