5 charged with diverting stimulus money from Rocky Boy

GREAT FALLS (AP) — A Chippewa Cree tribal leader, a former state lawmaker and three others used a fake billing system and a shell company to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus aid meant for the Montana tribe, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The Chippewa Cree Tribe received $33 million in federal funding between 2009 and 2010 for construction of a $361 million pipeline to supply fresh drinking water for the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and surrounding counties in northern Montana. Most of that $33 million came from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment act, al...