FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 17, 2001 www.indiantrust.com JUDGE ALLOWS INTERIOR TO RE-START COMPUTER SYSTEMS UNDER STRICT SUPERVISION OF COURT WATCHDOG Lamberth: Government Conduct Is a "Disgrace to the United States," But IIM Trust Beneficiaries Should Not Be Innocent Victims WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth today allowed the Interior Department to re-start its computer systems and start issuing checks to 43,000 Individual Indian Monies (IIM) trust beneficiaries after the department agreed to strict oversight of its information technology operations by a court-appointed Special Master. Interior's complete failure to protect IIM trust accounting data housed in its computers is "a disgrace to the United States," Lamberth said. But he said "the impact of delaying checks to thousands" of IIM accountholders, as well as Interior's inability to serve the public while its Internet access is shut down, convinced him to approve the start-up. "The IIM trust beneficiaries are the last people who should have to pay the price for Interior's incompetence and fraud," said Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in litigation to force Interior to clean up the trust. "The Special Master proved that computer security for the trust data is nonexistent, which left the Court little choice but to order the systems shut down. Now the judge is taking a chance that Interior - under close supervision - will do what it says it will do, which is risky in our experience. We hope his faith is justified." Lamberth issued a temporary restraining order on Dec. 5, requiring Interior to shut down access to IIM trust accounting data after a report by Special Master Alan Balaran said the lack of computer security for the data was "deplorable and inexcusable." Today's order (posted at www.indiantrust.com) replaces the TRO. The order requires Interior to get Balaran's approval, and notify the Cobell plaintiffs, before re-starting its systems and reconnecting to the Internet. In the order, the Interior defendants said they "recognize significant deficiencies in the security of information technology systems protecting individual Indian trust data." In a separate order today, Lamberth required Interior Secretary Gale Norton to personally sign all future quarterly reports to the Court on her department's progress on trust reform. Misleading and false information in earlier reports is a central element of contempt charges against Norton now being heard by Lamberth. The Cobell plaintiffs have asked Lamberth to find Norton and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb in contempt and to place the IIM in the hands of an independent receiver. In the history of the country, Lamberth noted today, no federal agency has ever been put into receivership. But, he added, no Cabinet Secretary had ever been held in contempt, either, before he found former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt in 1999 in the Cobell case. #####