Alaska News

Ex-head of Inter-Tribal Council going to prison for thefts that wrecked group

The former head of a once prominent Alaska tribal advocacy group is going to federal prison for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the organization.

Steven D. Osborne, 44, of Fairbanks was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage to 21 months in prison for his theft of funds from the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council. He was executive director of the tribal council from December 2007 until February 2009 and admitted stealing about $145,000 during that time, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

The thefts came during a time the tribal council was receiving grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency topping $1 million, U.S. Attorney Joseph Bottini said in a written statement.

The crimes deeply damaged the organization, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason was told Thursday at his sentencing. As a result of the thefts, Alaska Inter-Tribal Council was considered "high risk" and was cut off from federal funding.

"Without federal funding, AITC was basically rendered a defunct organization, and it remains so today," the U.S. attorney's office said in the statement.

A second AITC official is being sentenced Friday morning. Thomas R. Purcell was the organization's finance director and was temporarily executive director after Osborne resigned. Purcell admitted stealing almost $23,000.

Both men were indicted in August 2013 and pleaded guilty in April to one count of theft, fraud and misapplication of federal funds. They both agreed to forfeit property.

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Osborne funneled money to himself by double-billing for services, paying himself on top of his salary, and misusing the tribal council debit and credit cards, according to the charging document filed in 2013. He bought a motorcycle, two sailboats and an inflatable boat, the indictment said.

Osborne was ordered to pay $145,000 in restitution to the tribal council in addition to serving prison time.

The council for years starting long before Osborne's tenure was a loud voice on behalf of Alaska's tribes, speaking up on salmon bycatch, affordable energy and land rights. In the 2000s, the council distributed fuel vouchers from the Venezuelan government-owned Citgo for home heating oil.

Gleason noted "the catastrophic results which Osborne's actions caused to AITC," prosecutors said.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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