Impostor disrupts lands bid
Civil disobedience » U. student drives up bids, may face charges.
By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:12/20/2008 07:11:02 AM MST
He didn't pour sugar into a bulldozer's gas tank. He didn't spike a tree or set a billboard on fire. But wielding only a bidder's paddle, a University of Utah student just as surely monkey-wrenched a federal oil- and gas-lease sale Friday, ensuring that thousands of acres near two southern Utah national parks won't be opened to drilling anytime soon.
Tim DeChristopher, 27, faces possible federal charges after winning bids totaling about $1.8 million on more than 10 lease parcels that he admits he has neither the intention nor the money to buy -- and he's not sorry.
"I decided I could be much more effective by an act of civil disobedience," he said during an impromptu streetside news conference during an afternoon blizzard. "There comes a time to take a stand."
The Sugar House resident -- questioned and released after disrupting a U.S. Bureau of Land Management lease auction of 149,000 acres of public land in scenic southern and eastern Utah -- said he came to the BLM's state office in Salt Lake City to join about 200 other activists in a peaceful protest outside the building Friday morning. But then he registered with the BLM as representing himself and went to the auction room.
There, he thought about the times he has marched, fired off letters to his congressmen, signed petitions and supported environmental organizations -- all to no avail.
"What the environmental movement has been doing for the past 20 years hasn't worked," DeChristopher said. "It's time for a conflict. There's a lot at stake."
Plainclothes Salt Lake City police officers were in the room during the auction, the last to be held under the Bush administration. BLM spokeswoman Mary Wilson said the agency requested law-enforcement help due to perceived threats over the hotly disputed sale.
Another man also was detained and questioned about the possibility that he and DeChristopher had committed federal offenses by trying to impede the bidding process, BLM officials said. That man registered as Kent Boardman, of Salt Lake City,
Since the Election Day announcement of the lease sale, preservationists, conservationists, archaeologists, business owners, river runners, anglers and hunters have registered objections to the BLM's plans to allow drilling in some of Utah's most scenic redrock desert.
They challenged proposed leases near Arches National Park, the White River, the greater Desolation Canyon region, Labyrinth Canyon, the benches east of Canyonlands National Park, Nine Mile Canyon, the Book Cliffs and the Deep Creek Mountains.
Objections also have come from the National Park Service, members of Congress and John Podesta, the head of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, who said the lease sale should be halted or altered to accommodate environmental concerns.
In the face of the outrage, the BLM pulled back from its original proposal to lease 360,000 acres. Friday's sale included 149,000 acres in Carbon, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand and San Juan counties. The BLM said it sold 116 of 131 parcels (including DeChristopher's bids) for a total of $7.5 million.
Kathleen Sgamma, director of government affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, said it was unusual to see a lease list trimmed so drastically. "The BLM was under a lot of pressure, unfairly," she said.
The auction had been under way for a couple of hours when energy company representatives became suspicious of a man wearing an old red down parka after he won bids on more than 10 parcels numbered consecutively, all around Arches and Canyonlands.
They told BLM officials that the man, brandishing bidding paddle No. 70 and unknown to the regular buyers, also seemed to be bidding up on parcels, raising prices on leases that others eventually won.
The auctioneer took a break and police asked the man, later identified as DeChristopher, to leave the room. After questioning him for more than an hour behind closed doors, BLM and law-enforcement officials requested assistance from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The federal attorneys' spokeswoman, Melodie Rydalch, confirmed the office was conducting an investigation, but declined to provide more details.
During the confusion that followed DeChristopher's removal, Sgamma said she had seen Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance attorney David Garbett "communicating" with DeChristopher during the auction. She questioned whether SUWA had been acting in concert with the man the BLM dubbed a "nuisance bidder."
Garbett, however, said he gave DeChristopher his business card and asked him to call SUWA after the holidays because he had won parcels included in a federal lawsuit SUWA had filed against the lease sale.
After the auction, Kent Hoffman, the BLM's state deputy director for lands and minerals, announced there had been a bogus bidder. But the false bidder was "on the hook to pay," Hoffman said.
"Good," said a woman in the auction room. "Make them pay."
Hoffman said successful bidders who believed their offers had been run up illegally due could withdraw their bids.
BLM officialTerry Catlin said the agency didn't want to reopen the bidding on the parcels DeChristopher snagged unless all interested parties were able to compete for the leases. That means the parcels won't be available again until at least February -- after Obama takes office -- during the next scheduled auction.
DeChristopher, who acknowledged upping other bids by about $500,000, said he would be willing to go to jail to defend his generation's prospects in light of global climate disruption and other environmental threats.
