{"id":13082,"date":"2016-07-07T07:43:34","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T13:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=13082"},"modified":"2016-07-07T07:48:21","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T13:48:21","slug":"former-undersheriff-accused-of-embezzlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/07\/former-undersheriff-accused-of-embezzlement\/","title":{"rendered":"Former undersheriff accused of embezzlement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Bill Fleiner, a former Lewis and Clark County undersheriff, is accused of embezzling more than $34,000\u00a0from three federal agency programs during his tenure as Broadwater County\u2019s Disaster and Emergency\u00a0Services coordinator in 2012.<\/p>\n

According to documents filed in U.S. District Court<\/a>, a grand jury has charged Fleiner with three counts of\u00a0theft from a local government receiving federal funding. If convicted, Fleiner could be sent to prison for\u00a0up to 10 years and fined up to\u00a0$250,000.<\/p>\n

He is accused of embezzling $19,363 in grant money from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security;\u00a0$7,464 from the U.S. Forest Service; and $7,501 from the federal Payment in Lieu of Taxes program.<\/p>\n

The indictment comes three years after a citizens group led by Townsend resident Tim Ravndal\u00a0prepared a \u201cReport on the Peculiar Relationship between Broadwater County DES and Paradigm\u00a0Communication Communications and Preparedness Solutions, LLC<\/a>\u201d that was presented to the\u00a0Broadwater County Commission in 2013. Paradigm is owned by Fleiner, and in the report the citizens alleged\u00a0that Fleiner, as DES coordinator, illegally contracted for services with his own company.<\/p>\n

The group claimed that while Fleiner was working part-time for the county at $31.63 an hour, he also\u00a0was billing the county between $80 and $90 an\u00a0hour for the contract work. The group outlined\u00a0payments made to Fleiner\u2019s company totaling $35,664. The indictment totals are $34,328.<\/p>\n

Ravndal said while the \u201cwheels of justice certainly turned slowly in this case,\u201d he\u2019s pleased with the\u00a0grand jury\u2019s indictment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe indictment comes four years down the road\u2014we put the report together in 2012 and presented it\u00a0to the commission in 2013 that we were wronged as citizens of Broadwater County,\u201d Ravndal said. \u201cI\u00a0pray to the good Lord that justice is served here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>The citizens group reported that the PILT money, which is disbursed through the U.S. Department of the\u00a0Interior, was part of a capital improvement project involving \u201cInteroperable Communications\u00a0Improvement.”<\/p>\n

PILT dollars are given to counties that can\u2019t receive taxes on federal lands. The Forest\u00a0Service funds were from the Secure Rural Schools Act, which is similar to PILT but administered by the\u00a0U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security money was for a\u00a0communication planning grant.<\/p>\n

Broadwater County Commissioner Laura Obert said on Wednesday that she hadn\u2019t heard about the\u00a0indictment, and declined to comment until she read the legal papers.<\/p>\n

Fleiner was put on paid administrative leave from Broadwater County in May 2013 and resigned in\u00a0January 2014. He was the Lewis and Clark County undersheriff in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

In a 2013 interview with KXLH, he was quoted as saying, \u201cBills come in from the company to pay for the\u00a0work, and I have to sign the claim in order to get it sent to the commission. But who authorizes the\u00a0expenditure is the commissioners. And they\u2019ve been doing that for over a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleiner couldn\u2019t be reached for comment on the indictment. He made his initial court appearance June\u00a022 in U.S. District Court in Missoula, pleaded not guilty, and was released on his own recognizance. On\u00a0Tuesday, court documents noted that Fleiner doesn\u2019t qualify financially for a court appointed attorney,\u00a0and he is still seeking one.<\/p>\n

Eve Byron is a freelance reporter in Helena and can be reached at 406\/422-6601 or at\u00a0evebyron@hotmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Fleiner, a former Lewis and Clark County undersheriff, is accused of embezzling more than $34,000\u00a0from three federal agency programs during his tenure as Broadwater County\u2019s Disaster and Emergency\u00a0Services coordinator in 2012. According to documents filed in U.S. District Court, a grand jury has charged Fleiner with three counts of\u00a0theft from a local government receiving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[4655,4658,4659,4660,4657,4656,4461],"class_list":["post-13082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-bill-fleiner","tag-broadwater-county","tag-department-of-homeland-security","tag-interior-department","tag-lewis-and-clark-county","tag-tim-ravndal","tag-u-s-forest-service","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}