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Documents show Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in dire financial situation

By Tanner Stening
Posted Jan 24, 2019

MASHPEE — The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is running out of money.

Expenditures from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 of 2018 left the tribe with $83,670 in its general fund, according to a statement of its expenses and revenue for the year obtained by the Times.

The tribe began 2018 with $6,369,258 in the fund, and spent $6,285,589 as of the end of the year, the document shows.

Of the roughly $6.5 million the tribe allocated for general spending purposes for fiscal year 2018, $5.4 million came from loans issued by its financial backer, Genting Malaysia, which has been paying for tribal government operations; two separate lawsuits dealing with the legal status of the tribe reservation under the Indian Reorganization Act; and lobbying efforts behind a bill that would secure the land, all geared toward opening a $1 billion tribal casino in Taunton.

But the $5.4 million in loans the tribe received last year was half of what it received from Genting for fiscal year 2017. That year, the tribe received $11,944,567, an increase of approximately $250,000 from fiscal year 2016.

It is unclear if Genting is still funding tribal government operations. The international casino developer last year reported it had suffered a $440 million loss on its investment in the tribe, prompting dire warnings from the tribe’s chairman, Cedric Cromwell, that officials would have to lay off another round of government workers and cut programs. In response to increasing financial pressure from its backer, the tribe laid off 31 employees in the past year. It is also unclear what the tribe currently has in its coffers. Tribal financial records are not publicly available.

In 2017, Cromwell said the tribe’s annual operating budget was about $12 million.

On Wednesday, the tribal council took a vote of no-confidence in Cromwell and separately voted to strip him of his financial responsibilities in connection with the tribe and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority, a five-member board charged with overseeing the tribe’s long-stalled gaming operation.

In a statement issued Wednesday before sources confirmed the council’s vote, Cromwell said he would not disclose “tribal financial details to non-tribal citizens with so many of our enemies out there looking to seize on whatever information they can in an attempt to sow confusion and destruction.”

One of those enemies, according to Cromwell, is Chicago-based casino magnate and billionaire Neil Bluhm, who had backed a lawsuit by neighbors opposing the tribe’s proposed casino in Taunton.

Bluhm is backing a proposed casino in Brockton through Mass Gaming & Entertainment. Although the competing casino was originally denied by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in 2016, the commission is now considering whether to reopen the bidding for commercial casinos in Southeastern Massachusetts, known as Region C.

Although the gaming commission had planned to discuss and move forward with a decision on opening up the region this month, it announced Thursday that it would hold off on doing so in light of the recent appointment by Gov. Charlie Baker of a new chairwoman to the board, Cathy Judd-Stein, current deputy legal counsel and a veteran government lawyer.

“Any decision we make should include our new chairwoman and giving her a little time to understand all the issues and read all the comments is certainly appropriate,” interim Chairwoman Gayle Cameron said.

If the tribe is able to move forward with its casino and there is a competing casino in the same region, it would not pay anything to the state. If it has exclusive rights to a casino in Southeastern Massachusetts, it would pay the state 17 percent of its gambling revenue.

On Tuesday, lobbying disclosures showed that the tribe, through a team of lobbyists, had spent $280,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018 on lobbying for legislation, reintroduced this congressional session by U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., that would end an ongoing legal challenge to the Obama administration’s decision to take 321 acres of land in Mashpee and Taunton into trust on the tribe’s behalf. A federal judge in 2016 found in favor of neighbors of the proposed Taunton casino who argued that decision had been faulty, prompting the U.S. Department of the Interior to reverse it, leaving the tribe in limbo.

The tribe has said its casino would create 4,000 jobs and $102 million in wages for workers in Taunton as well $24 million in wages for jobs in other parts of the state. An additional 2,990 jobs would be created during construction, according to the tribe.

“It’s no secret that we have been put in extremely difficult financial circumstances as a result of the uncertainty surrounding our reservation status,” Cromwell said. “Everyday that uncertainty lingers it further drains limited resources as we try to balance between providing vital services to Tribal Citizens while at the same time continuing a costly fight to retain our land.”

Genting spent more than $1 million on various lobbying firms in 2018, three times more than it did in 2017, according to federal lobbying disclosures. The overseas developer was the third biggest spender on tourism/lodging lobbying in the U.S. this past year, according to the website Open Secrets.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190124/documents-show-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-in-dire-financial-situation

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Sources: Mashpee tribe’s chairman stripped of financial control

By Tanner Stening
Posted Jan 25, 2019

MASHPEE — The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council chairman is no longer in charge of the tribe’s finances.

On Wednesday, the council voted 7-0 to strip Cedric Cromwell of his fiduciary duties as chairman and in his role as president of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority, a five-member board charged with overseeing the tribe’s long-stalled gaming operation, according to sources who were present at the time.

Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird, Secretary Ann Marie Askew and council members Yvonne Frye Avant, Cheryl Frye-Cromwell, Winnie Johnson Graham, Carlton Hendricks and Winona Pocknett voted in favor of the motion, according to those sources. Tribal treasurer Gordon Harris and council member David Weeden abstained. Council member Rob Dias was absent.

The council also took a vote of no confidence in Cromwell, 9-0, with one abstention, a procedure traditionally used by members of a legislative body to remove a head of government from office, though it varies from government to government and does not necessarily result in any action.

David Pocknett, who was present at the meeting and previously served on the council as vice chairman, said the financial powers may now fall to Baird, who is second-in-command.

Cromwell’s former right-hand man Aaron Tobey Jr., who is running for a tribal council seat in the upcoming election, said he recommended the council take up a motion of no confidence last week after learning from a Cape Cod Times article that the chairman and his wife, council member Cheryl Frye-Cromwell, owe the IRS roughly $37,000 in unpaid taxes.

Tobey, who is now critical of Cromwell, was not present at Wednesday’s meeting.

Pocknett said Wednesday’s meeting was contentious at times.

The no-confidence vote is an indication the council finds Cromwell is not fit to hold his position, said Tobey.

“It makes sense to me that they should put him on a leash,” he said.

A tribe spokeswoman and several tribal council members did not respond to requests for more information about the vote on Thursday.

In response to a previous question about the tribe’s finances, Cromwell issued a statement Wednesday saying he would not disclose “tribal financial details to nontribal citizens with so many of our enemies out there looking to seize on whatever information they can in an attempt to sow confusion and destruction.”

“The Tribal Council and our governmental administrators regularly present detailed information and answer to tribal citizens,” he said. “We also have numerous internal accounting controls as our financial record keeping is subject to regular outside audits to ensure we maintain best practices in terms of accounting.”

The unpaid taxes owed by Cromwell and his wife date back to 2010. A sum of $34,481.44 was assessed June 4 on their Attleboro home, located at 8 Seanna Road, an addition to $2,419.63 that had been assessed on Dec. 9, 2013, according to a federal tax lien notice filed last year with the Registry of Deeds in Taunton.

Cromwell also failed to produce financial documents in response to three keeper of record subpoenas of his private companies: New Light Concepts LLC, and Lite Works LLC and One Nation LLC, according to court documents.

He was also found in contempt during the couple’s ongoing divorce for failing to pay their mortgage, household bills and legal fees, and his wife’s attorneys argued that he has “well-documented history of ... transferring, squandering and secreting funds,” the documents say.

The revelations come as the tribe is contending with a $440 million debt to its financial backer, Genting Malaysia, which recently wrote off its investment in the tribe as a loss. That debt burden, which leaders say is contingent on the success of the tribe’s proposed $1 billion Taunton casino, has snowballed under Cromwell’s watch. It includes money for the casino plans, funds to pay lobbyists and money to run the tribe’s other operations.

In addition, the tribe has had to the borrow money to fight a lawsuit that threatens its reservation land in Mashpee and Taunton, after the U.S. Department of the Interior reversed a 2015 Obama-era ruling that took the 321 acres of land into trust.

Tobey said he believes Cromwell has abused his discretion as chairman, and that the tribal council should have a more active role in executive decision-making.

Since his rise to power in 2009, Cromwell has repeatedly come under fire for his handling of the tribe’s finances, and factions critical of his administration have called for more transparency, rebuking attempts to raise the salaries of council members, including his own.

Those groups have, throughout the course of Cromwell’s tenure, attempted to rally tribe members to force open the administration’s books, including its casino records, and to protest the periodic silencing and shunning of members who have raised questions about its finances.

In the early days of the pursuit of the Taunton casino, Cromwell saw his salary increase 42 percent from $125,453 to $178,200. His pay hike was tied to a vote on Aug. 31, 2015, that brought pay for tribal council members in line with officers in other tribes and municipal governments. Future raises were tied to casino milestones.

Based on that 2015 vote, Cromwell’s pay could have increased five times to a high of $330,200 if the casino opened and generated $12 million in revenue, according to a document provided by tribe members in the past.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190125/sources-mashpee-tribes-chairman-stripped-of-financial-control

Mashpee tribe’s leader, wife, owe $37,000 in unpaid taxes

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Mashpee tribe’s leader,  

wife, owe $37,000 in   

unpaid taxes

By Tenner Stening
Posted Jan 13, 2019

MASHPEE — The leader of the Cape Cod tribe battling the federal government to secure his people’s reservation and save a beleaguered casino project owes, along with his wife, tens of thousands of dollars to the IRS.

