IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
____________________________________
)
ELOUISE PEPION COBELL, et al., )
) No. 1:96CV01285
Plaintiffs, ) (Judge Robertson)
v. )
)
DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Secretary of )
the Interior, et al., ))
Defendants. )
)
DEFENDANTS’ NOTICE OF FILING OF REPORT CONCERNING
INADVERTENT DOCUMENT DESTRUCTION
By this Notice, Defendants hereby submit a report from the Office of the Chief Counsel,
Financial Management Service, United States Department of the Treasury (Treasury), which
describes the recent, inadvertent destruction of 15 boxes of government records by a records
storage contractor to a Treasury contractor. See Defendants’ Exhibit 1. The 15 boxes of
government records include documents relating to financial transactions of the United States
Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Among other things, the report
describes the efforts that have been undertaken by the Treasury contractor “to identify the
information in the [15] boxes and to reconstruct the documents to the maximum extent possible”
and the degree of success, to date, of those efforts. Id. at 1-2.
Dated: July 11 , 2007 Respectfully submitted,
PETER D. KEISLER
Assistant Attorney General
MICHAEL F. HERTZ
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
J. CHRISTOPHER KOHN
Director
-2-
/s/ Robert E. Kirschman, Jr.
ROBERT E. KIRSCHMAN, JR.
D.C. Bar No. 406635
Deputy Director
Commercial Litigation Branch
Civil Division
P.O. Box 875
Ben Franklin Station
Washington, D.C. 20044-0875
Telephone: (202) 616-0328
Facsimile: (202) 514-7162
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that, on July 11, 2007 the foregoing Defendants’ Notice of Filing of
Report Concerning Inadvertent Document Destruction was served by Electronic Case Filing, and
on the following who is not registered for Electronic Case Filing, by facsimile:
Earl Old Person (Pro se)
Blackfeet Tribe
P.O. Box 850
Browning, MT 59417
Fax (406) 338-7530
/s/ Kevin P. Kingston
Kevin P. Kingston
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SERVICE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20227
July 9, 2007
MEMORANDUM FOR ANTHONY P. HOANG
ROBERT RODRIGUES
ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES DIVISION
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
FROM: RACHEL HOWARD rn maArI-GOFFICE
OF CHIEF COUNSEL !
SUBJECT: Bank: of America Incident
This memorandum is to inform the Department of Justice about an incident involving the
erroneous destruction of documents by the contractor of one of its financial agents.
The Department of the Treasury ("Treasury") has a financial agency agreement with
Bank: of America (lithe Bank") under which the Bank processes certain financial
transactions involving the Treasury General Account, induding deposits and debits for
the Department of the Interior ("Interior") and the Bureau of Indian Affairs ("BIA").
One of the Bank's responsibilities as financial agent is to follow Treasury's document
retention directives in this case. The Bank has a contractual arrangement with Iron
Mountain, a records storage company, whereby the latter stores records associated with
the Bank's financial agency agreement with Treasury.
In June 2007, the Bank: advised Treasury that Iron Mountain had mistakenly destroyed 15
boxes of government records and 8 boxes of Bank: records. According to the Bank, the
destruction, which took place in April 2007, resulted from an inadvertent error in coding
the proper retention status for the boxes. The Bank advised Treasury that, of the 15
boxes of government records, 14 boxes contained SF 215's (deposit tickets) and SF
5515's (debit vouchers), and one box contained adjustment backup documentation which
mayor may not have related to Interior transactions. Based on information provided by
the Bank and consistent with Treasury Financial Manual requirements that financial
agents return copies of transaction-related documents to the respective government
agency, Treasury believes that all of the information in these 15 boxes may exist in other
government records.
After its initial notice to Treasury, the Bank reported to Treasury that it had been working
to identify the information in the boxes and to reconstruct the documents to the maximum
extent possible. The Bank has informed Treasury that it has reconstructed the
EXHIBIT I
Defendants' Notice of Filing of Report
Concerning Inadvertent Document Destruction
Page 1 of 2
Page 2 - Bank of America Incident
inadvertently destroyed SF 215's and SF 5515's in the 14 boxes using information in
Treasury's Ca$hLink II system, with the exception of information that may have been in
the agency use field and with the exception of some SF 215's and SF 5515's from some
date ranges which have not yet been reconstructed due to technical issues which Treasury
expects to be resolved. According to the Bank, the documents in the one box containing
adjustment backup information cannot be reconstructed but copies relating to any Interior
transactions should have been returned to Interior. Treasury has asked Interior to check
its files for copies of documents which reflect transactions initiated by BIA.
EXHIBIT 1
Defendants' Notice of Filing of Report
Concerning Inadvertent Document Destruction
Page 2 of 2