A nine-page indictment last week revealed that 35-year-old Henrikson was alleged to have orchestrated Carlile's murder.

"Carlile was shot dead after being ambushed by a masked gunman last year in his home," Bloomberg reported.

"Before that, according to a Spokane police affidavit, he told one of his sons: ‘If I disappear or wake up with bullets in my back, promise me you will let everyone know that James Henrikson did it'."

Henrikson, who aimed to get rich from the North Dakota oil boom with Carlile, was reportedly a felon with drug and weapons arrests and was previously charged with arranging the murder of a trucker who vanished in 2012.

"As Bloomberg News reported in June, both men invested in a 640-acre parcel in the Bakken oil fields where drilling has brought newfound wealth and also a sharp surge in crime," the newswire reported.

"Henrikson and Carlile had a falling out over the land and Carlile became increasingly frantic to raise $US400,000 [$A448,000] that he said he needed for the deal, witnesses told Spokane police."

Henrikson is facing the death penalty or life in prison if convicted, with the suspected shooter Timothy Suckow and getaway driver Robby Wahrer also among the five other men in the indictment.

On the arrest of Suckow in January, Spokane police chief Frank Straub said the shooting was motivated by "business transactions that went bad".

A detective claimed that Henrikson said Carlile owed him $1.88 million, although Henrikson denied any involvement in Carlile's murder.

"Unlocked by fraccing, the Bakken oil fields are producing more than 1 million barrels of crude a day, surpassing Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members such as Qatar and Ecuador," Bloomberg reported.

"They also have led to a spike in drug gangs, meth labs, violent crimes, prostitution and investor fraud, according to police."