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell and Cheryl Cromwell, a tribal council member, owe $36,901 in unpaid federal taxes, according to a federal tax lien notice filed last year with the Registry of Deeds in Taunton.

In addition, Cedric Cromwell has been found in contempt during the couple’s ongoing divorce for failing to pay their mortgage, household bills and legal fees, according to court documents. As part of that proceeding, Cheryl Cromwell’s attorneys have accused her husband of financial mismanagement and hiding money.

The tribe has had to cut jobs and is struggling to maintain services as it deals with its own burgeoning debt to the backer of a proposed $1 billion casino-resort slated for Taunton, the future of which is in doubt after a successful legal challenge and wide-ranging opposition to legislation that would secure the land needed to move forward with the project.

The unpaid taxes owed by the couple date back to 2010. A sum of $34,481.44 was assessed June 4 on their Attleboro home, located at 8 Seanna Road, an addition to $2,419.63 that had been assessed on Dec. 9, 2013, according to the July 31 filing.

Cedric Cromwell’s address on the documents is listed as 95 University Avenue in Westwood.

Officials have made a demand for payment of the liability, but it remains unpaid, the filing says.

In a statement, Cedric Cromwell said a payment plan has been worked out with the IRS, but did not offer details. As of Sunday, an IRS official had not provided more information on the status of the debt or the plan Cromwell referenced.

Cheryl Cromwell did not respond to a message requesting comment for this story. The couple’s contentious divorce included an intervention by a tribal attorney seeking to keep details of the tribe’s finances out of public view, and allegations by Cheryl Cromwell’s attorney that her husband has a “well-documented history of ... transferring, squandering and secreting funds.”

Their debt to the U.S. government isn’t the only liability with which the Cromwells are contending. The tribe had racked up $440 million in debt to Genting Malaysia — the financial backer of its planned casino — which recently wrote off its investment in the tribe as a loss, according to the international casino developer’s third quarter report.

After the news, Cromwell warned that his government would have to close programs and lay off another round of employees, warnings he has doubled down on as the tribe pursues legislation that would secure its land-in-trust and potentially save the casino project. In response to, among other things, increasing financial pressure from Genting, the tribe had to lay off 31 employees over the past year.

The tribe has had to borrow millions of dollars to fight a lawsuit brought by neighbors of the proposed First Light Casino & Resort. The U.S. Department of the Interior in September reversed a 2015 agency decision under the Obama administration that had taken 321 acres of land in Taunton and Mashpee into trust, effectively creating a reservation. Millions have also been spent lobbying Congress and the Interior Department, and fighting two separate legal battles — one contesting the agency’s September ruling, and another defending the tribe’s trust eligibility.

As the tribe’s financial situation has deteriorated and prompted questions about the fate of the tribe’s reservation status and operations, Cromwell’s handling of his personal finances has also been questioned throughout the divorce proceeding in Taunton.

Cheryl Cromwell’s divorce attorney, Marc Grimaldi, wrote in a letter that her husband has a “documented history and pattern of making unilateral financial decisions, not involving Cheryl in family finances and ... mismanaging finances by overspending or squandering funds,” according to court documents.

Grimaldi did not respond to numerous phone calls requesting comment.

Filings also show that Cedric Cromwell has disobeyed court orders mandating payments to bring their mortgage current, pay households bills and pay his wife’s attorney for outstanding legal fees. Cromwell also failed and refused to provide additional financial documents as per the orders of discovery in the case, according to court filings.

As a result of failing to pay outstanding bills and bring the mortgage current, as required by court order, Cromwell was found guilty of contempt, according to the documents. He was ordered, again, to provide discovery documents, and make all payments due, including bringing current all outstanding household bills by Oct. 30.

“The details of the divorce are a private matter and subject to a non-disclosure agreement,” he said.

The court files also shed a limited light on Cromwell’s personal business dealings, citing several of his Delaware-based companies that his wife’s attorneys have attempted to subpoena to disclose financial information.

On July 12, Grimaldi moved to compel Cedric Cromwell to produce financial documents in response to three keeper of record subpoenas of his companies: New Light Concepts LLC, and Lite Works LLC and One Nation LLC. Cromwell had failed to do so previously, according to court records.

New Light Concepts LLC was formed on Jan. 1, 2017, according to Delaware’s corporation records, and Lite Works LLC was incorporated on Oct. 9 that same year.

A fourth company, Platform 8, is also cited in court documents. According to an Oct. 19 court filing, Cromwell received $50,000 from Platform 8 for “consulting services.”

It is unclear, based on the court documents, what purposes the companies serve.

Cromwell said they are “perfectly legal” and do not violate any conflict of interest laws with respect to his role as chairman, but declined to provide additional information.

