Former Oglala Sioux Tribal President Julian Bear Runner has been sentenced to 22-months in federal prison and ordered to pay about $82,000 in restitution for embezzling from the tribe through phony travel vouchers.
The 39-year old Bear Runner was convicted by a jury in April of 6 counts of wire fraud,and single counts of larceny and of embezzlement and theft from a Native American tribal organization. for actions in 2019 and 2020.
The youngest man ever elected OST president faced up to 20 years in prison on each of the wire fraud counts, 5 years for the embezzlement and theft charge, and one year for the larceny conviction.
A federal indictment in 2022 charged Bear Runner with submitting vouchers as president for official trips to other states that he didn’t take, then receiving $80,000 in checks that he cashed for his personal use, including gambling and hotel stays.
At Bear Runner’s trial, a forensic accountant testified the paperwork Bear Runner turned in for tribal-related travel often put him 2 places at the same time and showed he couldn’t have made all the listed trips.
In closing arguments of the 2-day trial, his attorney told the jury that Bear Runner had no intention of breaking the law and stealing from the tribe.
He said that even though he was president, Bear Runner didn’t know that some forms were being filled out and that the system should have deducted money not used for travel from his pay.