- The court-appointed investigator in the billion dollar
trust fund lawsuit on Tuesday faulted a number of Federal Reserve banks
for destroying records related to the trust assets of an estimated 300,000
American Indians throughout the country.
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- In a report filed with Judge Royce Lamberth, Special
Master Alan Balaran said that 29 out of 37 branch offices in the Federal
Reserve system have reported destruction of records related to the
five-year
old Cobell v. Norton lawsuit. Despite a 1999 court order requiring the
Department of Treasury to preserve trust documents, banks have destroyed
records as recently as March.
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- But the Treasury Department has been trying to avoid
being blamed for the oversight. In a motion filed with the court, the
Treasury
said it had no control over the actions of the Federal Reserve and
therefore
shouldn't be faulted for the destruction.
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- Balaran agreed. He isn't letting the government off the
hook, however, and is faulting the Federal Reserve instead.
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- "Given the center stage that issues concerning
document
retention and preservation have occupied in this litigation, this lack
of oversight is profoundly troubling," said Balaran of the Fed.
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- Balaran called the Reserve's overall record of protecting
the documents of American Indians "abysmal."
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- While the Federal Reserve provides services to the
Treasury,
it is not a party to the Cobell lawsuit. The Federal Reserve is the central
banking system of the US government but is not an agency of the Treasury,
who has a trust responsibility to account holders.
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- Still, the Treasury isn't challenging that it has failed
to inform properly agents of the Federal Reserve who provide services to
the department. As a result, Federal Reserve officials authorized document
destruction on the "erroneous" belief they weren't required to
preserve them.
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- For two years now, document preservation has been one
of the key sticking points in the five-year-old lawsuit. Secretary of
Interior's
trust fund records office is currently being investigated for its policies
on preserving records.
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- Some of the documents date back to the late 1800s, when
the government created the trust accounting system. It has failed to
properly
manage them since then, said Lamberth in a landmark December 1999
ruling.
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- Elouise Cobell, the Blackfeet Nation of Montana banker
who is the lead plaintiff in the case said the Special Master's findings
validate yet another in a long line of complaints they have lodged against
the government.
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- "Saying the government's actions are 'profoundly
troubling' is putting it politely," said Cobell. "Indians --
we're the bottom of the barrel."
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- Relevant Links
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- Federal Reserve
- http://www.federalreserve.gov
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- Trust Management Improvement Project
- http://www.doi.gov/bia/trust/tmip.htm
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- Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton
- http://www.indiantrust.com
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- Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international
copyright law.
- http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
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- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
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