“They are unrelated to the Tribe and Genting,” he said.

A subpoena was also issued against the tribe and its keeper of record. Tribal attorney Mark Tilden appeared in court and moved to quash it, citing tribal sovereign immunity, documents say.

Cromwell is “gainfully employed as chairman” and has ownership interests in other businesses, according to the probate documents. His salary as chairman was $181,794, according to a copy of the tribe’s budget for fiscal year 2018. That amount is down from $219,186 in fiscal year 2017, according to the budget document obtained by the Times.

The tribe’s financial and other government records, unlike that of local, state and the U.S. government, are not publicly available because of its sovereign nation status. Even members of the tribe, as in the case of the Cromwells’ divorce, have struggled to secure information about the tribe’s finances.

Cromwell’s wife stated in the probate documents that she had “inadequate income and resources to pay for the costs of the litigation.” Cheryl Cromwell made $84,255 as a tribal council member in 2018, which was down from $92,496 in 2017, according to the budget.

Cedric Cromwell, through a spokesman, did not respond to questions about the current status of salaries for tribal council members.

Since his rise to power in 2009, Cromwell has repeatedly come under fire for his handling of the tribe’s finances, and factions critical of his administration have called for more transparency, rebuking attempts to raise the salaries of council members, including his own.

Those groups have, throughout the course of Cromwell’s tenure, attempted to rally tribe members to force open the administration’s books, including its casino records, and to protest the periodic silencing and shunning of members who’ve raised questions about its finances.

In the early days of the pursuit of the Taunton casino, Cromwell saw his salary increase 42 percent from $125,453 to $178,200. His pay hike was tied to a vote on Aug. 31, 2015, that brought pay for tribal council members in line with officers in other tribes and municipal governments. Future raises were tied to casino milestones.

Based on that 2015 vote, Cromwell’s pay could have increased five times to a high of $330,200 if the casino opened and generated $12 million in revenue, according to a document provided by tribe members in the past.

According to a Dec. 19 filing, the Cromwells will engage in mediation with a retired judge, and are scheduled to meet in court again on March 6.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190113/mashpee-tribes-leader-wife-owe-37000-in-unpaid-taxes

Judge denies government request for stay in Cape tribe’s lawsuit

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Ring of Fire - a repost in honor of Father's Day

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TRUTH TO POWER

Judge denies government request for stay in Cape tribe’s lawsuit

By Tanner Stening
Posted Jan 2, 2019

A federal judge denied the U.S. Department of the Interior’s motion to suspend proceedings in a lawsuit brought in September by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, which is challenging the federal agency’s Sept. 7 decision on its trust land eligibility.

In light of the partial government shutdown, Interior Department attorneys requested a stay for officials to “answer or respond” to the tribe’s complaint until Congress passes a funding measure, saying that employees of the federal agency, as well as the Department of Justice, are prohibited from working except in “very limited circumstances,” according to the latest court filings.

Those circumstances include “emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property,” attorneys wrote. The request to stay, filed Dec. 28, asked that the case be put on hold until appropriations were restored to the two departments.

Judge Rosemary M. Collyer denied the stay but granted another extension for the government to respond. The agency now has until Jan. 30 to respond to the lawsuit, according to a Jan. 2 order by Collyer.

Tribal attorneys filed the complaint Sept. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the Interior Department’s ruling earlier that month reversing an Obama-era decision to secure 321 acres of tribal land in Mashpee and Taunton into trust for the tribe.

That determination by President Donald Trump’s administration found the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction in 1934 — the year the Indian Reorganization Act was passed. The tribe has plans to build a $1 billion casino on the land in Taunton. Neighbors of the proposed casino had sued to overturn the 2015 decision and a judge found in their favor, sending it back to the Interior Department.

The tribe’s lawsuit against Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his department alleges the agency “failed to apply established law” by “contorting relevant facts and ignoring others to engineer a negative decision” with respect to the tribe’s land.

Zinke left his post Wednesday after announcing his resignation in December amid multiple investigations into alleged ethics violations. He is being replaced by Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who will serve as acting secretary.

The Department of Justice has asked for similar action in other cases with mixed results, including several high profile lawsuits against the Trump administration.

In some of the cases, judges have issued stays pending a resolution of the government shutdown while in others judges have ordered that litigation proceed without disruption.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190102/judge-denies-government-request-for-stay-in-cape-tribes-lawsuit

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s bill must wait until 2019

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Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s bill must wait until 2019

By Tanner Stening
Posted Dec 21, 2018 

MASHPEE — Even if the federal government avoided a partial shutdown late Friday night, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is going to have to wait until the next congressional session to see if its reservation can successfully be secured by federal lawmakers.

