Alaskan Dude's flickr photostream/Creative Commons

A few months back, we told you about an environmentalist that infiltrated a federal auction for oil rights in Utah, and won 22,500 acres of land for a price tag of $1.7 million. Which he had no intention of actually paying for. Well, don’t pay for federal land you’ve won, and get charged with federal felonies.

Tim DeChristopher, the college student that made the false bid on the land being auctioned to oil companies as an act of “civil disobedience,” has been indicted for his actions.

A grand jury charged DeChristopher with one count of interfering with a federal auction and one count of making false representations at an auction, Tolman said. The penalty could range from no punishment to a combined sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $750,000 fine. [Los Angeles Times]

I suppose that DeChristopher did break the law, but what’s with the range of penalties here? Seems like the options go from, “Eh, no biggie,” to “Ruin your life.” For what it’s worth, one of DeChristopher’s lawyers “said prosecutors hinted weeks ago that the case could be settled with a misdemeanor plea bargain instead of a felony punishable by prison time.”

For DeChristopher’s part, he’s not apologizing for what he did. He believes that the sale of drilling rights in pristine areas of Utah is simply something the government shouldn’t be doing, and is quoted in the article as saying,

This auction was a fraud against the American people and a threat to our future. My motivation to act came against the exploitation of public lands, the lack of a transparent and participatory government and the imminent danger of climate change.

His lawyers are claiming the no harm, no foul rule in his defense, but at least one firm that was bidding doesn’t believe that to be the case, with one bidder stating “Tim DeChristopher is a guy who walked in the auction without a penny and cost our company $600,000.” Hence, I suppose, the indictments. takepart and learn about land use with Conservation International.