About nine and a half months after surrendering to federal prison, embattled local biologist Ron LeValley recently announced his return home with a grinning selfie taken somewhere on the North Coast and a plea for help paying down the debts incurred from his “sabbatical.”
Since LeValley’s incarceration for conspiring to embezzle almost $1 million from the Yurok Tribe, the prominent birder, nature photographer and wildlife biologist has kept up an email list dubbed “Outside my Window” that offers daily bird photographs (LeValley got some help on the outside with the daily emails). Folks on LeValley’s list got a surprise shortly after midnight this morning, when the (jailbird) selfie popped up in their inboxes with the following message :
“Well, I am finally home! Back at the ocean! … I would like to make a request to you. I will keep putting out the (Outside my Window) for free, but I would greatly appreciate the purchase of an 8×10 matted print from as many of you as are interested. The legal experience did cost me quite a bit and I would like to pay off my bills. So if you have a favorite photo, please order one from me! Many thanks to you all for the support I received while I was on ‘sabbatical.'”
Included in those bills LeValley mentions, presumably, is $852,000 in court-ordered victim restitution payments, with $752,000 owed to the Yurok Tribe and the balance to Great American Insurance Company. According to court records, LeValley has yet to make a payment on either debt, which may be why he’s pushing the 8X10 prints, which he retails for $45 to $85 apiece, depending on matting and framing preferences.
The enterprising LeValley, 68, hasn’t yet technically been released from custody, as he will remain under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Sacramento Residential Reentry Management field office. Given LeValley’s note and smiling selfie, it seems likely he’s one of the 3,445 inmates the office monitors on home confinement, though a prison spokeswoman wasn’t immediately able to confirm that. His official release date from his 10-month prison sentence remains set as April 29. (LeValley was also ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and to give talks about his crime to 200 people, but it remains unclear what plan is in place, if any, for fulfilling those obligations.)
According to court documents, LeValley used his company, Mad River Biologists, to conspire with former Yurok Tribe Forestry Director Roland Raymond to embezzle tribal funds through a complex scheme of fake and inflated invoices and payments for northern spotted owl survey work that Mad River Biologists never performed. Under LeValley’s direction, the company submitted more than 75 false invoices between 2007 and 2010, according to court documents, which indicate that LeValley then funneled the money back to Raymond after taking 20 percent off the top.
The survey work that was never done was primarily looking for habitats for the federally endangered northern spotted owl to determine what tribal properties could be logged without harming owl populations. It’s unclear whether Raymond and LeValley’s conspiracy affected timber harvest plans or led to the destruction of potential owl habitats.
LeValley pleaded guilty in February of 2014 to a single charge of conspiring to embezzle from a tribal organization. Raymond entered a similar plea, and is currently serving a three-year prison sentence.
Since his arrest in early 2012, LeValley hasn’t spoken with the press and attempts to reach him for this story were unsuccessful. But those eager to hear his story in his words need not fret, as he promises a “summary” in the near future.
“I will be posting a summary of my experience online in a couple of weeks for those of you who are interested,” he wrote in the Outside my Window note. Stay tuned as the bird prepares to sing.
This article appears in Preparados.
Theft is bad enough, but falsifying rare species findings is an irreparable crime.
Sorry, Ron, but your name is mud.
In Mr. Lavalley’s 1999 snowy plover report there is a picture of a plover nest in European beach grass. He misidentified it as a native grass suggesting that the European variety needed to be removed. That misrepresentation has cost hundreds of acres of historically productive breeding habitat that was torn up by either bulldozers or hand crews. The plover has not been helped at all and at Little River (Clam) Beach only one year out of the last ten has there been any chicks even hatched.
His senseless promotion of habitat destruction has cost us millions and has cost migrating birds and native species precious sanctuaries. Although he did not act alone.
I can’t say if he intentionally misidentified the grass that was helping plovers but he certainly should have corrected that misrepresentation long ago. What is most disturbing is his total lack of remorse.
What is painfully ironic is the birds he and we all love are worse off because of his deception.