An eleventh-hour effort to fold the Mashpee Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act — thought to be the tribe’s last hope of putting an end to litigation that has stymied its proposed resort-casino on reservation land in Taunton — into a funding measure intended to keep the government open fell short on Thursday, according to U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass. Keating introduced the legislation earlier this year.

Lawmakers had attempted to weave the language into a public land bill that appeared to be moving forward; but the effort ultimately failed, he said, as the urgency of dealing with the impending shutdown pared down the possibility for smaller bills to make it into the funding measure, called the continuing resolution. The resolution was in danger late Friday of not being passed in any case as lawmakers scrambled to make a deal with the president.

The tribe bill had already faced resistance from Rhode Island’s senators, as well as lawmakers from Connecticut, Keating said. The Rhode Island delegation quietly came out against the legislation earlier this year in an apparent effort to protect that state’s casino interests.

Cromwell did not respond to a question about how many layoffs would take place in tribal government or a request that he confirm the unemployment figure cited by Grijalva.

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https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181221/mashpee-wampanoag-tribes-bill-must-wait-until-2019

Mashpee tribe leader warns of job, service cuts

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TRUTH TO POWER

Mashpee tribe leader warns of job, service cuts

By Tanner Stening
Posted Dec 6, 2018

MASHPEE — Just days after the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s financial backer announced a $440 million loss associated with its investment in the tribe’s planned casino, Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell said his government is on the verge of another major rollback.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Cromwell warned that the tribe will have to close its language school, slash programs and lay off more employees next year if legislation aimed at ending an ongoing legal challenge to the tribe’s reservation, introduced earlier this spring, doesn’t pass.

U.S. Rep William Keating, D-Mass., introduced the bill in the House, and Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., submitted the bill in the Senate.

“Unless Congress enacts legislation now to prevent the Department of the Interior from disestablishing our reservation, in 2019 we will have to close programs, shutter our school, lay off our governmental employees, and witness the dissolution of all that we have achieved since our federal recognition was restored in 2007,” Cromwell said in the statement.

Genting Malaysia Berhad announced the loss as reflected in its third quarter report on Nov. 30, but in a statement it said it would continue supporting Keating’s legislation. The company also noted that the loss can be reversed “when the promissory notes are assessed to be recoverable.”

“The impairment loss was due to the uncertainty of recovery of the Group’s investment following the (U.S. government’s) decision concluding that the tribe did not satisfy the conditions under the Indian (Reorganization) Act that allow(s) (it) to have the land in trust for an integrated gaming resort development,” the statement says, referring to a Sept. 7 decision by the Department of the Interior that overturned an Obama-era determination declaring the tribe’s eligibility to have its 321 acres of land taken into trust under the 1934 federal statute.

In 2015, the Interior Department had found the tribe qualified to have the land in Mashpee and Taunton taken into trust on its behalf. The tribe has plans to build a $1 billion casino on the land in Taunton but neighbors of the development successfully sued to block it.

In its September decision, the Interior Department responded to a 2016 federal court decision, agreeing that the Secretary of the Interior did not have the authority to take the land into trust because the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction at the time of the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934 and therefore did not qualify under a definition of “Indian” used by agency officials.

“It is almost impossible to describe the despair the federal government’s continued inaction has brought to our people,” Cromwell said.

Genting’s third-quarter report comes amid longstanding concerns about the tribe’s mounting debt to the Malaysian casino giant.

In May, Tribal Council approved a budget that saw significantly fewer loan dollars from Genting than in previous years. This fiscal year, the tribe received $5.4 million in loans from Genting, which is less than half of what it received for fiscal year 2017. That year, the tribe received $11,944,567, an increase of approximately $250,000 over fiscal year 2016, according to budget data obtained by the Times.

Last year, the tribe laid off 31 of its roughly 100 government workers.

But Genting ramped up spending on lobbying this year in an apparent effort to influence the Department of the Interior as the federal agency was weighing an alternative pathway for the tribe to satisfy the eligibility requirements under the Indian Reorganization Act to secure its trust lands.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181206/mashpee-tribe-leader-warns-of-job-service-cuts

Government asks for extension in Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe lawsuit

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Government asks for extension in Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe lawsuit

By Tanner Stening
Posted Nov 27, 2018

The U.S. Department of the Interior has asked for a 31-day extension on a deadline to respond to a lawsuit by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe challenging the federal agency’s Sept. 7 decision that threatens the tribe’s reservation.

Filled on Nov. 20, the request notes that the Interior leadership and “other agency personnel need additional time to help prepare and review” a response to the lawsuit, according to the court filing, which is signed by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jean Williams of the department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and trial attorney Sara Costello.

