FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 24, 2008
CLIFFORD G. BIRDINGROUND’S SENTENCE AFFIRMED BY THE NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a Memorandum affirming the sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Richard F. Cebull on September 11, 2003, August 9, 2005 and December 1, 2006, against CLIFFORD G. BIRDINGROUND. BIRDINGROUND was sentenced to a term of:
- Prison: 37 months
- Special Assessment: $100
- Supervised Release: 36 months
BIRDINGROUND originally pled guilty to accepting kickbacks as Chairman of the Crow Tribe of Indians from Homestead Hyundai for vehicles sold to himself, the Tribe and individual tribal members. Specifically, the United States was prepared to present evidence at trial that between July 2000 and August 2000, BIRDINGROUND arranged for the trade-in of nine (9) vehicles owned by the Crow Tribe and one (1) vehicle owned by the Little Big Horn Casino at Homestead. None of the vehicles were personally owned by BIRDINGROUND. The vehicle trade-ins established a credit balance, or tribal funds on account, of approximately $62,700, which was identified as the Crow Tribal Equity Account.
Later in 2000, BIRDINGROUND directed Homestead and others to expend the tribal funds held in the equity account to the benefit of individual purchasers, primarily friends, associates and family members of BIRDINGROUND. Homestead applied, with BIRDINGROUND'S approval, $61,865 from the Crow Tribal Equity Account towards down payments on ten (10) vehicles purchased by Crow tribal members.
BIRDINGROUND twice appealed the sentence imposed by the District Court to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Following his second sentencing, and pending appeal, BIRDINGROUND was remanded to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons. BIRDINGROUND began serving his prison sentence on January 4, 2007. The Ninth Circuit's Memorandum, issued today, affirms the sentence originally imposed by the District Court. BIRDINGROUND's expected release date from the Bureau of Prisons and before being placed in community confinement is December 1, 2008.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that BIRDINGROUND will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, BIRDINGROUND does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl E. Rostad prosecuted this case for the United States.
The investigation was conducted by the Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General.
