St. Michael Man Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement from an Indian Tribal Organization

FARGO—U.S. Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon announced that on Dec. 12, 2011, Raymond Jetty, III, 37, of St. Michael, N.D., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Erickson to two incidents of embezzlement from two separate Indian tribal organization on the Spirit Lake Reservation.

Jetty, III was first charged, along with a number of his family members, with conspiracy to embezzle from the Spirit Lake Tribe’s Vocational Rehabilitation Program. In pleading guilty to this offense, Jetty, III admitted that he allowed his wife, who was employed by Voc-Rehab, to use and sign his name to requests to obtain financial benefits that he was not entitled to receive.

Jetty, III was also charged with theft and embezzlement from a second Indian tribal organization, the Spirit Lake Tribe’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). In pleading guilty to this separate charge, Jetty, III admitted that he applied for heating assistance and knowingly failed to include the total income of his household as is required on the application for eligibility.

The failure to include household members and income caused Jetty, III to receive heating assistance to which he would otherwise not have been entitled.

The charges of embezzlement from an Indian tribal organization are misdemeanors and each carry a statutory maximum penalty of one year imprisonment.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Sentencing for Jetty, III has been scheduled for March 12, 2012, in U.S. District Court in Fargo, at 2:30 p.m..