Federal prosecutors should prosecute him for violations of the Endangered Species Act. To my understanding, anyone knowingly putting an endangered species in danger acts in violation of this federal law. This is a man who claims to love birds and touts himself as someone who supports conservation, you he put an endangered bird in peril. Does this seem excessively hypocritical to anyone else? This is someone who is supposed to fully understand the ramifications of taking such an action. In my mind, this makes Ron LeValley’s actions even worse than if someone else without his specialized knowledge had committed the same crime.
Further, biologists and others who worked with this man should hang their heads in shame, not “support” him. To do “support” him makes one complicit in a sense. The environmental/conservation community, in particular, should be outraged, not “supportive.” I don’t think I can respect anyone in this community if they now “support” him, especially since he has shown no real expression of remorse for his actions. Financially supporting him in any form just seems completely wrong to me on multiple levels. I for one will be boycotting his prints, not buying them! Who would want a nature photo hanging in their home or business from a man who embezzled money from the Yurok Tribe and put an endangered species in peril?
Having followed the information that has been publicly available, it has become apparent to me that Ron LeValley lied to his family, friends, employees (although some of them evidently knew Mad River Biologists was being paid for spotted owl survey work that had not been done), and the community at large to garner financial support for his legal expenses while adamantly denying publicly any wrongdoing. In fact, he seemed to put all the blame on someone else. It seems to me that he only finally admitted guilt when it became abundantly clear that prosecutors had enough evidence to easily win their case against him, probably on multiple counts of embezzlement and/or related crimes, not just one charge of embezzlement.
Mr. LeValley seems to inclined to put blame on others, insinuating that he was somehow hoodwinked into participating in the elaborate embezzlement scheme. Really, Mr. LeValley? If you ever want to re-gain even a modicum of respect, you should own up fully to what you did. From an ethical standpoint, it wasn’t just wrong, it was profoundly wrong. Many have been negatively affected by your actions and you owe them a sincere deep felt apology, not a plea to support you financially. Your actions were also a federal felony. Quit trying to make light of it! There is no way to convince me that a man of your experience and knowledge didn’t know full well exactly what you were doing. I would also bet this wasn’t your first time to play loosey goosey with the accounting. Inflation of invoices, even to ridiculous amounts, as well as flat out falsifying invoices (as well as other related schemes) is all too easy these days when true oversight of public money is all too lax or even non-existent.
If anything good were to come of this tragedy, perhaps it could be an education to the public on how all this works and just how easy it is to embezzle and misuse public money with environmental and conservation projects. This public money should not be handed over so easily to the likes of Mr. LeValley without there being an effective method in place to monitor exactly how that money is being spent. There should be safeguards in place to ensure the money isn’t being embezzled, misused, misappropriated, or otherwise mishandled in any way. After all, this is public money, not private money, that is being handed over to businesses like Mad River Biologists, vendors, and various non-profit organizations, or funneled to them in various schemes. As such, here should be a very careful accounting of that public money and there should be random full audits. Please understand that I do realize that there is good environmental and conservation work being done. However, I also believe there is a lot of money in this area that is being misused and squandered. I also believe a great deal more work in this area could be accomplished if this were not true.
Over the years, Ron LeValley has held prominent positions on boards and advisory committees. This includes not only his role in Mad River Biologists but also his role as the co-chair of the “Science Advisory Team” (SAT) for the North Coast Marine Life Protection Act Initiative and a trustee and treasurer of the Pacific Seabird Group, for which the public address was listed at his private home. In these positions, he directly and greatly influenced important public policy decisions and how public money would be spent. All of the decisions, directives, and policy changes that were influenced by Mr. Ron LeValley should now be very carefully scrutinized. Nothing that this man has ever done professionally should be fully trusted at this point. It would be foolish not to do so. Further, all of the work that Mad River Biologists has consulted on over the years should be very carefully scrutinized. No data or reports (written and verbal) generated by them should be taken at face value.
At the age of 60+, are we to believe that this was the first time Mr. LeValley ventured into “creative” accounting or was this simply the first time he was caught?
