The Court has found that plaintiffs have met the standard for appointing a Receiver and that the appointment of a Receiver is warranted and constitutionally permissible. The Court found that:
The Department of Interior's administration of the Individual Indian Money ("IIM") trust has served as the gold standard for mismanagement by the federal government for more than a century. As the trustee-delegate of the United States, the Secretary of Interior does not know the precise number of IIM trust accounts that she is to administer and protect, how much money is or should be in the trust, or even the proper balance for each individual account. Because of the Secretary's systemic failure as a trustee-delegate, the federal government regularly issues payments to beneficiaries-of their own money-in erroneous amounts. In fact, the Interior Department cannot provide an accurate accounting to the majority of the estimated 300,000 trust beneficiaries, despite a clear statutory mandate and the century-old obligation to do so. As the Court observed more than two years ago, "[i]t is fiscal and governmental irresponsibility in its purest form." Cobell v. Babbitt ("Cobell V"), 91 F.Supp.2d 1, 6 D.D.C. 1999).
The Department of Interior's administration of the Individual Indian Money ("IIM") trust has served as the gold standard for mismanagement by the federal government for more than a century. As the trustee-delegate of the United States, the Secretary of Interior does not know the precise number of IIM trust accounts that she is to administer and protect, how much money is or should be in the trust, or even the proper balance for each individual account. Because of the Secretary's systemic failure as a trustee-delegate, the federal government regularly issues payments to beneficiaries-of their own money-in erroneous amounts. In fact, the Interior Department cannot provide an accurate accounting to the majority of the estimated 300,000 trust beneficiaries, despite a clear statutory mandate and the century-old obligation to do so. As the Court observed more than two years ago, "[i]t is fiscal and governmental irresponsibility in its purest form." Cobell v. Babbitt ("Cobell V"), 91 F.Supp.2d 1, 6 D.D.C. 1999).