Miccosukee Tribe: No Sovereign Immunity

Judge Orders Morgan Stanley, Citibank, Wachovia and American Express to Turn Over Miccosukee Tribe's Massive Financial Records

Sovereign Immunity Not a Defense in Financial Probe, Morgan Stanley denies having accounts, but Judge disagrees, says Miami-Dade Lawyer Ramon M. Rodriguez

Miami, FL (PRWEB) August 03, 2011

U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold ordered Morgan Stanley, Citibank, Wachovia and American Express to turn over the Miccosukee tribe's massive financial records to the Internal Revenue Service, a ruling that will shine a light on the tribe's once secretive finances and profits from billion dollar casino revenues. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA, CASE NO. 10-23507-CV-GOLD [LEAD CASE]

“The financial consequences could prove to be enormous and the legal precedence ground breaking,” said Miami-Dade lawyer Ramon M. Rodriguez. Rodriguez and his clients have a special interest in the IRS's case.

“The IRS is able to get financial records that my clients have been waiting for,” Rodriguez said. “The tribe owes a great deal of money and they've been using Wall Street firms to hide their wealth. It's been a financial hide and seek that would make Swiss banks proud.”

On July 21, 2011, Miami- Dade County Judge Michael A. Genden ordered sanctions against Miccosukee Tribe members Tammy Gwen Billie, her father, Jimmie Bert, and their Miami lawyer Michael R. Tein and the Coconut Grove, Fla. law firm Lewis Tein, for their abuse of the discovery process during the post-judgment stage of a wrongful death case.

Rodriguez has been trying to collect a $3.177 million judgment against these two Miccosukee tribal members since obtaining a verdict in July of 2009. In the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County, Florida, General Jurisdiction Division, Case No. 00-25711 CA 20.

The judgment stems from a horrible 1998 head-on collision automobile accident that occurred on Tamiami Trail near the Miccosukee reservation in Miami, Fla. Miccosukee tribal member, Tammy Gwen Billie, crossed the centerline and struck the Bermudez vehicle head-on. Billie was driving a vehicle owned by her father, Jimmie Bert, who is also a Miccosukee tribal member.

The collision killed Gloria Liliana Bermudez and injured her husband, Carlos Bermudez, and their infant son Matthew. According to court documents, Ms. Billie was intoxicated when she drove her father's vehicle and subsequently pled guilty to vehicular homicide, resulting in probation.

In July 2009, a jury awarded the Bermudez family $3,177,000 in damages for the fatal accident in which a husband watched his wife die on the side of a road. The defendants have failed to satisfy the judgment and close to ½ million dollars in interest has accrued.

“The defendants claim to be uncollectible, but Bert and Billie are members of the Miccosukee Tribe which engages in Class II gaming. Court records reflect distributions in excess of $160,000 a year to another Miccosukee tribal member. In addition, private attorneys from day one of the case, which has lasted more than a decade, have defended Bert and Billie. Their lead attorney charges $550 per hour and Tein doesn't work for free.”

In a hodge-podge of secret record keeping involving Morgan Stanley, Citibank, Wachovia and American Express, the tribe puts money in banks but manages to hide what money goes to whom, says Rodriguez. To date the Miccosukees have been able to hide their gambling revenues and how they distribute profits to tribal members. Court records show they've even failed to file a distribution plan with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

During the tribe's litigation with the IRS, an agent said the IRS learned of “allegations that the tribe regularly hired armored cars to carry cash, somewhere between $6 and $10 million per quarter, from its gambling operation for direct distribution to tribal members without reporting these distributions to the IRS.”

Judge Gold halted the Miccosukee's' numerous attempts to block the IRS from digging into financial records relating to the tribes 600 members. Judge Gold said the IRS's right to financial records supersedes the tribe's sovereign nation status. The ruling covers all internal financial operations of the Miccosukee and their payments of gambling profits from the tribe's casino to members. The documents are held by Morgan Stanley, Citibank, Wachovia and American Express and cover the years 2006-09.

Rodriguez and his clients are relieved that the profits the tribe receives from its slots and other gambling revenues will finally be made public.

“The Bermudez family was robbed of a mother and a wife in a horrific accident,” Rodriguez said