Supervisor stole $110,000 and splurged on trips to Disney and SeaWorld, feds say
A tribal official in Utah “more than doubled” his salary by stealing from small businesses and splurged on vacations to Disney World, Disneyland and other amusement parks, according to federal prosecutors.
Leallen Blackhair, 47, is going to prison for 18 months after he abused the “coveted” position he held within the Ute Tribe’s government, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah announced in an April 22 news release.
As a compliance supervisor for the tribe’s energy and mineral’s department, Blackhair extorted $109,925 from “mom and pop” oil and gas companies working on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation up until he was fired, according to court documents filed by prosecutors.
Through his job, Blackhair earned a $50,000 salary and had the power to decide what businesses could continue working on the reservation, according to prosecutors who said he could fine companies for violating access permits and business licenses.
When he issued fines, Blackhair offered to reduce fines if the businesses paid him directly, according to prosecutors. As a result, he extorted 66 payments from businesses from August 2010 through May 2013, prosecutors said.
In addition to Disney trips, Blackhair spent the money — which was supposed to go to the Ute Tribe — on vacations to Legoland, SeaWorld, Universal Pictures, Las Vegas and on airfare, hotel stays, rental vehicles, food and shopping, according to prosecutors.
“He strong-armed his victims into giving up their hard-earned money for his selfish benefit, so he and his family could go to Disneyland, Las Vegas and Disney World,” prosecutors wrote ahead of Blackhair’s sentencing.
A judge has sentenced Blackhair to one year and six months in prison on extortion charges, the attorney’s office said. In December 2022, he pleaded guilty to nine counts of extortion under color of official right, according to an earlier news release.
Federal public defenders who represented Blackhair didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from McClatchy News on April 22. McClatchy News also contacted the Ute Tribe and didn’t receive an immediate response.
‘Sold his soul for money’
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors suggested a lengthier sentence of three years and five months in prison for Blackhair, arguing “he willingly betrayed his employer, co-workers, Tribe and business community.”
Most of the Ute Tribe’s revenue, an estimated 95%, comes from the oil and gas businesses’ work on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, according to the attorney’s office.
“(Blackhair) sold his soul for money,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memo. “His criminal conduct was not driven by need or desperation, but by a sense of entitlement and arrogance.”
Blackhair’s defense counsel denied these assertions in a sentencing memo submitted on his behalf.
His counsel refuted “the government’s suggestion that he is a soulless crook” and noted how nearly all of the money he gained went to benefit himself and his family.
Blackhair “was acting against a childhood of deprivation and a desire to give his family opportunities he never had,” his defense counsel wrote in the sentencing memo.
As part of Blackhair’s sentence, which is to be followed by three years of supervised release, he must pay $18,000 in restitution, according to prosecutors.
Blackhair has since appealed the sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, court records show.
The Ute Tribe’s Uintah and Ouray reservation is about 150 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.
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