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SALT LAKE CITY -- The man who's being prosecuted for making fake bids on oil and gas leases received a big bill in the mail, but nobody's taking responsibility for it.
Tim DeChristopher got a bill for $81,000. It's the same amount he was first told was the minimum he needed to pay for winning bids on 14 parcels, with the full $1.8 million due later. But the Interior Department later took most of those parcels off the table.
DeChristopher's attorney, Pat Shea, wants to know who is behind the fine.
"I think each of us has experienced government where the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing," he said.
Shea says the letter was hand-delivered, and it came on BLM letterhead. But a BLM spokeswoman told the Salt Lake Tribune the fine was related to the criminal case from the U.S. Attorney for Utah. But the U.S. Attorney's Office pointed right back at the BLM.
Shea was a BLM director under the Clinton administration. He says DeChristopher shouldn't owe anything.
"It's ironic Secretary Salazar has withdrawn the leases. Normal practice is when the leases are withdrawn, the money is returned. We offered to pay the money, but it was rejected. And now we are given this fine after the fact," Shea said.
He says they are appealing to the local BLM office and may take it higher than that.
The bill is for $81,238.50. It's apparently the sum of $2 per acre, first-year rent and an administrative fee of $140 for each of the 14 leases DeChristopher won as a fake bidder at the Dec. 19 sale.
A federal grand jury indicted DeChristopher on one felony count of interfering with an auction and another of making false representations.
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
