## Facts

- Florence A. White Eagle served as the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Superintendent at the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and supervised the Fort Peck Credit Program through the BIA’s oversight role.
- The Credit Program provided supplemental loans to tribal members; White Eagle’s duties included signing loan documents that pledged trust assets as collateral.
- BIA Administrative Officer Toni Greybull supervised Credit Program staff; Greybull and others ran a nominee-loan scheme in which employees obtained loans in relatives’ names and split the proceeds.
- After Greybull died, White Eagle did not disclose the nominee-loan structure; she told Greybull’s husband that Greybull (not the nominees) had outstanding loans, and he repaid them using life-insurance proceeds.
- Federal prosecutors charged White Eagle based on her alleged participation in, facilitation of, and concealment of the scheme; a jury convicted her on six counts in the District of Montana.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support convictions for conspiracy and theft/conversion from an Indian tribal organization where the government’s theory of the property and statutory coverage did not match the Credit Program’s structure.
2. Whether White Eagle’s conduct constituted bribery of a public official under 18 U.S.C. § 201(b)(2).
3. Whether the government proved concealment by “trick, scheme, or device” under 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(1), including any required duty to disclose.
4. Whether White Eagle participated in a “particular matter” affecting a qualifying personal financial interest under 18 U.S.C. § 208(a).
5. Whether the evidence established misprision of a felony under 18 U.S.C. § 4, including an affirmative act of concealment beyond mere silence.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the convictions on Count III (bribery under § 201(b)(2)) and Count VI (misprision under § 4).
- The court reversed the convictions on Count I (conspiracy under § 371), Count II (theft/conversion under §§ 1163, 2), Count IV (concealment/false statements under § 1001(a)(1)), and Count V (conflict of interest under § 208(a)).
- The case was remanded for resentencing on the affirmed counts.

## Legal Principles

- Criminal liability requires proof that the charged statute’s elements fit the conduct proved; wrongful conduct alone does not sustain convictions under statutes whose coverage does not match the facts.
- For 18 U.S.C. § 1163 (theft/conversion from an Indian tribal organization), the government must prove the statutory property and organizational elements as applied to the particular funds and transactions; a mismatch is a basis for reversal for insufficiency.
- For 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(1) concealment, the government must prove concealment “by any trick, scheme, or device” of a material fact within federal jurisdiction; not every failure to disclose misconduct satisfies this theory.
- For 18 U.S.C. § 208(a), the government must show participation in a specific “particular matter” in which the defendant had a personal, qualifying financial interest; generalized proximity to wrongdoing is insufficient.
- For 18 U.S.C. § 201(b)(2) bribery, the evidence must support that a public official corruptly accepted something of value in exchange for being influenced in an official act.
- For 18 U.S.C. § 4 misprision, the government must prove knowledge of another’s felony, failure to notify authorities, and an affirmative act of concealment.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit held that the evidence supported White Eagle’s bribery and misprision convictions but did not support the government’s statutory theories for conspiracy, conversion from an Indian tribal organization, § 1001 concealment, or § 208 conflict of interest, requiring reversal of those counts and resentencing on remand.


United States v. White Eagle, 721 F.3d 1108 (9th Cir. 2013)