SALT LAKE CITY — A federal grand jury Wednesday indicted an environmental activist accused of making false bids to run up prices on oil and gas parcels at a federal auction.
Tim DeChristopher was indicted on one felony count of violating auction rules and another felony count of making false representations at an auction, U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said. The charges are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000.
DeChristopher “repeatedly said he intended to disrupt the lease-bidding process,” Tolman said. “Today’s indictment is our answer to his decision.”
DeChristopher, a 27-year-old University of Utah economics student, will be issued a summons to appear in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City. No arraignment date has been set.
DeChristopher, who isn’t affiliated with any major environmental group, has been on the lecture circuit, saying he infiltrated the auction as an act of civil disobedience to protest possible drilling on public lands near Utah’s national parks.
DeChristopher has said he grabbed a bidder’s paddle, drove up prices and won 22,000 acres of land for $1.7 million — an amount he didn’t have the means or intention to pay.
One of his attorneys, Patrick Shea, said prosecutors weeks ago hinted the case could be settled with a misdemeanor plea bargain instead of a felony punishable by prison time.
“We got hosed,” Shea told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Shea said DeChristopher caused no harm at an auction that was already being contested in federal court by environmental groups, who won a court stay on the sale of some parcels.
Weeks later, President Barack Obama’s new interior secretary, Ken Salazar, rescinded 77 of the leases, saying they were too close to national parks and never should have gone up for sale under the Bush administration.
One bidder, however, said DeChristopher cost him money.
“We are angry,” said Daniel Gunnell, managing partner of Twilight Resources LLC of Orem. Gunnell said he lost parcels when Salazar rescinded them and paid extra for other parcels when DeChristopher ran up bids.
“Tim DeChristopher is a guy who walked in the auction without a penny and cost our company $600,000,” Gunnell said.
