Today, a former Tribal government official of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation) pled guilty to soliciting and taking bribes and kickbacks from a contractor providing construction services on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, which is the home of the MHA Nation.
Randall Jude Phelan, 58, of Mandaree, North Dakota, was, according to court filings, an elected delegate on the Tribal Business Council, the governing body of the MHA Nation, from around November 2012 until the middle of 2020. Phelan sought and accepted bribes and kickbacks from a contractor operating on the Fort Berthold Reservation from about 2013 to 2020. In exchange for the payments, Phelan aided the contractor’s business by granting contracts, fabricating proposals during ostensibly competitive bidding processes, pushing for the firm with other Tribal officials, and arranging the submission and payment of bogus bills.
Phelan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery involving federally funded programs, honest services wire fraud, and bribery involving federally funded programs. He is set to be sentenced on February 22, 2023, and the maximum penalty for the most serious count is twenty years in jail. After considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors, a federal district court judge will impose any punishment.
The statement was made by Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, U.S. Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl for the District of North Dakota, and Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.
The Minneapolis Field Office of the FBI investigated the incident.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Andrew Tyler and John J. Liolos of the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Greenley for the District of North Dakota.