Around 25 agents from the U.S. Department of the Interior moved in with a search warrant early Tuesday morning, investigating allegations of fraud surrounding money given to the tribe by their Las Vegas partners, Station Casinos Inc. Agents worked into the night seizing records and computers.
Like the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in Sonoma County, North Fork Rancheria has partnered with Station Casinos to build casino, this one to be located near Madera in the Central Valley. Following a pattern that it has used with all four of its California tribal projects, Station Casinos bought several hundred acres of land for North Fork far from the tribe's existing land, outside the city of Madera.
And like it has done with Graton Rancheria, Station Casinos also gives money to North Fork as part of its development contract with the tribe. It's this money that seems to have triggered the raid.
News of the raid broke on all the network news affiliates in the Fresno area, and the Fresno Bee featured an article on the raid.
According to the Fresno Bee, North Fork's tribal attorney John Maier stated that the investigation concerns how the tribe spent money received from Station Casinos. Mr. Maier, who has offices in Oakland, also represents the Federated Indian of Graton Rancheria.
"We'll be watching this story with great interest, especially as it might apply to the Graton Rancheria/Station Casinos project here in Rohnert Park" said Pastor Chip Worthington, founder of Stop the Casino 101 Coalition, a pro-community organization created to stop the local Station Casinos project.
"Casinos are sleazy operations by definition, and unlike Nevada, California barely regulates these projects. " he said. "That there may be fraud involved with a casino project shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone."
"Remember what former Nevada Attorney General Chuck Gardner once said: 'No one in the history of mankind has ever developed or operated a casino out of a burning desire to improve the lot of humanity.' It's always all about the benjamins."
