Chief: Wampanoag Tribe got federal recognition through efforts tied to fraud

Former Chairman Glenn Marshall gets credit for Wampanoag
Tribe Federal Recognition by current Chief.

The current Chief of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in Massachusetts told the Enterprise News that were it not for former Council Chair Glenn Marshall that the Mashpee band today would not be a federally recognized tribe.  You see, Marshall is returning home today from prison on the eve of a critical vote by the citizens of Taunton on Mashpee Wampanoag plans to build an Indian casino - something only federally recognized tribes can do - and current Chief Flying Eagle, Earl Mills, Sr told the Enterprise News: 

"“Without him we wouldn’t have tribal recognition... without Glenn we would not have recognition and chances are we would have never gotten it..."

Wampanoag Chief Earl Mills

The Chief admits Glenn "made a mistake" along the way, and he's admitted that he is no fan of the current Council led by Cedric Cromwell but doesn't seem to want Cedric to forget how he got where he sits today.  While trying to distance himself as a reformer, Cromwell served as a Tribal Council member under Marshall during his "mistakes." Cromwell served on the Council which voted to shun and ban tribe members who tried to challenge and seek the tribe's financial records associated with lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Kevin Ring.

So what mistakes associated with gaining federal recognition and starting the tribe's pathway to a casino did former Chairman Marshall make?   Just five criminal counts, including making illegal campaign contributions, tax fraud, wire fraud, and Social Security fraud.  Marshall used monies lent the tribe by South African "investors" hoping to cash in on casino riches (sound familiar today? - just replace South African with Malaysian) to engage in various felonies and activities with the infamous lobbyist "Casino Jack" Abramoff which the Tribe hopes people will forget when considering them as a good partner in casino deals today.  

Wampanoag lobbyists
Jack Ambramoff

So were it not for these criminal acts - which included over 50 illegal political campaign contributions to elected officials who helped the Tribe gain recognition (some of whom are still in office today supporting the Tribe's reservation casino efforts) - we would not be having a vote in Taunton to consider the Tribe's casino plans.  By most accounts from the Tribe, Marshall's acts were not for self-enrichment, but were illegal none-the-less.  The inheritors of Marshall's ill-gotten booty, however, appear more bent on their personal gains versus those of the tribe.

Today's list of characters in this bizarre saga simply has grown to back fill those sent off to jail in a previous act.  They include lobbyist Bill Delahunt, understudy to Mr. Abramoff; Chairman Cedric Cromwell, understudy to Mr. Marshall; and, playing new supporting roles Deval Patrick and Stan McGee.

By all normal definitions the Mashpee Wampanoag's current application for land in trust (LIT) and plans for a casino in Taunton are fruit of a poisonous (or at least rotten) tree.  Federal recognition gained through fraud, deception and shady dealings is not exactly the foundation upon which a credible and trustworthy casino gaming business should be founded.

Stan McGee! Official arrested for sexually molesting a child appointed to help oversee casinos, outrageous!

(With updates from Boston Globe - 5/3/2012, highlighted)

The corruption of Massachusetts fueled by the gaming industry is now complete.  Governor Deval "I don't count every check" Patrick's Gaming Commission has hired political insider Stan McGee to run the board's operations and steer policy.  The Commission is charged, in part, with ensuring criminals and miscreants don't infiltrate and corrupt the casino industry as it takes its grip over gaming in the Commonwealth.  So why not appoint someone who Florida police charged with sexually molested a boy between the ages of 12-16 while hanging out in $500 per night room resort in Florida.

The Boston Globe reported that Carl Stanley McGee had been placed on unpaid leave in 2008 while serving as one of Patrick's key advisers in developing casino gaming legislation after being arrested in Florida for "masturbating and performing oral sex" on a teenage boy in the steam room of the Gasparilla  Club in Boca Grande, Florida.  While we could ask why or how McGee, an assistant secretary for policy and planning, was lolling around in a swank and dandy Florida beach club at $500 per night on his government salary that seems minor against the backdrop of his arrest.

