MADISON, WI—John W. Vaudreuil, United
States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Clarence
Pettibone, 53, Black River Falls, Wisconsin, a former elected legislator of the
Ho-Chunk Nation, was sentenced today by U.S. District Chief Judge William M.
Conley to five years in federal prison for his role in a bribery scheme
involving contracts awarded by the Ho-Chunk Nation. Pettibone pleaded guilty on
April 10, 2012, to accepting a bribe.
The prosecutor argued that the bribery
scheme, which ran from 2002 to 2009, generated $3,000,000 paid by clients from
funds they received from the Ho-Chunk Nation, and that official corruption
damages a society by eroding the very foundation of a government. The
prosecutor also emphasized Pettibone’s knowing and extensive participation in
this scheme.
In sentencing Pettibone to five years,
Judge Conley said that Pettibone was “ a corrupt—not just corrupted—official”
who took multiple bribes. Judge Conley found that Pettibone violated the trust
of the rightly-proud Ho-Chunk Nation and that his sentence should “send a
message that corruption will not be tolerated, excused, or unpunished.”
The charges against Pettibone were the
result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and
the Internal Revenue Service. The prosecution of the case has been handled by
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen P. Sinnott and Laura Przybylinski Finn.
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