Commercial Bribery Scheme at Pechanga Falsifying Job Applications.

Pechanga employee cheats employees of $3,000 each.

UPDATES: Choomchuen Zhou was arrested on May 1st. Now, we'll see who she sings on when trying to save herself from a long term in prison. Also, a note that this story was also linked to at Pechanga.net on Sat. 6/21, after I sent notice to our friend Rob Schmidt. Thanks Rob, for linking to this story and helping get the word out about the corruption at Pechanga. We assume there will be a Larry Miranda story soon.

Mean Streets Blog reports that while Special Agents from the Riverside Office of the Bureau of Gambling Control (BGC) were investigating several management employees of the Pechanga Resort and Casino, the Agents uncovered evidence that floor supervisor, Kathy Zhou, who was recently suspended from her job, was charging casino job applicants $3,000 each to falsify their job applications to secure employment.

Agents monitored a telephone conversation between Zhou and one of her "customers," during which she instructed the individual not to say anything to DOJ agents. Zhou admitted to the witness during this conversation that she lied to the agents when they questioned her, and was admonishing everyone involved to "keep their stories straight."

Zhou was arrested on charges of commercial bribery and obstructing a criminal investigation.

Employees embezzle, tribal members cheat employees, employees violate the law, young tribal thugs get nightclubs shut down.

Avoid Pechanga... Temecula... Avoid Pechanga

Pechanga: A Bad Neighbor that Does Some Good Deeds

It’s been a decade since Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro asked the People of California to help Native Americans in their quest for self-reliance. I believe that most people took self-reliance to mean that Native Americans would help take care of their own people with the proceeds of Indian Gambling. This is the messaging of every public relations campaign during every California referendum on Indian Gaming, Each time the leaders of Pechanga were the face of the California Native community.

Unfortunately, self-reliance to Pechanga means keeping rightful people from joining the band and removing people who don’t think the way the leadership wants them to think, so there will be no dissent among the membership. The Council’s policy is cash your check and shut the hell up.

Pechanga’s Constitution and Bylaws provides for OPEN ENROLLMENT each January, yet in 1997 the band approved a petition, which called for a moratorium on member enrollment so that the tribe can get caught up with the applications. There are 10 members on that committee, how long could it take to catch up? The will of the people was the rule of law in an enrollment matter, upheld by the tribal council.

When the people passed a valid petition to halt all disenrollments in 2005, the tribal council maintained that the petition couldn’t be enforced, because the general council had no authority in enrollment matters.

Let’s get this right, the general council says the people could keep people OUT, but they can’t keep people IN?

So, we have the Pechanga Tribal Council acting in a shameful manner by eliminating 25% of their citizenry. They stripped this group of their status as Native Americans, and grabbed their share of per capita payments to grow their own. They keep rightful members from their place at Pechanga via disenrollment and abused the elders and children of two families, terminating their cultural heritage.

In direct contradiction to these reprehensible actions, Pechanga donates to groups like the Boys and Girls Clubs, The Temecula Valley School District, and other organizations, which gladly take generous donations from the tribal government. Would these groups accept these donations if they knew what Pechanga had done to their own people?
Pechanga used those donations to trumpet how they were generous to the community, and good neighbors. Yet, I can’t believe that the organizations mentioned above would believe it’s okay to screw someone, let some people die knowing their heritage was stripped, so that they can have a new swing set on their playgrounds? I really don’t believe they would have endorsed Pechanga in the last elections if they knew what was really happening on the reservation in their own neighborhood.

Ethical businesses and governmental agencies should be expressing their outrage at what Pechanga has done, not turning a blind eye. Many sovereign countries quit doing business in South Africa because of their apartheid policies. Pechanga’s policy of denying basic civil rights to the people that they were purported to be helping with Proposition 5A is little different than S. Africa's, or Saudi Arabia's denying women the right to vote.

If Wal-Mart is so bad for not providing health coverage for all of their associates, which bring protests for each new store, why isn’t the same outrage aimed at Pechanga, who not only took away per capita, but health coverage, education assistance, employment and elder care for the citizens they kicked to the curb?

What Pechanga is doing is the epitome of hypocrisy. They are hiding their ‘dirty family secret’ behind a veil of sovereignty, and then publicizing their good deeds to local charities to show what honorable people they are. Don’t allow them to get away with it. It is time the people of this community learn the truth.

Please spread the word and if you must patronize an Indian Gaming facility, it is time to go elsewhere. Let Mark Macarro know that you DO NOT support his actions.

Does Pechanga Think Crime Pays?

Paulina Hunters Blog asks that question

Soboba to Sue Sheriff's Department for Protecting it's Citizens and San Jacinto Residents from Armed Gunmen: UPDATED

UPDATE: Soboba Tribal Chairman apologizes for his remarks.

Earlier this week Salgado accused deputies of coming to the reservation to "blow people away" and referred to the local sheriff's station commander, Capt. Glenn Worby, as "General Custer."
Worby sat silently in the corner of a small conference room as Salgado opened the meeting with an apology for his remarks to the press.
"Over the past two weeks this has escalated out to some bad blood between the Sheriff's Department and myself," said Salgado, who sat at the head of a heavy wooden conference table with an eagle feather laid before him. "I ask forgiveness if I offended anybody." OP: Very good Mr. Chairman

ARTICLE on

Chairman Salgado's tribal members shot at tribal security guards, shot at sheriff's deputies with HUNDREDS of rounds of ammunition, shot at a RCSD helocopter, representing the opportunity for HUNDREDS of wounded and dead. And he wants to SUE them? How about holding a thank you party for saving his reservation from basically crazed gunmen.

People of Southern California, I'd AVOID Soboba like the PLAGUE. Salgado thinks his civil rights were violated, but where was he when tribes like Pechanga, Redding, Picayune violated the civil rights of its OWN PEOPLE?


SAN JACINTO, Calif. - The chairman of the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians said the tribe is planning to sue the Riverside County Sheriff's Department after a deadly gun battle in which deputies shot and killed a tribal man and a woman on the reservation May 12. ''We're planning to bring legal action against the Riverdale County sheriff's office. We think our civil rights have been violated and there were clear violations of jurisdiction. We're meeting with our attorney at 1 o'clock today,'' Chairman Robert Salgado told Indian Country Today May 14, less than 48 hours after the shootout.

At the center of the jurisdictional issue is Public Law 280, a 1950s termination-era law imposed on the nations that gives states criminal jurisdiction on Indian land. The deaths occurred less than a week after sheriff's deputies shot and killed another tribal member on the reservation.

According to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, deputies responded around 6:20 p.m. to a 911 call ''in reference to an assault by a deadly weapon.'' Police said they were told that unknown suspects were firing at a ''guard shack'' on the reservation where two tribal security personnel were on duty. A sheriff's department helicopter arrived and came under fire, according to the police report.

Read the rest of the article HERE