On May 3, 2012 the Boston Globe provided additional details on McGee's Florida arrest and subsequent dropping of charges against him by Florida prosecutors.  The Globe reported that the victim and his family stood by their claims and that the police investigators protested the dropping of the charges.  Lawyers for the boy who claim he was molested pointed to the confidential cash settlement paid by McGee and an investigator from the Florida state Crimes Against Children's unit assigned to review the prosecutors decision to not pursue McGee recommended the state attorney reconsider the prosecution.


When the Globe questioned the officers who first investigated and asked why prosecutors didn't push the case, they claimed something happened "somewhere between Massachusetts and Florida... above my pay grade."  We may never know, but the police who arrested McGee - who exercised his Fifth Amendment rights and declined to answer their question then - are certainly suggesting political favors above a simple cop's pay level made this problem go away for McGee.  For his part, McGee still won't answer questions about this and hasn't publicly stated that he did not molest the boy.  If political influence from the Patrick Administration was used to prevent McGee from being prosecuted for molesting a child, somebody should find out.   


Perhaps Martha Coakley will put aside the fact that she received those nice campaign contributions from casino lobbyists just this one time and ask a few questions.  Otherwise, the people of the Commonwealth will be left with a very sour taste indeed about the integrity of those making critical decisions for gaming in the state.

If this is the highest standard allowed by Governor Patrick and the Gaming Commission for selecting those charged with gaming oversight what can we expect the crowd running the casinos under their purview will be like?  Conveniently for Patrick, McGee will drive the board's process and decision making during the critical months in which they will decide whether or not to allow the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe to move forward with their plans for an Indian reservation casino.  Wonder how much that cost Genting Malaysia and their lobbyist former Congressman Bill Delahunt?

You see, McGee was the insider who orchestrated the special interest legislative carve out that benefits the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe's casino efforts on the South Shore.  Guess that means the requirements that the Tribe actually prove that they can get Congress to overturn a Supreme Court Decision which bars them from opening a casino AND convince the Department of the Interior to grant them off-reservation land-in-trust by the July 31, 2012 deadline will somehow slip by...   

Perhaps Cedric Cromwell has a special steam room planned for McGee in his Taunton resort complex as pay-off.  Heck, since no Taunton or State Police will be allowed on "the reservation" in Taunton, McGee's risks of any unseemly scrutiny by the Wampanoag tribal police which will be controlled by Cedric seems low.  This is truly a new low for the Commonwealth and another pockmark on the corruption that riddles the Indian gaming industry.

As for those pesky requirements that casino employees pass background checks, including making sure they're not child sex offenders, well since the Gaming Commission feels free to hire someone with such a record, McGee will probably have a nice job waiting for him at Wampa World Taunton when this is all done.  Besides, the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Casino won't actually have to comply with any state rules or regulations requiring such inconvenient background checks as they will be a sovereign Indian nation operating on a no-rules reservation - where anything goes and Stan will never have to worry about being arrested for having sex with minor boys again.

Where they stand on special interest gaming legislation? Let’s do a roll call.

We now know what Deval Patrick, Therese Murray and the gaming lobbyists want – special interests’ carve outs for slot machine companies and foreign backed Indian casino campaign contributors.    No matter what line of B.S. Greg Bialecki or Stan McGee claim about the inevitability of Indian casinos in the Commonwealth, their arguments for dedicating Southeastern Massachusetts to the Mashpee Wampanoag and ONLY the Mashpee’s simply don’t hold water.   Their addendum to the gaming legislation for this single, small and questionable special interest group at the expense of state revenue, jobs and community control reeks of political corruption, plain and simple.

But what will matter now is where our legislators stand on this issue.  It’s pretty simple. 

