Rocky Boy man's former boss sentenced to six months

A man working for the government who falsely issued checks to a Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation man was sentenced Tuesday to six months in prison.

Larry Ray Denny, a former employee of the United States Bureau of Land Management, is scheduled to be sentenced July 29 at 1:30 p.m. at the Missouri River Federal Courthouse in Great Falls.

His former boss, John Grimson Lyon, was sentenced Tuesday at the federal courthouse. He will be staying with the Bureau of Prisons for six months for charges of wire fraud/scheme to defraud the United States, false claims act/fraudulent claims relating to federal employment and theft of government property, and will be on supervised release for two years. He will also be charged a $300 restitution fee, as well as being required to pay a restitution of $74,385.99 jointly or severally with Denny.

He will self-report to prison.

Denny left his job in Virginia citing health issues to return to Rocky Boy, but still accepted payments from BLM from July 2012 to May 2013. He was compensated for 550 hours of work, 461 hours of sick leave, 389 hours of annual leave and 72 hours for federal holidays.

Lyon was Denny’s supervisor and gave him an appraisal rating of “exceptional,” which got Denny a cash reward of $3,262 in November 2012.