Clarkston entrepreneur charged in federal court

A Clarkston entrepreneur is facing a federal felony indictment over allegations of what prosecutors are describing as a “bribery scheme” to attempt to secure more than half a million dollars in business.

Christopher H. Clemens, 39, the owner of Hamilton’s West LLC in Clarkston, is charged with bribery of a public official, according to a news release from the Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Washington.

Calandra Charging Eagle, 52, of Albuquerque, N.M., is charged with accepting a bribe as a public official, according to the news release.

Clemens, Charging Eagle and Hamilton’s West LLC are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and theft of government property, according to the news release.

An attempt Friday by the Tribune to reach Clemens by text wasn’t successful.

Hamilton’s West is a government contracting company that competed for BIA and other federal government contracts and Charging Eagle was a contracting official at the Department of Interior’s BIA Albuquerque office, according to the news release.

The indictment alleges that in 2018, between June and October, Clemens agreed to pay a $10,700 debt owed by Charging Eagle at the Sandia Resort and Casino and event center in Albuquerque, according to the news release.

“In return, the indictment charges, Charging Eagle agreed to use her position to steer BIA contracts, including an over half-million dollar contract to provide lighting protection improvements at the Navajo Nation’s Pine School in New Mexico, to Clemens and his companies,” according to the news release.

At the same time, Charging Eagle provided Clemens with “inside confidential information regarding BIA’s procurement process, including, but not limited to, providing Clemens and his companies with the independent government cost estimate … in order to provide Clemens and his companies with an unfair competitive advantage in obtaining the Pine Hill (project) and other BIA contracts,” according to the news release.

The maximum penalty for the bribery charges, if proved, is 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of court supervision, according to the news release.

Before Clemens opened Hamilton’s West in 2018, he had been appointed as a member of the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport authority board.

Not long after he started the company, he served a short time as an unpaid interim manager for the airport for a period of about three months that ended in March 2019, when the board hired someone else for the position and Clemens resigned from the board.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.