Tribal attorneys filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sept. 27 challenging an Interior Department ruling earlier that month that reversed an Obama-era decision to secure 321 acres of tribal land in Mashpee and Taunton into trust. The latest determination by the department found the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction in 1934 — the year the Indian Reorganization Act was passed. The tribe has plans to build a $1 billion casino on the land in Taunton. Neighbors of the proposed casino had sued to overturn the earlier decision and a judge found in their favor, sending it back to the Interior Department.

The tribe’s lawsuit against Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his department alleges the agency “failed to apply established law” by “contorting relevant facts and ignoring others to engineer a negative decision” with respect to the tribe’s land.

The suit alleges that the department’s decision “indefensibly reverses course” from the administrative decisions it has made for other tribes in regard to federal jurisdiction and “badly ignores” the case law interpreting what that phrase means, court documents say.

The government’s court filing occurred days after the tribe marched in Washington, D.C., from the National Museum of the American Indian to the U.S. Capitol to protest the Interior Department’s September ruling.

At the same time, neighbors of the proposed casino who are suing the agency in a separate case over its 2015 decision to take land into trust for the tribe recently requested that the tribe withdraw its appeal of the case or be required to file opening briefs.

In a request filed Oct. 9 with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, attorney David Tennant argued the tribe should not be permitted another stay in the appeal process because it opted to “take its chances” with a remanded review of the eligibility of its trust lands, according to court documents.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181127/government-asks-for-extension-in-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-lawsuit

Big victories against predatory gambling at the ballot box on Election Day Tuesday

There were some major victories against predatory gambling at the ballot box on Election Day Tuesday:

1) Florida citizens voted overwhelmingly to put the power to decide gambling expansion in the hands of the people instead of the Legislature. The state group No Casinos Florida organized the referendum and led the fight to pass it.

2) The people of Florida also voted to abolish greyhound dog racing after years of work by the greyhound protection organization Grey2K.

3) Idaho voters rejected the deceptive proposal to legalize slot machines at Idaho race tracks. Our chapter Stop Predatory Gambling Idaho played a key role in educating citizens about the issue.

4) In a history-making referendum, an Illinois community that introduced video gambling reversed that policy through a binding ballot question. Voters in Forest Park, Illinois shut down video gambling machines in their community.

There were also two efforts that did not go our way on Tuesday. In Arkansas, out-of-state gambling interests spent millions of dollars to initiate a referendum to pass regional casinos and then saturate the state with campaign advertising. And in Louisiana, sports gambling operators spent more than $1 million to lure voters in some state parishes to support "daily fantasy sports" gambling. It was a blatantly deceitful attempt to force online gambling into people's homes by disguising it as something harmless.  

I'm so proud to be a part of this just and important fight with you to improve the lives of the American people with compassion and fairness. Thank you!

Best,

Les Bernal
National Director
Stop Predatory Gambling

________________________________

Stop Predatory Gambling

Who We Are —

- A 501c3 non-profit based in Washington, DC, we are a national government reform network of individuals and organizations from across the U.S.

- We believe in improving the lives of the American people with compassion and fairness, freeing us from the lower standard of living, exploitation, and fraud that commercialized gambling spreads.

- We are one of the most diverse organizations in the United States, one in which conservatives and progressives work side-by-side with with a common national purpose.

What We Stand For —

- We believe everyone should have a fair opportunity to get ahead and improve their economic standing.

- We believe every person’s life has worth and that no one is expendable.

- We believe that a good society depends on the values of honesty, concern for others, mutual trust, self-discipline, sacrifice, and a work ethic that connects effort and reward.

- We believe no government body should depend on predatory gambling to fund its activities.

If you share our beliefs, please help sustain our work by making a tax-deductible, financial gift today of $10 or more. 

Lobbyists battle it out over casino plan

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Lobbyists battle it out over casino plan

By Tanner Stening
Posted Oct 19, 2018

MASHPEE — As a new chapter begins in the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s legal fight for its land, a high stakes lobbying campaign in the nation’s capital is pitting powerful gambling interests against a foreign casino developer with the fate of the tribe’s 321-acre reservation hanging in the balance.

In a year marked mostly by setbacks for the tribe, notable attorneys and lobbyists — some working at cross-purposes —are converging on the halls of Congress in a struggle to win over lawmakers who may soon consider legislation that, if passed, would declare the tribe’s reservation lawful, reversing findings by the U.S. Department of the Interior and a federal court judge.

A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep William Keating, D-Mass., would do just that: settle the multiyear and so far successful legal challenge brought by neighbors of the tribe’s proposal to build a resort-casino in Taunton, effectively greenlighting the project and ending any question about the legality of the tribe’s trust lands.