I have many other questions but I’ll end with these. Did the Packard Foundation award a $50,000 grant to the Pacific Seabird Group? Did that $50,000 go first to Mr. LeValley’s P.O. Box? Was this grant money ever given to Pacific Seabird Group? If so, was there a significant delay in doing so and exactly why did that happen? If not, where is the money now? Perhaps everything was handled above board with this $50,000 grant but I do believe it is worth looking into, as well as other accounting by the Pacific Seabird Group, especially any public money that went to this group.
No wonder all of you anonymous know-it-alls are so negative about Ron. You don’t know him, and what you do know is what you may have read a year or two ago in the Slimes-Substandard and what blogger T. Greenson has written about him in the NCJ. This latest missive from Mr. Greenson is permeated with a sneering, negative tone unworthy of a publication that purports to be a professional newspaper/magazine. No wonder they relegated Greenson to the blog section, which doesn’t meet professional journalistic standards.
So, without knowledge of all the facts, you guys surmise and speculate about the case and then jump to unwarranted conclusions in line with your negative bias. No wildlife studies were done, no logging ensued, and no endangered wildlife was harmed. You can be sure that state and federal investigators looked thoroughly at everything Ron has done and filed whatever charges they thought the evidence supported.
I know Ron personally and have interacted with him on a weekly basis for several years as a member of a Mendocino coast photo coop. Ron received over 150 letters of testimonial citing his many good works and his generous character, and they were given to the sentencing judge. I attended Ron’s sentencing hearing and witnessed the top officer of the Pacific Seabird group testify that a thorough audit of the books kept by Ron in his many years of serving as the group’s unpaid treasurer found no problems at all. The Mad River Biologists books were also audited and found to be in order. MRB went out of business last year after several decades of existence. Ron’s legal defense cost him tens of thousands of dollars that he didn’t have, and he still owes.
The “prison” that Ron was in for 9 months is a federal minimum security satellite camp in the desert of eastern Lassen County. The counselor in charge of his case knew that he was cleared for release to home confinement after only a month or two there, but kept him there for many months more, despite his full cooperation and good behavior. I strongly suspect that the reason for that was to keep full employment for the prison guards. What an unnecessary waste of taxpayer money that was! Federal figures for 2012 show the daily cost of keeping one person in minimum security confinement was $59.27. That figures out to over $16,000 of taxpayer costs that benefited nobody but the employees of the federal prison system. The months of unnecessary confinement also further impoverished Ron by keeping him from earning a living as a wildlife photographer.
At Ron’s sentencing hearing a year ago in San Francisco I heard the judge’s reasoning for deciding to sentence him to 10 months rather than allow him probation based on a faulty or incomplete reading of the court records and the sentencing report from the federal probation officer. The record clearly showed, and it was admitted by Roland Raymond, the Yurok embezzler who duped Ron, that Raymond was the one submitting false MRB invoices to the tribe, generated on his own computer. Raymond then hand-carried the invoices to the Yurok tribal office and got them paid while he waited, then took the check to the bank and deposited them “less cash” to the MRB account.
Raymond took advantage or Ron’s generous nature by saying he wanted Ron’s help tapping into Federal grant funds to the Yurok tribe so that he could train Yurok tribal members to do the wildlife surveys and employ them to do the work. Ron agreed to that in order to benefit the tribe. The 20% MRB took off the top was primarily to pay the income tax due on the payments and secondarily a part of the business overhead of MRB. Ron did not make money personally off the deal.
Soon after the arrangement began, and for most of its duration, Ron had moved away to Mendocino County and was no longer closely involved in the operation of MRB. So he was not supervising Raymond’s operation as he should have. Ron trusted Raymond that he was using the money routed back to him so as to employ his own team of Yurok wildlife surveyors to do the work. Ron knew it was technically a violation of the terms of the federal grant, but believed it was for a good purpose. He didn’t know, until Raymond was busted, that Raymond was using the money entirely for his own personal enrichment and feeding his meth addiction.
The sentencing judge didn’t believe Ron didn’t know what Raymond was up to, or that Raymond had billed his own tribe for exorbitant amounts of work that was not done. The judge said Ron should have known since his company, MRB, was continuing to send invoices to the tribe right up until the end. But the court record clearly showed that wasn’t true. After the initial period of the deal, Raymond started generating and printing the invoices on his own computer, not through MRB’s office, and Raymond confessed to that. Ron was out of the loop.
