Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe served with subpoena for financial records

By Jessica Hill
Posted Jul 15, 2020

Attorney says tribe is not the target of grand jury investigation.

MASHPEE — The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston served a federal grand jury subpoena to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe last month for a hefty number of documents and financial records.

The news was shared with tribe members during a June 23 Tribal Council meeting.

Wampanoag officials had no comment Wednesday and referred all inquiries to tribal attorney Benjamin Wish.

“The government has informed the Tribe that it is not the target of the pending grand jury investigation,” Wish said in an email. “The Tribe intends to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office concerning the subpoena requests and anticipates that the Tribe will also cooperate with any other proper request for information. The Tribe remains focused on economic development and supporting its members during the ongoing pandemic.”

Tribal officials do not know whom the investigation is targeting, according to a source with knowledge of the case.

By “Tribe,” the subpoena refers to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and its affiliates, including the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority, Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Council and the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council Inc., according to a copy of the June 5 letter that accompanied subpoena from the Justice Department.

The letter, signed by U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Wichers, said: “Pursuant to an official investigation being conducted by a federal Grand Jury in the District of Massachusetts of suspected violations of federal criminal law, you are directed to furnish to the Grand Jury the documents described in the attached subpoena.”

The subpoena requests all personnel records for Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell, Treasurer Gordon Harris and former Treasurer Robert T. Hendricks, as well as Mark Harding and Louis Catarina Jr.  

Harding is the founder of WampWorx, a native-owned construction firm in Mashpee, and Catarina is the principal consultant and program manager for Strategic Quality Solutions. Harding and Catarina declined to comment.

In his role for the tribe, Catarina provided “strategic direction” and “management” and coordinated development of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Gaming Authority First Light Resort and Casino project, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also developed and managed operational finances and budgets. Catarina also served as a board member of the Taunton Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Gaming Authority.

Last year, the Times learned that Harris and Hendricks had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, although it was unclear for what reason.

Federal grand jury proceedings are secret, and comprise about two dozen citizens who serve as members for a term of 18 months. They examine documents and hear testimony to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to charge someone with a crime.

The personnel records requested in the subpoena include job titles, dates of employment, resumes, contracts and agreements, timecards, performance reviews, compensation, disciplinary records and grievances and complaints by or against the people listed. It also requested documentation regarding loans for those five people, including any loan repayment or forgiveness, fringe benefits and perks, and expense reports, according to a copy of the letter.

The subpoena asked for documentation of all payments between the tribe or its financial backer, Genting Malaysia, and those same people listed above between Jan.1, 2014, and April 30, 2020. The subpoena specified direct deposit records, copies of checks, records of cash payments and wire transfers.

The subpoena also requested documents dating back to 2011 relating to the Delahunt Group, as well as documents going back to 2014 for WampWorx and Strategic Quality Solutions. Those documents include emails, records and payments or documentation of work that those organizations performed for the tribe.

The Delahunt Group, which is led by former U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, whose district included the Cape and Islands, is a longtime lobbyist for the tribe. The organization, which the tribe hired in 2011, has helped the tribe with its ongoing effort to pass federal legislation that would protect its sovereignty status. It originally helped the tribe pursue gaming and navigate the federal bureaucracies for health care, housing and education for tribe members, Cromwell previously told the Times.

Delahunt did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Finally, the subpoena also requests all agendas and meeting minutes from tribal meetings as well as records relating to any proposed or enacted tribe resolution or policy between January 2014 and April 30, 2020.

Because the tribe is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, there is no deadline to turn over all of the requested documents, the source said.

Elizabeth McCarthy, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts, could “neither confirm nor deny investigations,” she said in an email Wednesday.

It remains unclear the specific reasons for the recent subpoena and the connections of the individuals listed.

The tribe has been engaged in a years long legal battle for sovereignty. It had planned to build a $1 billion casino called the First Light Resort and Casino in Taunton, but plans came to a halt when neighbors of the project sued, arguing the tribe had no right to build on its reservation because it did not meet a definition of “Indian” in the Indian Reorganization Act.