The legislation is a pivotal piece in the tribe’s fight to protect its sovereignty. Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Chairman Cedric Cromwell has urged support for the bill, emphasizing the grave and unprecedented threat facing the tribe, which spent decades pursuing federal recognition and trust status with the government.

“I’m asking people of goodwill and those concerned with justice for the indigenous people of this — the first Americans — to stand with us in calling on Congress to protect our reservation and ensure we don’t become the first tribe since the dark days of the Termination Era to lose its land,” Cromwell said in a statement after the Sept. 7 decision from the Interior, which said the tribe wasn’t under federal jurisdiction in 1934, the year the Indian Reorganization Act became law.

But in a deeply polarized political climate, getting the bill passed would require congressional Republicans to support the wishes of the all-Democrat Massachusetts delegation, and given the potential for an Elizabeth Warren presidential bid in 2020, its chances may be significantly affected. Warren is a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the tribal bill.

In addition, the Rhode Island congressional delegation has quietly come out in opposition to the bill to protect its gambling revenues. The tribe’s proposed casino, which is slated for fertile Region C ground, is not far from Rhode Island’s eastern border.

Lobbyists and their causes

Genting Malaysia, which is financially backing the tribe’s legal fight to secure its reservation and the casino project, has spent more than $1 million on various lobbying firms in 2018, three times more than it did in 2017, according to federal lobbying disclosures. The overseas developer was the third biggest spender on tourism/lodging lobbying in the U.S. this past year, according to the website Open Secrets.

The tribe’s overall debt to Genting, which also finances parts of tribal government operations, is roughly $426.3 million, according to a recent filing by the Malaysian casino developer. Genting said it is deliberating with the tribe to “review all options” concerning the recoverability of its investment, according to the filing.

Genting paid the law firm Dentons US more than $1 million to lobby on “casino development and land related issues” this year, according to filings. Dentons is the world’s largest firm by number of lawyers, according to its website.

Dentons, on behalf of Genting, in turn has spent between $130,000 and $150,000 on “Interior Department land decisions” through Gavel Resources LLC, according to filings.

Gavel’s lobbyists include, among others, Richard Pombo, a former member of the House of Representatives from California who was among the highest-paid beneficiaries of tribal lobbying and illegal campaign contributions when the tribe was seeking federal recognition in the 2000s.

That period of the tribe’s history was tainted by the legacy of its former chairman Glenn Marshall, who in 2009 was sentenced to 3½ years in federal prison for embezzling nearly $400,000 from the tribe to pay his own bills, making illegal campaign contributions, filing false tax returns and fraudulently receiving Social Security benefits while holding a full-time job. Pombo was unseated in November 2006 amid questions about his ties to Jack Abramoff, a notorious lobbyist who spent several years behind bars in connection with a wide-reaching federal corruption probe.

Pombo did not return a message requesting comment for this story.

‘Trump’s Washington’

In addition to the tribe’s more long-term lobbyists, including Delahunt Group LLC —which helps to, among other things, secure grants — and Akerman LLP, Genting recently contracted with Ballard Partners, touted as one of Washington’s most influential lobbying firms. 

The firm is run by Brian Ballard, who was President Trump’s Florida finance chairman for his 2016 campaign. Ballard, dubbed “the most powerful lobbyist in Trump’s Washington” by Politico, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican causes over the past two years, according to data from the Federal Election Commission’s website. Genting spent $90,000 on Ballard’s firm so far this year.

Given a perceived hostility on the part of the Trump administration toward prevailing Indian land policies — which many scholars and observers outside and within Indian Country have noted — Ballard may seem like an odd pick to represent the tribe’s interests, if Ballard’s work is, in fact, tied to the legislation.

“In some way Ballard Partners would be working at cross-purposes here,” said Ronald Shaiko, senior fellow and associate director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth College. “At base, lobbyists should be pretty pragmatic (in) how they do business. Firms are getting bigger, buying other firms, so they can lobby both sides.”

Competing gambling interests arrayed against the tribe appear to stem from one commanding source, according to filings: Chicago-based casino magnate and billionaire Neil Bluhm, who is backing a proposed casino in Brockton through Mass Gaming & Entertainment, whose casino proposal was denied by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in 2016.

But Mass Gaming is asking for reconsideration of its proposal, and its principal owner, Rush Street Gaming, has thrown hundreds of thousands of dollars behind an effort to influence lawmakers and regulators at the state and federal levels, according to filings — a large portion of which appears to be directed at thwarting the tribe’s casino effort, the pending legislation and garnering local support for the revival of Mass Gaming’s proposal.

It’s unclear precisely how much money, based on lobbying disclosures alone, is working against the tribe.