So, based on an erroneous understanding of the facts of the case by the sentencing judge, who said he wanted to deter other potential embezzlers by making an example of Ron, he was sentenced to 10 months of custody instead of probation, which the sentencing report recommended.
Ron cooperated fully with county and federal investigators from day one, driving from Mendocino to Crescent City the same day he learned he was wanted. It was the same day he got home from an overseas birding conference. In contrast, Mr. Raymond did go on the lam and avoided capture for over a month. Raymond was the actual embezzler and he took all of the money for himself. That’s why Raymond got a three year sentence. He had known Ron for several years through hiring MRB for wildlife surveys, and knew Ron was an easy mark and a soft touch when asked to help someone in need.
Ron paid a heavy price for his mistake, losing his business and professional license and reputation, as well as 9 months in confinement, loss of earnings, a heavy legal bill, and being held jointly liable along with Raymond for repaying the $800K-plus that Raymond stole from his tribe. Ron admitted he broke the law and pleaded guilty to “conspiracy” not to embezzlement. He did admit that he improperly helped Raymond to tap federal grant moneys (that the Yurok tribe could not touch), but he did so in the belief that the money was going to help the tribe by allowing it to employ its own tribal members, rather than an outside contractor, to do the work that the grant was earmarked for.
If Ron had been greedy instead of generous, he would have refused Raymond’s request to turn the survey work over to Raymond so as to benefit the tribe (he thought) by training and employing tribal members. He trusted the wrong guy. He learned a hard lesson. He served his sentence. It’s time to let him get on his feet again.
As of today, Ron is released from home confinement and is back at work at the cooperative photo gallery in Fort Bragg that he co-founded over eight years ago. He is required as a condition of release to work at least 30 hours per week, and that’s what he is doing. Like the other coop members, Ron receives no pay for his work at the gallery, only a commission on the sale of his photos there, same as the other four members, including me.
For many years, Ron has generously shared thousands of his wildlife photos for free with his daily emails. His emailed announcement that he is finally home requests that some of his subscribers buy an 8×10 print from him to help him financially. Those prints have been and are being sold at the gallery for $15 each. Ron is a very good and well respected wildlife photographer.
I know Ron personally, and have found him completely trustworthy, generous with his time and talents, and a frequent volunteer for nonprofit groups.
Unlike you anonymous lynch mobsters, I’m not afraid to sign my real name to my comments.
Nicholas Wilson
Did Nicholas just say the reason Ron was in prison was just to pay the salaries of the prison guards? Wow!
Ron was extremely influential in getting grants for a lot of projects many of them now need a lot of fixing. The worst of them are built on incredibly faulty “Lavalley science”.
Regarding the plover, by his continuous threat to sue the county if we did not bend to his will is a shameful example of a rouge biologist.
Was some of his work Ok? Maybe. But now we are going to have to question all of it.
Personally I am glad he has a friend. We all need them. He just cannot be trusted for a lot more reasons than what he got prosecuted and convicted for.
Nicholas, you need to read the court papers, including those filed in Del Norte.
Take a look at the 2010 tax return For the
THE DAVID AND LUCILE PACKARD FOUNDATION
The link:
http://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Details.aspx?agency_id=1&license_id=1014982&
Scroll to bottom and you’ll see the pdf. In this tax document, you’ll see $50,000 grant given to THE PACIFIC SEABIRD GROUP
Compare this to the tax returns of the
THE PACIFIC SEABIRD GROUP
http://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Details.aspx?agency_id=1&license_id=1066001&
I don’t see the $50,000 grant listed anywhere on their returns. Where is it? I’ve looked at the years around 2010 too. That amount is not listed either.
The minutes of THE PACIFIC SEABIRD GROUP are interesting:
http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/index.php?f=exco_minutes&t=Executive%20Council%20Meetings&s=1
(to see links to them all)
http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/exco_minutes/2010_LongBeach_EXCO_Minutes.pdf
“PSG is taking care of all the administrative overhead for the WSC. And in return for that contribution, PSG is getting 10% of the registration proceeds in return for this contribution. Payment to Ron LeValley for his services will come from that 10%.”
http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/exco_minutes/2011_March_EXCO_Minutes.pdf
“Report from Treasurer (Ron LeValley)
Our taxes were not filed for two years due to a bookkeeper error.”