With the standstill of the casino, which was projected to bring in $50 million in revenue, the tribe has been struggling with its finances.

Since he became chairman in 2009, Cromwell repeatedly has come under fire for his handling of tribe finances. Some members critical of his administration have called for more transparency. He and Harris had faced allegations from some tribe members who accused them of wrongful conduct in connection with $500 million owed to Genting Malaysia.

In June 2019, a robocall circulated within the tribal community alleging that $250 million handled by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority was unaccounted for. In January 2019, the tribal council had taken a vote of no-confidence and voted to strip Cromwell of his financial responsibilities in connection with the tribe and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority, a five-member board Cromwell is president of that oversees the tribe’s gaming operation.

Last fall, some tribe members sought to recall Cromwell and Harris for alleged malfeasance. The tribe’s Election Committee canceled the election three days before it was to take place.

SEE ALSO REEL WAMPS

WAMPALEAKS

GLADYS KRAVITZ
carverchick

Tribe argues land case in U.S. District Court

Tribe argues land case in U.S. District Court

By Jessica Hill

Posted May20, 2020

A U.S. District judge said Wednesday he could rule in a week to 10 days on the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s latest attempt to salvage a $1 billion casino deal with the city of Taunton.

Judge Paul Friedman heard the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe v. Zinke case via teleconference, in which the plaintiff and defendant gave arguments centering on whether the tribe’s land should be removed from trust status, based on whether the tribe was under federal jurisdiction prior to the establishment of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

The tribe, the Department of the Interior and the Littlefields, along with other Taunton neighbors, have been the key players in this yearslong battle over whether the government had the authority to take the land into trust in the first place.

The plaintiff argued that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s order in March to remove the tribe’s land from trust was arbitrary and capricious because he had rejected evidence that other tribes have used to obtain trust land in the past. The defense said the Interior Department’s 2018 decision was thoroughly evaluated and consistent with prior decisions.

The tribe had plans to build a $1 billion casino in Taunton that would bring economic aid to the tribe and the city of Taunton through an intergovernmental agreement. Neighbors of the proposed casino were opposed, however, and filed a lawsuit, arguing that the Interior Department had no authority to take the tribe’s land into trust.

In 2015, the Interior Department took 321 acres in Mashpee and Taunton into trust for the tribe, but under a new administration reversed itself in 2018. The tribe had appealed a district court judge’s ruling in favor of the reversal and lost, and in a separate action it challenged the Interior Department’s reversal.

In late March, the Interior Department informed the tribe it would remove its land from trust status. The tribe asked for the federal court to issue an emergency order that would postpone Bernhardt’s decision. The tribe and the Department of the Interior agreed to a 45-day pause period.

Wednesday’s hearing could determine the future of the tribe’s lands as well as its financial future. Depending on what the judge decides, the Interior Department might have to take a second look at the tribe’s qualification for land-in-trust status. A ruling in favor of the defendant might mean the tribe would lose some of its land or the tax relief that comes with it.

The plaintiff argued that several pieces of evidence show the tribe was clearly under federal authority before 1934, while the defense argued that those pieces of evidence are not explicit or show only state jurisdiction.

The tribe’s lawyer, Tami Lyn Azorsky of Dentons LLP, offered examples such as old census reports to show the tribe was under federal jurisdiction. One element of her argument concerned a federal school in Pennsylvania attended by children of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

From 1879 to 1918, the United States Carlisle Indian Industrial School operated a boarding school that hosted Native American children from around the country, with the goal of assimilating Native Americans into mainstream American culture.

Azorsky said the school took responsibility for every asset of the children’s lives, including medical decisions, without parents’ consent. Because the school was run by the federal government, and members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe attended, this demonstrates the exercise of federal authority, Azorsky argued.