"If that's what it takes," he said.
[email protected]
At the courthouse
Thursday night, seven conservation organizations and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management reached a "stand-down" agreement in federal court in Washington that would prevent the BLM from issuing leases on 80 contested parcels -- including some won by the so-called nuisance bidder, Tim DeChristopher -- adjacent to national parks until Jan. 19, the day before President-elect Barack Obama is to be inaugurated.
A federal judge is expected to hold another hearing in Washington during the week of Jan. 12.
Lease-sale results
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management sold 116 lease parcels on 149,000 acres in southern and eastern Utah. The sale netted $7.5 million, although about $1.8 million was through bids from an admittedly bogus bidder.
Enduring Resources LLC of Denver, paid the most, offering $592,650 for a 2,195-acre parcel near Vernal.
The oil and gas industry currently has about 4.6 million acres in Utah under lease but not in production. About 1 million acres of leased land is yielding oil and gas.
Bogus bidder wins gas leases
- Thread starter Oak
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JoseCuervo
New member
LMAO.......
I am betting the Obama Justice Department may decide that the case for prosecution is "without merit".......
Dubya was outsmarted by a 27 year old in an old red down coat....
I am betting the Obama Justice Department may decide that the case for prosecution is "without merit".......
Dubya was outsmarted by a 27 year old in an old red down coat....
noharleyyet
Well-known member
...good, send him....snd send the auction's pre-qulification officials with him & re-bid the parcels.
10th Circuit Affirms Conviction of Fraudulent Oil and Gas Lease Sale Bidder in US v. DeChristopher. On September 14, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed a Utah District Court jury which found Tim DeChristopher guilty of violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act (FOOGLRA) and making a false statement in connection with his actions to disrup a December 2008 oil and gas lease sale auction involving 131 parcels of BLM land in Utah. DeChristopher, concerned with and wanting to draw attention to the environmental harm caused by oil and gas drilling on public land, falsely claimed to be a bidder, entered the auction, and ended up winning $1.8 million in bids (for which he was unable to pay) and drove up the price on many other bids. Following the jury’s guilty verdict, the District Court sentenced DeChristopher to two years of imprisonment and three years of supervised release. On appeal, DeChristopher challenged his conviction on eight grounds, all of which were rejected by the Tenth Circuit. Among other things, the Circuit rejected DeChristopher’s contention that his conviction should be overturned because: 1) he did not have specific knowledge of the FOOGLRA provision that he violated; 2) he was prevented from raising a “necessity defense” in which he would argue that his illegal acts were necessary to prevent a greater harm; 3) he was selectively prosecuted and his prison sentence was in retaliation for expressing his first amendment rights. The Circuit also affirmed the District Court’s decision to prohibit DeChristopher from arguing that he should not be convicted because the underlying BLM lease sale itself was illegal noting that
. . . Whether the BLM complied with all applicable environmental regulations in conducting the auction has nothing to do with whether Defendant organized a scheme, arrangement, or plan to circumvent or defeat the provisions of the [FOOGLRA] relating to oil and gas auctions. Defendant was essentially trying to present a defense akin to the equitable defense of in pari delicto or unclean hands. The statute does not allow such a defense. Nor do the BLM’s allegedly illegal actions negate any element of the offense. Thus, any evidence of BLM’s noncompliance with federal law or its environmental failures was irrelevant to Defendant’s guilt or innocence, and the district court properly excluded the evidence.
. . . Whether the BLM complied with all applicable environmental regulations in conducting the auction has nothing to do with whether Defendant organized a scheme, arrangement, or plan to circumvent or defeat the provisions of the [FOOGLRA] relating to oil and gas auctions. Defendant was essentially trying to present a defense akin to the equitable defense of in pari delicto or unclean hands. The statute does not allow such a defense. Nor do the BLM’s allegedly illegal actions negate any element of the offense. Thus, any evidence of BLM’s noncompliance with federal law or its environmental failures was irrelevant to Defendant’s guilt or innocence, and the district court properly excluded the evidence.
jryoung
Well-known member
What a dumbass....but beyond that it seems odd there is no pre-vetting of potential bidders. I scope wine auctions from time to time and many houses require a deposit in order to establish and account.
noharleyyet
Well-known member
You sayin' he might be touched with in para dilecto?
MNHunter
Well-known member
Hope DeChristopher enjoys his stay
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=federal+pound+me+in+the+ass+prison
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=federal+pound+me+in+the+ass+prison
DRAFTSTUD
Well-known member
He probably will get to know what Drillstem means...............John
especially when it goes down-hole.
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