Here's the story:
The future of the Santa Ysabel Casino, its 120 employees, and the tribe that owns it, is as unpredictable as when a jackpot might hit on any of its slot machines.
The tribe owes nearly $54 million to creditors, and has virtually no money to pay them. It is embroiled in several legal battles and have lost several others. It owes the Yavapai Apache Nation of Arizona tens of millions of dollars in loans and San Diego County $3 million more for services the tribe has promised to pay for but never has.
The small tribe with big dreams has descended into a financial black hole.
The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this summer, but a judge ruled Sept. 4 that the casino is not an unincorporated company, as the tribe argued, but instead that the casino and the tribe are one and the same. As a federally recognized tribe, it is ineligible for bankruptcy under the law because a tribe is a governmental unit. That means the tribe is on the hook for what it owes.
In Sacramento Superior Court, the Apaches are arguing they should receive money earmarked for the Santa Ysabel tribe under the “Revenue Sharing Trust Fund,” which the California Gambling Control Commission administers.
The tribe depends on that money for its basic day-to-day running of its government.
Trust funds are available to all tribes that do not have gaming enterprises or have small casinos with fewer than 350 slot machines. The Santa Ysabel Casino has 349 machines, which it leases from another creditor. The money comes from the bigger gaming tribes as shared revenue and amounts to $1.1 million annually
The commission is withholding the latest quarterly payment from the fund, and the Santa Ysabel tribe is suing the state in San Diego federal court to get the commission to release it.
3 comments:
It’s funny that money trumps sovereignty every time. If we would have been allowed to have our case heard we would have been able to prove that money was a primary motivator that was a part of a bigger conspiracy to remove members for profit. We would have also proven that there was by laws that were ignored specifically those that allowed for impartiality and recusement of interested members who accused and then voted for ou removal. I am glad for this new ruling.
Sovereignty is a non issue if the leaders are doing nothing wrong then they have nothing to worry about. Sovereignty is a TOOL to hide behind to protect them from the wrong doings that they have entrenched themselves so deep in that they have no choice but to hide behind it. Thier lawyers and probably many others are involved too so that's why they can't let it get out or there will be alot of people going to jail. I believe thier time is coming. No matter thier sovereignty people will and are starting to see the crooks for who they are. And who the crooks actually are. We know who you are. And your on borrowed time.
If you type Temculapatch in your search box they have a story on disenrollment. Mark Macarro is the poster boy for corrupt Indian government.
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