A Central California man who was hired to advise the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians has become the third person to plead guilty to participating in a kickback scheme that defrauded the Coachella Valley tribe.
David Alan Heslop, 76, of Templeton, who was hired by the tribe to oversee some tribal business, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to commit bribery. Heslop admitted that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to bribe Gary Edward Kovall, an attorney acting as general counsel for the tribe.
Kovall, 67, of Ely, Minnesota, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to commit bribery.
A third defendant in the case – Paul Phillip Bardos, 58, a general contractor from Rancho Cucamonga – pleaded guilty last month to tax evasion.
As outlined in a 20-page factual basis filed in relation to Heslop’s plea agreement, Kovall and Heslop formed companies, and Kovall convinced the tribe to award construction and consulting work to those companies. To disguise Kovall’s interest in those companies, Heslop paid Kovall’s share to Peggy Anne Shambaugh, who at the time was Kovall’s girlfriend (and is now his wife). Over of period of about 18 months that ended in mid-2008, the tribe paid these companies approximately $2.8 million. Heslop, in turn, paid Shambaugh approximately $300,000 to influence and reward Kovall.
Bardos performed and subcontracted much of the work awarded by the tribe. He admitted to depositing income he earned into his personal checking account, concealing this money from his accountant, and not reporting it on his tax returns.
Heslop is scheduled to be sentenced on June 30 by United States District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald. At sentencing, Heslop faces up to five years in federal prison.
Kovall and Bardos both are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Fitzgerald on September 29, at which time each defendant faces up to five years in prison.
Shambaugh, who was also indicted in this case, is being evaluated for pretrial diversion. If found suitable for the diversion program, Shambaugh will be supervised by a court officer for a specific period of time. If she complies with the program, the charges against her will be dismissed.
This is petty thieft compared to what Smith & Nieto are doing to the Pala Band. Why hasn't anyone filed charges on them.If the Feds are willing to prosecute a petty thieft like this, they will "LOVE"
ReplyDeleteto get their hands on bigger fish.
So if you have the bait,don't waste anymore time,give it to the Feds so JUSTICE can be done.
Now Smith and Nieto are trying to pull a fast one with the Pala raceway even tho The tribe doesn't even get a cut of it only Smith, Dennis turner and some other guy who partnered with them. Robert also shut down Pala subway to get away from franchise eyes and opens up the fact same thing owned soley by Pala or him with nobody to say how much is coming and going.
ReplyDeleteYa smith has been caught lying to our faces at the meetings several times. People need to stand up and not take his "not on the agenda" move to keep from answering the peoples questions. He never allows us to put anything we wanna know about or discuss on the agenda.
ReplyDeleteHe is only 1/2 the blame, the other half is that non-Pala-blood,
ReplyDeleteTheresa Nieto. Who never lived in Pala and never liked the Reservation to began with.I hope and pray that someday soon, the people will get fed up and realize
that she is as corrupt as Smith and file corruption charges against the two evil doers.
Well Robert Smith bambozzeled the tribe once again. Lies, lies, and more lies, how stupid is it to vote on closing the race track after the fact? He already closed the damn thIing. He needed the general council to pass that resoultion for one thing only, now any law suit will fall right in the lap of the pala band and not him. He opened it without the tribes approval, he didnt need the tribes approval to close it, unless he signed a "limited waver of sovereign immunity". All u silly billy dumb shits who motioned and voted on that issue have opened the door to a lawsuit and if that happens u should expect another large per capita cut and it will be well deserved. You all should of listened to Kings guestions, he knew what he was talking about, what a sad, sad group this tribe has become.In Roberts favorite words, "You voted on it"
ReplyDeleteDamn sound like chance Alberta and his fake ass chukchansi inc. He owned property, signed it over to his wife and had tribe buy it back so he can use it for biz. All failing business by the way. I can't wait until the day I see him sitting in court facing time for all the money he has stolen and the lives he has ruined in the process.
ReplyDeleteHow come the Powwow issue was brought up again. I thought that when a issue was voted onn that it could not be brought up again until one year has passed.
ReplyDeleteAnd then i heard that when the issuse was being discussed, and yet voted on, up pops the screen that indicated that the vote was 38 yes and 36 no,and the people are going, what the fuck just happened, we didn't even vote yet.
I'm a Pauma Tribal member and am thoroughly pissed off. I just read a posting about TN daughter trying to pass off her oldest child as a Pauma member when in fact she has no Pauma blood. This will be brought up, and a DNA test required.
ReplyDelete