The defendant argued that this evidence was not affirmative of federal jurisdiction. It showed, at most, that the tribe was “under Congress’s linear authority” and was not sufficient, said Sara Costello, federal attorney for the defense.

Azorsky also brought up reports in which the federal government considered taking an action regarding the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and then ultimately decided against it. Because no action was taken, the Interior Department dismissed those reports as evidence.

Azorsky emphasized that action does not determine jurisdiction. She said acknowledgment of responsibility is the standard.

“Isn’t a decision not to do something just as much an action as a decision to do something?” Judge Friedman asked the defense.

“The decision to do nothing does not show that the tribe is under federal jurisdiction,” Costello said.

The plaintiff argued the Bernhardt’s order to remove the tribe’s land from trust was arbitrary and capricious because he had rejected evidence that other tribes have used to obtain trust land in the past. The defense said the Interior Department’s 2018 decision was thoroughly evaluated and consistent with prior decisions.

“The Interior Department thoroughly discussed each piece of evidence and thoroughly explained why it chose to do what it did,” Costello said. “The Interior applied the correct standard for determining the federal jurisdiction, set forth in the M-Opinion.”

The “M-Opinion” is a legal opinion the Department of the Interior had been using to determine whether a tribe was under federal jurisdiction at the time of the Indian Reorganization Act. In March, Deputy Solicitor for Indian Affairs Daniel H. Jorjani withdrew the opinion, concluding in a March 5 document that the interpretation of the first definition of “Indian” is not consistent with the “ordinary meaning, statutory context, legislative history, or contemporary administrative understanding” of the phrase ’recognized Indian tribe now under federal jurisdiction.”

Jorjani had issued another memorandum that provided a four-step procedure for determining tribal eligibility that would be “more consistent with how Congress and the Department would have understood them” in 1934.

Judge Friedman criticized that change, calling the March 5 document a “joke” and “incomprehensible.”

If the current matter is remanded, Costello said, the tribe’s case will be a pending application, and so the new guidance would apply, Costello said.

“Basically you’re saying, ‘Heads I win, tails you lose,’” Friedman said. “If I remanded to Interior, you want to apply a new guidance to them which makes it harder for them to succeed.”

The new guidelines would not make it harder for the tribe to succeed in keeping its land in trust, Costello argued.

Costello emphasized that if the tribe’s land is taken out of trust, it will still have access to different funding because of its status as a federally recognized tribe. It is still entitled to COVID-19 aid under the CARES Act, as well as other funds regarding social services and transportation.

“That’s not dependent on having land under trust,” Costello said.

If Friedman he were to rule in favor of the Department of the Interior, and the tribe’s land were taken out of trust, the land would return to the previous deed holder, Azorsky said.

The Taunton land would be lost because of the mortgages, she said, and because the tribe has an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Taunton, the city also would be hurt.

“Interior is the federal trustee for the tribe, and Interior has an obligation to protect the tribe,” Azorsky said. “It doesn’t make sense that there is a rush to take this land out of trust. There still has to be an orderly process, and the tribe’s federal trustee rushing to judgment to disestablish this reservation when no procedure has been figured out yet, it doesn’t make sense.”

While the teleconference dropped for listeners near the end of the plaintiff’s rebuttal, the public was able to listen in for most of the hearing.

SEE ALSO REEL WAMPS

WAMPALEAKS

GLADYS KRAVITZ
carverchick

608 × 808

REEL WAMPS

WAMPALEAKS

GLADYS KRAVITZ

carverchick

Current, former Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe treasurers subpoenaed

By Tanner Stening
Posted Sep 4, 2019

Tribal Council votes to hire lawyers for both in federal grand jury probe.

MASHPEE — The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s chief financial officer and his predecessor have been subpoenaed in recent weeks, according to sources familiar with the matter and documentation provided to the Times.

Treasurer Gordon Harris and former Treasurer Robert Hendricks were issued subpoenas, prompting Tribal Council, the tribe’s executive decision-making body, to hire legal counsel for them, according to meeting minutes provided by council member Aaron Tobey Jr.

