Federal prosecutors in Sacramento have launched a blistering new
attack on Sierra Pacific Industries and its lawyers, accusing the timber
giant of “deception” and “scandal mongering” in its efforts to reverse a
$100 million settlement it agreed to pay over the 2007 Moonlight fire,
which burned huge swaths of the Plumas and Lassen national forests. In more than 3,500 pages of court filings made late Tuesday, prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento rejected claims by Sierra Pacific that it was the victim of fraud and corruption by government officials who eventually gained a massive cash and property settlement in 2012 from the company, which was blamed for starting the fire. “In
the seven years since the fire, Sierra Pacific has devoted itself
tirelessly to avoiding responsibility, employing a campaign of scandal
mongering and unscrupulous legal tactics which continues to this day,”
says a 127-page legal brief filed in U.S. District Court by U.S.
Attorney Ben Wagner’s office. The government contends Sierra
Pacific’s efforts to overturn the settlement “lack integrity” and are
based on false accusations, and that the company “only pretended to
settle” the lawsuit it faced. The filings are the latest development in an epic legal battle that has
been waged for years between the government and Sierra Pacific, the
state’s largest private landowner...more
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