BLM won't back up claim rancher Cliven Bundy owes $1 million

(MCT) - Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy kept more than his cattle when he and his armed militia supporters from Oregon and elsewhere recently backed down the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

BLM officials say he also kept $1 million he owes for grazing without permits.

But that sum is unproven, and the agency's diligence in collecting any sum from Bundy is questionable.

BLM agents last April attempted to round up cattle they said Bundy left to illegally graze on federal rangelands in Nevada. The subsequent armed confrontation made world headlines.

To avoid bloodshed, the BLM turned loose the cattle, but didn't back down from claims that Bundy also owed the federal government $1.1 million. He still hasn't paid.

Bundy told The Oregonian Thursday he doesn't owe anything. And one more thing: "I've never been billed."

The BLM's public pronouncement about the debt led to head scratching among Oregon cattle ranchers, puzzled how one rancher could rack up and then evade such a debt. The BLM, which manages about one-fourth of Oregon's acreage, diligently collects fees from ranchers around the state. The total outstanding debt from Oregon ranchers in April was $18,759.

BLM officials, however, have repeatedly refused to document the basis for their $1.1 million claim and initially wouldn't say a word about its attempts to collect the debt. The agency's stature earned another black eye last week from the Nevada sheriff who initially agreed to help BLM gather up Bundy's cattle.

Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said in interviews with Las Vegas newspapers last week that the BLM lied to him about circumstances of the cattle roundup. He said agency officials told him Bundy's sons weren't in the area when in fact they were. He said he was told the agency had a place to store the cattle when it didn't. His office this week said it didn't dispute the published accounts of the interviews.

Gillespie's comments raise fresh questions about how the BLM has handled the Bundy affair.

In 1998, the BLM won a federal court order to get Bundy's cattle off the federal rangeland. The agency said in recent court filings that it worked for years to have Bundy remove the cattle. Yet it didn't act until this year to use its own resources to sweep up the trespassing cattle - 16 years after a federal judge ruled the beef had to go.

When the BLM aborted the cattle roundup, agency officials explained the cattle were damaging the fragile range and that Bundy "owes the American taxpayers in excess of $1 million."

Bundy is suspicious about the figure. He said agency officials were publicly saying he owed $300,000 in fees in the weeks leading up to the confrontation.

BLM is keeping secret how the $1 million was calculated.

Craig Leff, the agency's deputy assistant director for communications in Washington, said in May the debt stemmed from court orders in 1998 and 1998 that included "specific penalties." He subsequently explained the $1 million was owed for "trespass fees, administrative fees and other fines" but refused to provide The Oregonian any breakdown of what fees were assessed and when they were imposed.

This week, the BLM, responding to renewed questions from The Oregonian, didn't provide any accounting but instead stated the money is due "for the value of the forage consumed illegally by his cattle" and "administrative costs incurred by BLM in seeking to bring Mr. Bundy into compliance."

In an additional statement after The Oregonian's story first appeared online, the agency added yet more confusion to the situation, saying now that the debt "does not include fees stemming from the 1998 or 1999 court orders." Rather, the bureau said by email late Thursday, the debt relates to "trespass fees and costs from May 2008 through March 2014" and additional fees incurred since April.

But a year ago federal attorneys told something different to a Nevada federal judge when they got approval for the roundup.

"The United States is not pursuing any monetary damages in this proceeding," attorneys said in a court pleading.

Agency officials said late Thursday there was no contradiction, since the BLM can uses its own authority to assess the fees.

They also repeatedly ignored questions about collection efforts, acknowledging only that the agency still believes Bundy owes the $1.1 million.

Late Thursday, the agency said "the bureau has made multiple attempts to collect money owed the federal government, including issuing a trespass decision and demand for payment in 2011."

Bundy acknowledged that  about 16 years ago the BLM sought $20,000 for what it said was the cost of counting his cows. Bundy said a collection agency tried to get the money he rebuffed them and paid nothing.

He said he hasn't heard a word since about any debt.

"I haven't been billed nothing," Bundy said.

BLM officials didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Bundy's claim.

They also won't say whether they have put a lien on Bundy's cattle - a typical way to secure payment from a cattle rancher. A lien is paid when the cattle are sold, much like a mortgage is paid off on the sale of a house.

Bundy said there is no such lien - on his cows or his ranchland.

In a statement this week, BLM's headquarters said the agency "makes every effort" to recoup costs of illegal grazing "as a matter of fairness to the taxpayer and other ranchers who pay their grazing fees." The statement made no specific reference to Bundy.

Agency officials also said they had no idea when or if documents about their collection efforts, requested as part of The Oregonian's FOIA request in May, would be made public.