The minutes mention subpoenas without elaboration, and Tobey declined to discuss the nature of the court orders.

Another source, however, said the subpoenas were connected to a federal grand jury investigation. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Massachusetts said “we can neither confirm nor deny investigations” pertaining to the tribe.

Harris, council Secretary Ann Marie Askew, Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird and members Rita Pocknett Gonsalves, David Weeden and Yvonne Avant voted in favor of hiring legal counsel for Hendricks during a recent meeting, according to the minutes. Members Brian Weeden and Carlton Hendricks Jr. abstained, and Tobey was opposed.

Askew, Baird, Gonsalves, Tobey, Avant, David Weeden and Brian Weeden voted to approve legal counsel for Harris at a later meeting, according to the minutes. Carlton Hendricks Jr. opposed and Harris recused himself.

Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell votes only to break a tie.

Tobey said he voted to hire counsel for Harris and not Hendricks because Harris is a sitting official. Asked if he knew if anyone else currently or formerly in tribal government had been issued a subpoena, Tobey said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were.”

It is unclear if Harris or Hendricks have appeared in court in connection with the subpoenas. Robert Hendricks did not respond to questions about his court order, and Harris did not respond to a request for comment through a tribal spokeswoman.

Grand jury proceedings are largely secret. Roughly two dozen citizens serve as jurors, empowered to examine documents and hear testimony — usually presented only by government attorneys — to determine whether there is probable cause that someone committed a crime.

The legal probe comes amid growing political turmoil within tribal government in connection with a credibility crisis affecting the top leadership. Tribe members have tried to expel Cromwell, Baird and Harris for, among other reasons, the secrecy surrounding tribal finances, and the amount they receive in salaries. Several petitions that circulated within the tribal community earlier this year garnered enough signatures to set in motion a “recall” process — outlined in the tribe’s constitution — for Cromwell and Harris.

The tribe’s Election Committee certified 120 signatures on the petition to remove Harris and 104 signatures on a petition to remove Cromwell. The petition to remove Baird fell short of the 100 required.

The recall election is set for Sept. 15, according to the tribe’s website, although the notice does not mention Cromwell or Harris by name.

The tribe has paid Cromwell more than $1 million since he took office in 2009, that petition says. Since then, 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, according to the petition. The gaming project has been halted since a 2016 injunction granted as part of a lawsuit filed by neighbors of the project.

A robocall that circulated within the tribal community in June alleged that $250 million of the money 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.

“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.”

The Times could not confirm the source of the call.

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 Tribal Council has since reversed itself, voting to restore Cromwell’s fiduciary responsibilities and to rescind a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

Related content

Recall effort against Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe treasurer to advance

June 18, 2019

Robocall highlights alleged misdeeds by Mashpee tribal leaders

June 9, 2019

REEL WAMPS

WAMPALEAKS

GLADYS KRAVITZ

carverchick

Parties in tribe lawsuit agree to timeline

By Tanner Stening
Posted Jul 9, 2019

Schedule gets challenge to Interior Department’s land trust decision underway.

MASHPEE — The parties in the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior have agreed to a timeline that could see the case briefing wrapped up by the middle of October, according to federal court filings.

The joint scheduling order — supported by the tribe, Interior Department and a group of Taunton residents opposed to the tribe’s planned casino — was filed July 1, documents show, charting the steps in the case for the next few months.

The order states that the Interior Department must by July 19 file the evidence associated with its Sept. 7 decision that the tribe did not qualify for land in trust. The tribe must respond to that filing — the administrative record — by July 26.

The administrative record includes the federal government’s interpretation of the tribe’s historical and anthropological evidence, demonstrating its centuries-long presence in the region and ties to the federal government in 1934 — the time the Indian Reorganization Act was passed.

The Sept. 7 decision reversed the Interior Department’s original determination under the Obama administration that stated the tribe qualified under that act to have land taken into trust. The tribe sued the department within days of its about-face.

