Koch And Native-American Reservation Oil Theft
By Dave Johnson
Just what is this Koch Industries? Should it be called a
"company?" If so we need to re-think the idea of what a company and a
business is supposed to be. Even the brother of Koch Industries owners
David and Charles Koch called the company an "organized crime"
operation.
Koch money is a key driver of the conservative movement. Almost every
conservative-movement rock you turn over has Koch money crawling around
under it. As the movement becomes more and more of a pay-to-play
operation, conservatives of every stripe do more and more to protect and
enrich the Koch operation. This has included blocking, disrupting and
avoiding official investigations of accusations. It also includes
funding front groups to advance the political and financial interests of
the company and its owners.
Theft Of Oil From Reservations
Oppose The Future has the story of how Koch Oil was caught stealing oil from an
Indian Reservation, reducing or removing the incomes of so many poor residents.
At some point in 1987, Thurmon Parton’s royalty checks
for the three oil wells he inherited from his mother suddenly dropped
from $3,000 a month to a little over $1,000. He and his sister, Arnita
Gonzalez, members of the Caddo tribe, lived near Gracemont, Oklahoma, a
town of a few hundred people on a small grid on the prairie.
Those modest royalties were the only source of income each of them had.
. . . What happened to Mr. Parton, Ms. Gonzales and Ms. Limpy had
nothing to do with the wells or how they were producing. Their oil was
being stolen. And all of the evidence pointed to the same culprit: Koch
Oil, a division of Koch Industries.
This is an important story today because it helps us understand the
nature of the Koch operation, which has so much influence over our
politics and even livelihoods today. It also helps us understand why
our government not only appears to be influenced, but often to be
outright corrupted. From the story,
In the spring of 1989, a Special Committee on
Investigations of the United States Senate’s Select Committee on Indian
Affairs was formed to look into concerns that the path to tribal
self-rule was impeded by fraud, corruption and mismanagement from all
sides.
... Within a span of months, the Special Committee determined that
“Koch [Oil] was engaged in systematic theft, stealing millions in
Oklahoma alone.” BLM, even with a tip that Koch was behaving improperly,
hadn’t done a thing.
Oppose The Future lays out the story and details of the oil theft. There is
also story of the years following.
"A Broad Pattern Of Criminal Behavior"
Back in 1996 Business Week looked into the relationship between
then-Senator and Presidential Candidate Bob Dole and Koch Industries and
an apparent pattern of influence by the company, in BOB DOLE'S OIL-PATCH PALS.
Here are some excerpts from their investigation, [emphasis added]
Koch has had a history of run-ins with the Justice Dept.
and other federal agencies. In 1989, a special congressional committee
looked into charges that Koch had routinely removed more oil from
storage tanks on Indian tribal lands ... Dole tried to influence the
Senate committee to soft-pedal the probe. Nevertheless, after a yearlong
investigation, the committee said in its final report, "Koch Oil, the
largest purchaser of Indian oil in the country, is the most dramatic
example of an oil company stealing by deliberate mismeasurement and
fraudulent reporting." The report triggered a grand jury probe. The inquiry was
dropped in March, 1992, which provoked outrage by congressional investigators.
Then in April, 1995, the Justice Dept. filed a $55 million civil suit
against Koch for causing more than 300 oil spills over a five-year
period. Dole and other Senators, however, sponsored a bill ... that
critics charge would help Koch defend itself ... legal sources say the
government's ultimate goal is to use evidence in the two actions to
establish that Koch has engaged in a broad pattern of criminal behavior.
... From Apr. 19, 1991, through Nov. 2, 1992, David Koch and the Koch
Industries political action committee together contributed $7,000 to
Nickles' campaign war chest. Around the same time, [Oklahoma Republican
Senator Don] Nickles sponsored Timothy D. Leonard, an old friend of
Nickles, for the post of U.S. Attorney in Oklahoma City. ... initially,
questions were raised in the U.S. attorney's office about whether
Leonard should recuse himself because Koch Industries purchased oil from
wells in which Leonard and his family had royalty interests ...
Then-Deputy Attorney General William P. Barr granted him a waiver to
participate in the case ... In March, 1992, after an 18-month
investigation, the U.S. Attorney's office terminated the grand jury
probe and informed Koch it anticipated no indictments. ... As the grand
jury investigation was winding down, Nickles sponsored Leonard for a
federal judgeship. He was nominated by President Bush in November, 1991,
and confirmed by the Senate the following August.
Business Week lays out the evidence
in detail. The timing, with Republican
administration/committee/agency/department after
administration/committee/agency/department impeding and/or dropping
investigations into Koch activities is also clear.
In 2000, CBS' 60 Minutes ran a segment, Blood And Oil And Environmental
Negligence looking at the activities of the Koch brothers and their private
company Koch Industries,
As we told you when we first reported this story last
November, the Koch family of Wichita, Kansas is among the richest in the
United States, worth billions of dollars. Their oil company, Koch
Industries, is bigger than Intel, Dupont or Prudential Insurance, and
they own it lock stock and barrel.
William Koch, brother of company owners David and Charles, called the company
an "organized crime" operation:
Koch says that Koch Industries engaged in "(o)rganized crime. And management
driven from the top down."
"It was – was my family company. I was out of it," he says. "But
that’s what appalled me so much... I did not want my family, my legacy,
my father’s legacy to be based upon organized crime."
In March, 2001 the incoming Bush administration repealed the
"responsible contractor rule" that barred companies that chronically
defraud the government and/or violate federal pollution, wage and other
rules from receiving federal contracts.
Then, in 2002 the Bush II administration awarded Koch the contract
to supply oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (There were
accusations that the government bought oil when prices were high, and
sold it when prices were low.) The contract was renewed in 2004. Koch
received tens of millions in other government contracts during the Bush years.
The story and timeline of the Koch operation (and its front-groups) go on and
on, organizing and funding climate-denial front groups, front-groups run and
funded by the Koch Brothers organizing and funding the Tea Party. (Please
click the links.)
Think Progress in particular has been following the activities of this
"company" and its front groups, and it is certainly worth taking a look. See
REPORT: How Koch Industries Makes Billions By Demanding Bailouts And Taxpayer
Subsidies (Part 1),
Koch funds both socially conservative groups and socially
liberal groups. However, Koch’s financing of front groups and political
organizations all have one thing in common: every single Koch group
attacks workers’ rights, promotes deregulation, and argues for radical
supply side economics.
http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2011031120/koch-and-native-american-reservation-oil-theft
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