Loan lawsuit filed against Rocky Boy

In the midst of political turmoil and a scandalous federal investigation of corruption and embezzlement at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, the Chippewa Cree Tribe now faces a multi-million dollar lawsuit claiming the tribe defaulted on loan payments.

BEH Gaming Ltd. of Florida filed a lawsuit in state District Court in Havre asking state District Judge Dan Boucher to award it the balance of a $5.5 million 2011 promissory note made by the tribe for a defaulted loan, and a $12.65 million promissory note the tribe backed for the Chippewa Cree Development Corp. that the corporation made with a South Dakota Bank later taken over by the Florida company.

The lawsuit names the tribe, its development corporation and Plain Green, the online lending company on the reservation, as plaintiffs.

By this morning, the Havre Daily News had not received any responses to emails and calls to the lawyer representing BEH, Martin S. King of Missoula, and to representatives of the tribe asking exactly what the loans were for and what was the remaining balance.

While the court issued summonses to the plaintiff to be served on the defendants ordering them to respond, those summonses had not been returned to the court as of this morning. The plaintiff has up to two years to serve the summonses.

Ken Blatt St. Marks said this morning that he was not aware the lawsuit had been filed, but that in his five-month tenure as chair of the Chippewa Cree Tribe Business Committee he heard of the debt.

He received a letter from BEH stating the tribe owed the company $16 million for loans on the building and expansion of Northern Winz Casino, including that the tribe was supposed to take BEH's investment to build a hotel and truck stop with the casino. The tribe added one gas pump and built 10 rooms in the upstairs of the casino, he said.

"This is one of the reasons I got impeached," St. Marks said. "I exposed that."

The lawsuit comes in the midst of a continuation of a year-and-a-half of political and criminal turmoil.

The tribal council removed St. Marks as chair in March of last year, alleging he had violated his constitutional duties. St. Marks says he was removed because he was investigating corruption, embezzlement and missing money - part of which was the money BEH said the tribe owed it - and cooperating with federal investigators looking into allegations of corruption.

St. Marks prevailed in several attempts to keep him out of the next election, and won the race in July of last year to take the seat from which the council removed him. The council has since refused to seat him, and members said last October they again would remove him from office if he was sworn in.

After he was removed from office, the federal government started indicting people, including prominent tribal officials, on charges of corruption, fraud, bribery and embezzlement of federal and tribal money.

Since April of last year, six tribal members, some highly placed officials in the tribal government, have pleaded guilty to, been convicted of or are scheduled to plead guilty to charges in the indictment.

Seven people who are not members of the tribe, some at Rocky Boy, some in Havre and some in Laurel, also have pleaded guilty to embezzling from the tribe.

Two more tribal members, council member John "Chance" Houle and Chippewa Cree Rodeo Association vice chair Wade Colliflower, are scheduled for trials in December and January and Houle is scheduled for trial in charges where his the only defendant in February.