Federal investigators have released findings of a lengthy probe into an American Indian chief in Alaska who stole between $49,000 and $56,000 in federal funds meant for her village.
Interior Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents found Joanne Lorry Polston, the First Chief and Tribal Administrator for Healy Lake Village (HLV), stole thousands of dollars awarded to her village from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“Our investigation found that Polston, while serving as the tribal administrator, stole between $49,000 and $56,000 from HLV between 2009 and 2012,” Interior’s inspector general reported. “She frequently wrote checks to herself from HLV’s accounts and claimed double reimbursement for many of her official trips.”
Polston pleaded guilty in September 2015 to “one count of conversion of Government funds and one count of conversion of tribal funds” and was sentenced to 90 days of house arrest and 3-years of probation. Obviously, she also resigned as chief and administrator.
Polston can no longer conduct business with the federal government for one year, according to a summary of the investigation.
This report is another example of Interior releasing the results of its investigations many months after the fact. The IG’s office recently told Congress they would commit to releasing investigative results 30 days after a case is closed.
Republicans say the department could do better.
Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas recently sent a letter to DOI’s IG after they released the results of a major investigation months after it was concluded. Gohmert said the investigation showed “exacerbating corruption” in the department.
“These are troubling findings, and serve as further evidence of exacerbating corruption within the Department of the Interior,” Gohmert wrote to Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall in June.
Gohmert’s remarks come after the IG’s office released a report on how the former head of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bob Abbey, stood to profit from the sale of federal land to a developer who was also a client of his old consulting firm.
DOI, however, brought the findings to a U.S. attorney in September 2015, but only reported the findings to the public in June 2016. The IG found evidence Abbey “stood to benefit personally from the sale” of the land and was “personally and substantially involved in the pre-sale process,” but the Justice Department declined to prosecute.
“It is similarly troubling that the OIG waited until three days after the Subcommittee’s hearing on DOI ethics violations to release this report summary,” Gohmert wrote. “Particularly since the summary notes that the U.S. Attorney declined to prosecute Mr. Abbey eight months ago and Subcommittee staff specifically asked OIG staff about the disposition of this investigation during a meeting on May 20, 2016.”
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