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NOVEMBER 3, 2000

Lawyers for the Department of Treasury want a report on lawyers who shredded 162 boxes of government documents kept secret.

The Department asked Royce Lamberth Judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia that the report not be made public. They say it contains senstive and personal information on the six lawyers who were involved in the shredding.

The exact contents of the boxes aren't known but they are assumed to contain information about the Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts adminstered by the Department of Interior and Department of Treasury for Indian account holders.

They were shredded despite an order by Lamberth that any documents pertaining to the IIM accounts be preserved. Then, when the shredding was discovered, lawyers for the government attempted to conceal it.

Get recent trust fund rulings:
Opinion: Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law (US District Court 12/99) - History of the case up to December.
Memorandum and Order (US District Court 12/99) - Lamberth denies plaintiff's motion to remove system from government.
Recommendation & Report of the Special Master (US District Court 12/99) - Reviews history of contempt charges and document destruction by the Department of Treasury.

Get the Story:
Government asks for secrecy on its lawyers' ' role in concealing of document shredding (AP 11/2)

Related Stories:
Congress wants settlement of trust suit (Money Matters 10/27)
US: Trust reform project behind schedule (Tribal Law 09/19)
Trust fund case back in court (Tribal Law 09/05)
COMMENTARY: The Trust Fund (The Talking Circle 09/07)
Trust fund update (Tribal Law 08/07)

Relevant Links:
US District Court, District of Columbia -www.dcd.uscourts.gov
Trust Management Improvement Project, BIA - www.doi.gov/bia/trust/tmip.htm
The Native American Rights Fund - www.narf.org
Financial Management - BIA's Tribal Trust Fund Account Reconciliation Results, GAO Report -www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/GAO_BIA_full.html
Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians - http://www.ost.doi.gov

Only on Indianz.Com:
The Trust Fund Fiasco (Smoke Signals 1999)