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Allegations against Mashpee Wampanoag tribal leaders come to head

By Tanner Stening
Posted Sep 8, 2019

Fate of Cromwell, Harris to be determined by Mashpee Wampanoag’s first recall election.

MASHPEE — Members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe looking to unseat their top executive officers intend to make their case for financial mismanagement at the coming recall election, airing years of grievances that have led to often raucous infighting within a government on the verge of insolvency.

On Sunday, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell and Treasurer Gordon Harris will face multiple allegations from a group of tribe members who accuse the two of malfeasance, or “wrongful conduct,” in connection with issues stemming from, among other things, the more than $500 million owed to the tribe’s financial backer, Genting Malaysia, and decisions to keep Tribal Council Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird in power after she resigned Jan. 25.

The hearing will be the tribe’s first recall election — a process written into the tribe’s constitution triggered by the submission of petitions to remove the officials in question that requires the signatures of 100 or more tribe members. The election would come roughly a week after the Times learned that Harris and his predecessor, Robert Hendricks, were subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, though it is unclear for what reason.

The petitioners also intend to argue that Cromwell has promoted his personal business interests while traveling and acting in his capacity as chairman.

Cromwell responded to the allegations in a letter addressed to the tribe’s Election Committee dated May 15, denying that charge and noting that Tribal Council voted not to accept Baird’s resignation letter.

″... therefore, there was no vacancy for the Vice Chair position,” Cromwell wrote.

He also touted the economic growth that took place under his leadership as a result of Genting’s commitment to loaning the tribe money to support its programs and services. Genting has since withdrawn its support after writing off its more than $440 million investment in the tribe as a loss in late 2018, forcing rounds of layoffs at the Mashpee Wampanoag headquarters.

“During my time as Chairman, the tribe has reached its highest number of employees of 130 despite the recent layoffs,” which, Cromwell says, were “out of the tribe’s hands.”

Petitioners also allege that Cromwell deprived the tribe of up to $500,000 in tribal employment rights ordinance fees. Known as TERO, the ordinances require that employers conducting business on reservations give tribes preference in all manner of employment, contracting and related activities, according to the Council for Tribal Employment Rights website.

Aaron Tobey Jr., a tribal council member and petitioner in the recall effort, said Cromwell’s alleged failure to negotiate and collect TERO funds is in relationship to the tribe’s affordable housing development project off Meetinghouse Road.

“He didn’t impose any fees, and that cost the tribe hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Tobey said in an interview.

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

Throughout Cromwell’s tenure, those groups have 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. Sources said recently that the tribe is operating without a membership-approved budget, and statements of expenses provided by the tribal government show a paucity of funds available for programs and services.

Of the $1.8 million the tribe had spent this year through July, nearly half, or $910,575, went toward salaries and fringe benefits, according to the sources.

According to the affidavit detailing the petitioners’ accusations, the tribe has paid Cromwell more than $1 million since he took office. Ten years later, the tribe has incurred more than $500 million in debt with “very little to show for it; no casino, no jobs,” and a mortgaged property in Taunton, where the tribe’s $1 billion casino-resort would be located, the affidavit says.

In January, Cromwell was temporarily stripped of his fiduciary powers after news surfaced of the $37,000 he and his wife, Cheryl Frye-Cromwell, owe the IRS, and business interests that were subpoenaed during the course of their divorce proceeding. The council has since reversed itself, voting to restore Cromwell’s fiduciary responsibilities and to rescind a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

A robocall that circulated within the tribal community in June alleged that $250 million handled by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority is unaccounted for. The gaming authority is a five-member board governing the tribe’s long-stalled gaming operation. A 2016 financial audit of the tribe described the entity as a “discretely presented component of the tribe.” During that year, the authority transferred more than $17 million in cash and real estate to tribal operations. Cromwell is the president of the entity; Harris the treasurer.

“To date, we as tribal members do not know how this money is spent,” the robocall said. “Only Chairman Cromwell and Treasurer Gordon Harris have knowledge and access to how our $250 million has been spent.”

Tobey said he has felt the need to speak out against the administration’s handling of its finances to raise awareness within the tribal community.

“Cedric’s more like a shady politician than a tribal leader,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that the only source of objective reporting has to come from newspapers. We have nothing internally from within the tribe to hold them accountable.”

The tribe does have a publication, Mittark, that reports on tribal affairs. Tobey dismissed it as a “feel good” outlet that turns a blind eye to what’s going on within tribal government.

The Mashpee Wampanoag have had to borrow millions of dollars to fight a lawsuit brought by Taunton neighbors of the proposed First Light Casino & Resort. The Department of the Interior in September 2018 reversed a 2015 agency decision under the Obama administration that had taken 321 acres of land in Taunton and Mashpee into trust that effectively created the tribe’s reservation. Millions have been spent lobbying Congress and the Interior Department and fighting two separate legal battles — one contesting the agency’s Sept. 7 ruling and another appealing the ruling in the original suit.