“This is not just about the Keating legislation,” said Joe Baerlein, a spokesman for Mass Gaming. “There are a whole host of other gaming-related issues that we’re dealing with.”

Rush Street also has casinos in New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Baerlein said.

At the state level, Mass Gaming has spent $210,000 on lobbying so far this year with respect to “issues related to expanded gaming,” according to state filings. Baerlein said that is tied to “outreach” across nine different communities, including boards of selectmen and town administrators.

Leadership in Taunton and Brockton have come down on opposite sides of the issue, with Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. reaffirming support for the tribal proposal over the summer. Around the same, Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter wrote to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, decrying the department’s “prolonged delay” in issuing a decision with respect to the tribal proposal, which has stymied prospects for development on the parcel of land where Mass Gaming wants to build.

Baerlein said the spending by Genting “dwarfs” the spending against the tribe, adding that the Massachusetts congressional delegation ought to “take a hard look” at the role the foreign company has played in influencing land decisions at the federal level.

More than casinos

Tribal representatives see it quite differently. Heather Sibbison, legal counsel for the tribe and a registered lobbyist for Dentons, said a tribe’s right to hold land has “profound historical and cultural meaning.”

“But for almost everyone else on the other side who is working to disestablish the tribe’s reservation, this is just a big, huge fight over casino market share,” she said. “If it loses its reservation, it loses its school, its ability to provide basic social services; it loses its fundamental right to have land on which it can engage in true self government.”

This year, Rush Street Gaming, formerly Rivers Casino, a gambling parlor owned by Bluhm, has spent $160,000 in lobbying fees through American Continental Group, citing “general gaming issues,” according to filings.

Manus Cooney and David Urban are listed as American Continental lobbyists working on behalf of Rush Street Gaming. Cooney is former chief counsel and staff director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and Urban is cited as a “prominent Republican lobbyist” who joined the Trump campaign in its early days as an adviser in the Pennsylvania and Indiana primaries, according to the firm’s website.

But the firms cited as lobbying directly against the legislation include Locke Lord Public Policy Group LLC and Freemyer & Associates P.C.

Twin River Management Group — which owns casinos in Rhode Island — has spent $60,000 on Locke Lord specifically on the issue of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act, according to filings, and Rush Street Gaming paid Freemyer & Associates P.C. $40,000 so far this year.

Lobbying the lawmakers

In addition, Locke Lord gave $7,500 to U.S. Rep. Robert Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which is responsible for taking up the legislation, over the past year, according to contribution filings. Bishop was among Locke Lord’s top three highest-paid recipients over the past election cycle.

The firm has also supported Democrats, giving money to U.S. Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Keating. Cicilline’s political committee received $1,000 from Locke Lord earlier this year, and Keating’s political committee reported two $1,000 contributions from them — one on March 16 and another on March 19 — just days after he introduced the legislation.

Tribal lobbyists, with Dentons at the helm, have also targeted members of the House committee, most notably U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., who chairs the subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs. Dentons gave LaMalfa’s political committee $9,000 just days before Keating introduced the tribe bill.

Altogether, Dentons’ political action committee has given about $40,000 to lawmakers sponsoring the legislation throughout the 2017-2018 campaign cycle, filings show.

Incumbents typically receive more than challengers, and “well over half of their money comes from organized interests” instead of individual contributions, Shaiko said.

Shaiko said it’s typically wise for lobbying firms to give money to political candidates on both sides of the aisle; that way, if a congressional chamber flips, they can stay in business.

“It’s less ideological than it used to be,” he said.

Interior Department and Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe lobbying for 2018

For the tribe:

Genting paid Dentons US $1.1 million to lobby lawmakers and the Interior Department on “casino development and land related issues”

Dentons, on behalf of Genting, paid Gavel Resources LLC $240,000 to lobby lawmakers and the Interior Department on “Interior Department land decisions”

Genting paid Ballard Partners $90,000 to lobby the Interior Department on “gaming rules and regulations”

The tribe paid $60,000 to Delahunt Group LLC

The tribe paid $10,000 to Akerman LLP

Against the tribe:

Twin River Management Group paid Locke Lord Public Policy Group LLC $60,000 to lobby congress on “Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act”

Rush Street Gaming, parent company of Mass Gaming and Entertainment, paid CSA Strategies LLC $50,000 to lobby lawmakers and the Interior Department on “issues related to casino development” and “issues related to licensing of Internet gaming/poker”

Rush Street Gaming paid American Continental Group $160,000 to lobby lawmakers and the Interior Department on “general gaming issues impacting Rivers Casino”

Rush Street Gaming paid Freemyer & Associates P.C. $40,000 to lobby lawmakers  and the Interior Department on “H.R. 5244 (the tribal bill)”

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181019/lobbyists-battle-it-out-over-casino-plan