A federal grand jury returned a 69-count indictment Thursday against three former officials of the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians, charging them with conspiracy to embezzle tribal funds, embezzlement of tribal funds, making false statements to federal agents and tax charges.
The indictment against John Crosby, 53, of Redding, Ines Crosby, 73, of Orland, and Leslie Lohse, 62, of Glenn County, was announced in a press release issued by Phillip Talbert, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California.
The tribe operates the Rolling Hills Casino located on tribal land near Corning.
The indictment alleges that between January 2009 and May 2014, the defendants, who had access to tribal funds, embezzled at least $6 million of that money for their own personal expenses. They allegedly sought to conceal the embezzlement by creating a false line-of-credit document and remotely accessing the tribe’s computers to destroy evidence. John Crosby and Lohse are accused of submitting tax returns that omitted the embezzled funds, while, Ines Crosby failed to file any tax returns.
The three were among four members of the tribal council were ousted by tribal membership in April 2014, which culminated in a prolonged armed standoff at the casino in June 2014, the destruction of computer records and the disappearance of a private jet owned by the tribe.
Subsequently, the two factions came to an agreement to hold an election in September 2014. The election resulted in the tribe siding against the ousted members.
If convicted, each of the defendants face a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the charge of falsifying a document in a federal investigation. The maximum statutory penalty for each count of conspiracy, embezzling and making a false statement to a government agent is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The maximum statutory penalty for filing a false tax return is three years in prison and a $25,000 fine, and one year in prison and a $25,000 fine for failure to file a tax return.
This case is the product of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI. GREAT NEWS!! PUT THE THIEVES AWAY!
Great job, Grand Jury! Three tribal officials indicted. Hopefully, one day, Leslie Lohse's good friend in business, California Tribal Business Alliance ally, Robert Smith, will succumb to the same fate. They were both taught by the master of Indian Tribe Manipulators, Howard Dickstein, how to personally screw their tribal members. There are many similarities, many parallels between Paskenta and Pala. At least the tribal members at Paskenta had the common sense to remove Lohse from office. It's a well known fat that Leslie under the guidance of her mentor, arranged for the outright purchase of a jet and hid this from her tribal members. She also invested with Robert Smith at one time in some schemes a few years back, even had a website dedicated to their common purchases, while they were companions in the California Tribal Business Alliance. Well, Robert Smith is probably involved in the same shenanigans as Lohse, birds of a feather flock together, unfortunately, he has his tribal members under control with the money situation dwindling down there in Pala. Who wants to go back on welfare, right Pala Members?
ReplyDelete~ Wow! ~ that's a huge dose of karma in its *Finest Hour*~ we will see more of this...That's the beauty of "Karma" ( it lets you watch.)...
ReplyDeleteCome on U.S. Attorney General! Where are the conspiracy to commit fraud charges? Didn't these tribal officers use federal funds for personal expenses with the knowledge and cooperation of the BIA? How does the BIA come away clean from this "racketeering"?
ReplyDeleteHow come Larry Miranda and company didn't face the same?
ReplyDeleteOnce the Feds get to Howard Dickstien all the shitbirds he taught will loose there feathers.First will be the one and only ROBERT H. SMITH OF PALA.
ReplyDeleteDickstein will evade charges. He is an extremely wealthy lawyer with big time connections at high levels of government.
ReplyDeleteRobert Smith is a corrupt thief who will leave the country to evade prosecution. The only way to stop that would be for the PBMI General Council to waive his sovereign immunity and prosecute him.
Good luck on that.
come on Pala people get the Pala e.c out now,put them in the hands of the feds.Start a good new year,our per cap will go way up.Plus we all can live in piece again.
ReplyDelete