SALT LAKE CITY — A college student who infiltrated a government auction for oil and gas parcels said Monday he didn’t plan to run up prices and disrupt the sale until an auction clerk asked him, “Are you here to bid?”
With that, Tim DeChristopher, 27, a University of Utah economics student and environmental activist, showed his driver’s license, picked up bidding paddle No. 70 and quietly seated himself in the bidding hall Friday.
He snapped up 22,500 acres of parcels between Arches and Canyonlands national parks that he doesn’t plan to develop or even pay for. He also drove up prices on other bids by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Nobody else has infiltrated a government auction to cause so much turmoil, according to officials at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Investigators submitted reports Monday to federal prosecutors, based on DeChristopher’s own account of his auction play. No decision on charges against DeChristopher was expected until after the holidays, and the case would go to a grand jury first, said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office.
DeChristopher huddled Monday with Ron Yengich, a prominent Utah defense lawyer, and Patrick Shea, a lawyer who also was head of the Bureau of Land Management during the Clinton administration.
Shea said the BLM didn’t require bidders last week to show proof of a bond or their ability to pay for leases.