1.      You are either for preferential treatment of tax-exempt, foreign-financed Indian casinos which give huge returns to slot machine companies but lower returns to the state coupled with loss of state and local community jurisdiction, or

2.      You are for competitively bid casinos which will create jobs quickly,  maximize revenues to the state without loss of state or local community controls

So, where do they stand?  Most Bay State legislators have been silent on this special treatment legislative carve out for lobbyist Bill Delahunt’s band of POAID- (person of ancient Indian descent) led Mashpee Wampanoag and their Malaysian gambling syndicate financed “reservation casino complex.”  We know where the members of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies stand – they sent the Governor’s special interest bill to the House and Senate “without dissent.”  Now, most of these Joint Committee members, like the Governor and Murray, are big recipients of casino lobbyist campaign cash – tens of thousands in contributions apparently goes a long way toward legislators selling out their constituents’ best interests.  We know where Therese Murray’s “point man” Senator Stanley Rosenberg stands as he is whipping the votes to pass this bill without scrutiny or debate over the special interest carve-out.  Stan conveniently is another top casino lobbyist campaign cash recipient.  But let’s start taking a roll call for the rest – ask your state senators and representatives where they stand and help us fill in the list BEFORE it’s too late for a real debate and evaluation of what’s best for Massachusetts.

Let’s start the roll with our senators – sadly, Therese Murray really delivered the “Ca-Ching” to her senate colleagues as all but one took casino campaign cash, but that doesn’t mean they are bought.  So click on the link to their name and ask them and post their responses to the comment section.  I’ve asked them all, but nobody’s talking to me.

Remember, it is simple, they are either:

·        For preferential treatment of tax-exempt Indian casinos backed by overseas syndicates

Or

·        For retained local community control, rapid job creation and maximized state revenues from competitive, no special interest gaming

                 Senator                                Special Interests    - or -   Commonwealth

Therese Murray		For		Against		Tens of thousands in campaign contributions from slot machine and Indian lobbysts.
Bruce E. Tarr		?		?
Baddour, Steven		?		?
Berry, Frederick		?		?
Brewer, Stephen		?		?
Candaras, Gale		?		?
Chandler, Harriette		?		?
Chang-Diaz, Sonia		?		?		Opposes gaming, but unknown if she'll also fight against the special interest components of the bill.
Clark, Katherine		?		?
Creem, Cynthia		?		?
DiDomenico, Sal		?		?
Donnelly, Kenneth		?		?
Donoghue, Eileen		For		Against		Member of Joint Committee which sent special interest inclusive bill without dissent to the legislature.
Downing, Benjamin		?		?
Eldridge, James		?		?		Opposes gaming, but unknown if he'll also fight against the special interest components of the bill.
Fargo, Susan		?		?		Opposes gaming, but unknown if she'll also fight against the special interest components of the bill.
Finegold, Barry		?		?
Flanagan, Jennifer		?		?
Hart, John		?		?
Hedlund, Robert		?		?
Jehlen, Patricia		?		?
Joyce, Brian		For		Against		Member of Joint Committee which sent special interest inclusive bill without dissent to the legislature.
Keenan, John		?		?
Kennedy, Thomas		?		?
Knapik, Michael		?		?
McGee, Thomas		?		?
Montigny, Mark		?		?
Moore, Michael		?		?
Moore, Richard		For		Against		Member of Joint Committee which sent special interest inclusive bill without dissent to the legislature.
Pacheco, Marc		?		?
Petruccelli, Anthony		?		?
Rodrigues, Michael		?		?
Rosenberg, Stanley		For		Against		Therese Murray "point man" in charge of lining up votes.  Top recipient of lobbyist cash.
Ross, Richard		For		Against		Member of Joint Committee which sent special interest inclusive bill without dissent to the legislature.
Rush, Michael		For		Against		Member of Joint Committee which sent special interest inclusive bill without dissent to the legislature.
Spilka, Karen		For		Against		Chair of Joint Committee which sent special interest inclusive bill without dissent to the legislature.
Timilty, James		?		?
Tolman, Steven		?		?
Welch, James		?		?
Wolf, Daniel		?		?