“We are holding and managing around $30,000 for the World Seabird Union as a favour. This will increase to $50,000 soon as money from Environment Canada and a GST (Goods and Services Tax) refund come through. At this point, it is easy to manage this money but we will likely want to get something in writing about our understanding with them. It is important that we remain transparent about what this money is for and where it comes from. If PSG is uncomfortable with this arrangement the money can be moved into a different account.”
http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/exco_minutes/2012_February_EXCO_Minutes.pdf
“Do we have money from the $280,000 for specific purposes left? All grant agreements that had requirements have been fulfilled. In terms of the main grants PSG had to respond to the USFWS, Packard Foundation, and an anonymous foundation. We have fulfilled all specific needs from all grants. There is money left over, what is the best way to spend that money?
David Irons: Could we restate our factual observation that we received $280,000 and all grant obligations have been met. The facts we agree upon are that we got the money and have responded to all those that required feedback.
There are two contradictory statements: grant obligations have been fulfilled, but two of them have had little money spent. Does that negate the previous statements that all grant obligations were met?
The USFWS grant is to put on a conference, etc., what that statement (see attachment) says is that we did spend some money on databases, but the grant was exhausted. It looks like there is about $60,000 that came in with no strings attached. This is part of the $280,000. Some grants were very specific about how the money should be spent, others were not. To clarify, PSG received ~$280,000 in grants, ~$220,000 of that were for specific purposes and we have gotten back to the granting agencies. The other $60,000 did not have strings attached.
What about the colony compilation grant from Denmark, was this done? Ron LeValley: I don’t know.
Where did the unallocated $60,000 go?”
For anyone interested I could suggest reading the entire 2012 Feb minutes.
For discussion on an “audit” can be found here: http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/exco_minutes/2012_Summer_EXCO_Minutes.pdf
Ultimately, it looks it was for one year only and not a detailed audit.
Take a look at the 2010 tax return For the
THE DAVID AND LUCILE PACKARD FOUNDATION
The link:
http://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Details.aspx?agency_id=1&license_id=1014982&
Scroll to bottom and you’ll see the pdf. In this tax document, you’ll see $50,000 grant given to THE PACIFIC SEABIRD GROUP
Compare this to the tax returns of the
THE PACIFIC SEABIRD GROUP
http://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Details.aspx?agency_id=1&license_id=1066001&
I don’t see the $50,000 grant listed anywhere on their returns. Where is it? I’ve looked at the years around 2010 too. That amount is not listed either.
The minutes of THE PACIFIC SEABIRD GROUP are interesting:
http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/index.php?f=exco_minutes&t=Executive%20Council%20Meetings&s=1
(to see links to them all)
http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/exco_minutes/2010_LongBeach_EXCO_Minutes.pdf
“PSG is taking care of all the administrative overhead for the WSC. And in return for that contribution, PSG is getting 10% of the registration proceeds in return for this contribution. Payment to Ron LeValley for his services will come from that 10%.”
http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/exco_minutes/2011_March_EXCO_Minutes.pdf
“Report from Treasurer (Ron LeValley)
Our taxes were not filed for two years due to a bookkeeper error.”
“We are holding and managing around $30,000 for the World Seabird Union as a favour. This will increase to $50,000 soon as money from Environment Canada and a GST (Goods and Services Tax) refund come through. At this point, it is easy to manage this money but we will likely want to get something in writing about our understanding with them. It is important that we remain transparent about what this money is for and where it comes from. If PSG is uncomfortable with this arrangement the money can be moved into a different account.”
http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/exco_minutes/2012_February_EXCO_Minutes.pdf
“Do we have money from the $280,000 for specific purposes left? All grant agreements that had requirements have been fulfilled. In terms of the main grants PSG had to respond to the USFWS, Packard Foundation, and an anonymous foundation. We have fulfilled all specific needs from all grants. There is money left over, what is the best way to spend that money?
