Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Per Capita Payments At Pechanga at 10 year Lows. Even after Terminating 25% of their Tribe


The Press Enterprise has a story on identity theft of a per capita check for the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians.   Here's that story:
A recent identity theft case in which a Pechanga tribal member’s monthly casino profits check was stolen casts some light on a topic of much speculation by outsiders.
How much does each tribal member receive?
According to court records, it’s about $13,000 a month, or, about $156,000 a year.  OP:  Our last year in the tribe, 2005 we earned $268,000 and that includes bonuses.   A year later, drunk Pechanga youth were bragging about earning over $30,000 per month.
In years past, the per capita payments were apparently higher.
Each adult tribal member received a benefit of more than $250,000 per year in 2006, according to a 2009 opinion from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
That case involved a claim filed by sixteen people stripped of their membership in the Pechanga Band of LuiseƱo Indians in 2006 after their tribal lineage was disputed.  OP:  Disputed, yet proven by Pechanga's own hired experts.
In the recent identity theft case, investigated by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, tribal member Robert Freeman told sheriff’s officials that he went to pick up his check in September from the Pechanga Tribal Government office near Temecula but was told it was not available. A tribal government worker told him he had signed up for direct deposit.
Trouble was, Freeman hadn’t.
The worker told authorities that she had received a call from a man claiming to be Freeman and asking for direct deposit, search warrant documents say. The worker traded email messages and phone calls with the man, who filled out a direct deposit application.
As soon as the theft was reported, the bank account where the check had been deposited was frozen, court records say. There was still $11,500 in the account.
Freeman told sheriff’s investigators that he suspected his former roommate, Ji Yong Lee, who would have had access to his personal information, court records say.
Yi, 29, was charged Nov. 26 in Riverside Superior Court and pleaded guilty Dec. 6 to identity theft. He was sentenced to three years’ probation, 90 days in jail and ordered to pay fines and $13,088.64 in restitution, court records say
This means that Pechanga has fallen on hard times during this recession, including bad publicity over their disenrollments.    KARMA IS A BITCH

9 comments:

smokeybear said...

O.K. everyone....."What are we going to do different this year?
...."Eagle Eyes."

kDogg said...

Just curious...how do they treat their employees? The tribe I work for increased christmas bonuses by like 15% over last year and they aren't being shady by disenrolling their own people.

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to the day that Pechanga goes bankrupt in debt...just like Foxwoods back east...they used to get almost 100,000 in per cap....now ...nothing!!...

Anonymous said...

It's only a matter of time before pala is same way. Look up spire lawsuit Rico. Howard dick stein. It's only a matter of time before all of these casinos that dickstien is or was involved with and the leaders supporting them are all gone. Including everyone's precious per cap

Anonymous said...

your next chuckchansi !!

' said...

Some of the tribal members don't treat the employees very well and firings from the casino itself can be arbitray at Pechanga.

Tribal member, the imfamous Mr. PotatoHead, used to, and probably still does, go in and spy on employees and complain about the littlest things.

Personally, when I was a tribal member, I appreciated the employees and I would tell them I would go to bat for them.

I went to a PDC meeting and I told the board that all employees, accross the board, should get raises to at least the same level as the competition but I was told that Pechanga had a better benefits package than other local casinos but, at least I tried.

Any surprise that we would look out for the employees and the people who led the charge in getting us kicked out of our tribe would treat them, like us, like dirt?

Michael Gowans said...

With the influx of online casino nowadays, it most probably be more difficult for the Penchanga casino to rise up from the recession. However, if the regulars do still come on a regular basis, with the same amount of money spent, then maybe, just maybe, the casino will recover.

Unknown said...

First off. I am a resident of beautiful Temecula. My name is Russell Keyes. This land is their land, taken from the white man and Buffalo massacre butchered, from the white man. Native Americans used every part of the animals they killed, and buffalo thrived. When the white man came, he killed buffalo for profit, which dwindled their population. Let's pray for the Great White Buffalo to lead the land, and tribe to success. I have about as much Indian, that if i sneezed it would all come out of me. Wishing for the tribe to fail is no different then saying for all American bald Eagles to be Diminished. The Indian and the buffalo
They existed hand in hand
The Indian needed food
He needed skins for a roof
But he only took what they needed, baby
Millions of buffalo were the proof But then came the white man
With his thick and empty head
He couldn't see past the billfold
He wanted all the buffalo dead
It was sad, It was sad

Anonymous said...

Bullshit