JUNEAU -- Montana law enforcement officials have charged Gov. Bill Walker's one-time Fish Board appointee with seven misdemeanor counts of applying for and buying Montana resident licenses while he was not a resident of the state.
Roland Maw withdrew his name from consideration last month for an open seat on the Alaska Board of Fisheries after Montana officials said they'd opened a criminal investigation into his possession of resident licenses.
Each of the seven charges carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and six months in the county jail, said Jim Kropp, the chief of law enforcement for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Reached by phone, Maw declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Walker also declined to comment.
Maw's son, Robert Maw, of Nevada, was also charged with two separate misdemeanor counts of illegally hunting and illegally possessing a mule deer buck. He also declined to comment.
The Maws were charged in Beaverhead County, Montana. Reading from the charging documents, County Justice Court Judge Candy Hoerning said in a phone interview Tuesday that the two counts against Robert Maw referenced two separate years.
The charges against Roland and Robert Maw were filed nearly two weeks ago. Last week, Kropp had said the investigation was still pending.
The charges against Maw cover the seven years from 2008 to 2014, Hoerning said. Maw applied for a Permanent Fund dividend in Alaska every year during that period, according to state records.
Under Alaska law, a person is ineligible to receive a dividend if he or she obtains any benefit "as a result of establishing or maintaining any claim of residency in another state." It's a misdemeanor to give a false written statement on an application, according to state law. An employee at the state's Department of Revenue, which oversees the issuing of dividends, said the department, by policy, doesn't make public any information "regarding investigations, sanctions or penalties."