David Irons: Could we restate our factual observation that we received $280,000 and all grant obligations have been met. The facts we agree upon are that we got the money and have responded to all those that required feedback.
There are two contradictory statements: grant obligations have been fulfilled, but two of them have had little money spent. Does that negate the previous statements that all grant obligations were met?
The USFWS grant is to put on a conference, etc., what that statement (see attachment) says is that we did spend some money on databases, but the grant was exhausted. It looks like there is about $60,000 that came in with no strings attached. This is part of the $280,000. Some grants were very specific about how the money should be spent, others were not. To clarify, PSG received ~$280,000 in grants, ~$220,000 of that were for specific purposes and we have gotten back to the granting agencies. The other $60,000 did not have strings attached.
What about the colony compilation grant from Denmark, was this done? Ron LeValley: I don’t know.
Where did the unallocated $60,000 go?”
For anyone interested I could suggest reading the entire 2012 Feb minutes.
For discussion on an “audit” can be found here: http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/exco_minutes/2012_Summer_EXCO_Minutes.pdf
Ultimately, it looks it was for one year only and not a detailed audit.
Anon555, the court papers filed in Del Norte consisted of unproved allegations by the former DA, who was seeking to score political points. That DA has been removed from office and disbarred for abusing the power of his office in another case.
The case was taken over by the feds, as you know.
I believe federal prosecutors took over Ron LeValley’s case because the embezzled money was federal money given to the Yurok Tribe, a federally recognized tribe.
You can read an affidavit of the officier who collected much of the original evidence here:
http://extras.times-standard.com/multimedia/pdfs/YurokSWsandRameysPC.pdf
This is a fairly long and detailed document and well worth reading for anyone interested in this situation.
The information collected through search warrants was used to issue arrest warrants for Ron LeValley, Sean McAllister, and Roland Raymond.
The document linked above goes into detail on the invoices and how the fake ones were identified and some of the information, the checks, and the irregularities at the bank regarding deposits of the checks and very large cash withdrawals.
Here’s the federal arraignment document against Ron LeValley:
http://noyonews.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/U.S._v._Ron_LeValley_As_Filed.pdf
Interesting reading.
An arraignment is a hearing to hear allegations, usually by police, and to decide whether there is sufficient cause to charge someone with a crime. It is not proof of a crime. The facts are later weighed at trial.
I spent a number of years reporting on controversial and complicated civil and criminal trials. In two of them, the Bear Lincoln murder trial in 1997 and the Judi Bari vs. FBI civil case in 2002, the jury concluded that the police had lied in their sworn statements. Allegations can not be cited as proof of facts. Is anybody shocked to learn that cops lie, especially in light of recent videos proving they lied to cover their asses after killing unarmed people?
Nicholas Wilson aka “Nick1”
You have said in a number of posts that Ron LeValley was the victim of those in authority abusing their power and implying that is the reason he was charged and found guilty of embezzlement. But you do admit that “Ron knew it was technically a violation of the terms of the federal grant, but believed it was for a good purpose.”
The federal government does not overlook that sort of violation and the law does not allow the embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars if the embezzler feels it is “for a good purpose”. The government decides the “good purposes” it thinks are worthy of our tax dollars.
You say you find LeValley to be “completely trustworthy” and that is apparently the same sort of sentiment (and naivete) that caused Ron to collaborate with Roland Raymond. Ron trusted Raymond, but he also allowed him to channel federal funds through his consulting firm, Mad River Biologists, while providing Ron with money for “bonuses” for his employees. The level of trust LeValley and Raymond felt for each other does not decrease the criminality of their actions.
The “trust” that was violated in this case was the public trust, and the violation was LeValley and Raymond misappropriating and stealing public funds. Your personal feelings about LeValley’s trustworthiness (or LeValley’s feelings about Raymond) are unimportant when considering the crime that was committed.
Sorry, Ron, but I wouldn’t pee on you if you were on fire. Need to pay your bills? Sell your house, a**hole.
A shyster for decades. People spend years in federal prison for far less than the crime that Ron finally got caught committing.