The federal government has long acted as trustee for tribes, holding land deeds in trust for the purpose of self-government. Tribal officials have said that without trust protection on 321 acres of reservation land in Mashpee and Taunton, the properties would be subject to state and local taxation and regulation, effectively stripping the tribe of its ability to self-govern.

A group of Taunton residents, led by David and Michelle Littlefield, originally sued the federal government in 2016 in response to the tribe’s $1 billion casino proposed for their city, which precipitated the now-dueling lawsuits. The Littlefields successfully intervened in the tribe’s suit earlier this year and sought to transfer the case back to U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, where the first case sits dormant on appeal.

Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the federal court for the District of Columbia denied the transfer request last month, noting the tribe’s case has national implications and “public interest factors,” among other things.

David Tennant, an attorney for the Littlefields, had argued both cases deal with the same “narrow legal question” of whether the tribe was under federal jurisdiction at the time of the Indian Reorganization Act’s passage, a requirement codified in a 2009 Supreme Court decision known as Carcieri v. Salazar.

On Monday, Tennant said he had no concerns with the scheduling order, noting it was based on a joint submission.

The Interior Department has until Aug. 9 to answer the tribe’s response to the administrative record filing. If there are no objections, the tribe must file a motion for summary judgment by Aug. 17. The department and the Littlefields would then file combined cross-motions for summary judgment by Sept. 13, according to the court files.

The tribe may file its summary judgment reply by Sept. 30, followed by the Interior Department and the Littlefields by Oct. 15.

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell was not available for comment through a tribal spokeswoman.

Federal agency denies Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s allegations

FOR A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE, CHECK  OUT: 

GladysKravitz

REEL WAMPS

carverchick

WAMPALEAKS 

Federal agency denies Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s allegations

By Tanner Stening
Posted Feb 20, 2019

MASHPEE — The Department of the Interior has responded to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s lawsuit challenging its Sept. 7 decision, denying allegations that the federal agency contorted and ignored facts to engineer a decision against the tribe.

“Except as expressly admitted, all allegations are denied,” department attorney Sara E. Costello wrote in the Feb. 19 filing.

The tribe’s suit disputes the Department of the Interior’s decision to reverse its 2015 finding that the tribe satisfied a definition of “Indian” required under the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act to qualify it for trust lands. Trust status is a designation in which the federal government holds title to tribal property, exempting it from state and local regulations.

The tribe’s suit contends that the Department of the Interior “erroneously determined” that the tribe was not “under federal jurisdiction” at the time of the law’s passage, a requirement spelled out in a 2009 Supreme Court decision known as Carcieri v. Salazar.

David L. Bernhardt, Acting Secretary of the Department of the Interior, and the agency itself are named as defendants in the case. The department’s response to the tribe’s suit follows several extensions that federal officials requested in light of the 35-day partial government shutdown.

The department’s response also comes just days after Taunton residents who successfully sued the agency over whether the tribe qualified for trust-protected reservation lands motioned to intervene in the case as intervenor-defendants aligned with the department, according to court filings. The tribe has plans to build a $1 billion casino-resort in Taunton.

David and Michelle Littlefield brought the initial legal action against the department in 2016 after it took the tribe’s 321 acres of land into trust. U.S. District Court Judge William Young ruled that the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction and instructed the department to further review its decision.

The department considered whether Massachusetts’ authority over the tribe could be considered in place of federal jurisdiction, but ultimately decided against the tribe, reversing the land-in-trust decision.

The tribe alleges the decision represented a failure on behalf of the Department of the Interior to “properly exercise its delegated authority under the (Indian Reorganization Act)” in the context of the department’s “general trust obligations to the tribe.”

Tribal officials have repeatedly warned that the decision could result in the termination of the tribe’s reservation, its sovereign status and its ability to self-govern.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190220/federal-agency-denies-mashpee-wampanoag-tribes-allegations

Wampanoag lobbyists
Jack Ambramoff