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Former Tribal Chairman Sentenced
for Campaign Finance Violations and Fraud
BOSTON, MA—The former Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe was sentenced
today in U.S. District Court on campaign finance law violations, tax fraud, wire fraud and Social
Security fraud, in connection with efforts to secure federal recognition for the Tribe.
Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks; Susan Dukes, Special Agent in
Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation – Boston Field Office; Warren
T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New England;
and Jeff Paula, Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Inspector General, Social Security
Administration, Office of Investigations – Boston Field Division, announced today that GLENN
A. MARSHALL, age 59, of Mashpee, Massachusetts, was sentenced today by United States
District Court Judge Rya Zobel to 41 months imprisonment to be followed by 3 years supervised
release and ordered to pay restitution to the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council in the
amount of $383,009 and $84,603 to the Social Security Administration. MARSHALL was
ordered to self report to the Bureau of Prisons on June 8, 2009.
On February 11, 2009, MARSHALL pled guilty to a making illegal campaign
contributions to members of Congress on behalf of the Tribe, embezzling funds from the Tribe,
filing false tax returns for himself and the Tribe and fraudulently receiving Social Security
Disability Benefits.
MARSHALL committed these offenses from 2001 to 2007 in connection with his
service as Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council, the Tribe’s governing body.
During his tenure, MARSHALL oversaw the Tribe’s effort to become officially recognized by
the federal government, which would qualify the Tribe for an array of federal program benefits,
and render it eligible under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to build a casino on its lands.
Beginning in 1999, the Tribe’s efforts for recognition was underwritten by a Michigan-based
investment company called AtMashpee LLC, which provided the Tribe millions of dollars
for its operations and for legal, lobbying and other professional services, in exchange for an
equity stake in any casino the Tribe might build. Among other services, the Tribe’s attorneys
filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior (“DOI”) to force DOI to act on the Tribe’s
recognition petition, which the Tribe claimed had been unduly delayed. The Tribe also hired
lobbyists to make the Tribe’s case before members of Congress and their staffs in the hope that
they would encourage the DOI to act favorably on the petition.
In late-2001, MARSHALL hired a political consultant to coordinate the Tribe's lobbying
and public relations activities. The political consultant answered to MARSHALL and worked
directly with the Washington-based lobbyists paid for by AtMashpee. By mid-2002,
MARSHALL concluded that the lobbyists had failed to build sufficient political pressure in
Congress for the Tribe’s petition. In September 2002, after consulting with another officer of the
Tribal Council, MARSHALL replaced the lobbyists. He also directed the political consultant to
find a Washington, D.C. lobbyist who would be more effective in presenting the Tribe's case for
recognition to relevant federal officials, including Members of Congress and officials in the
DOI. Consistent with MARSHALL's directive, the political consultant contacted an associate
of lobbyist Jack A. Abramoff to determine whether Abramoff would be interested in providing
lobbying services on behalf of the Tribe.
In early-2003, Abramoff and his team of lobbyists began to work for the Tribe and
focused their efforts on contacting members of Congress and senior officials in the DOI
concerning the status of the Tribe’s recognition petition. In or about January 2003,
MARSHALL, along with the political consultant and another officer of the Tribal Council, met
with Abramoff and his associates concerning the Tribe's lobbying strategy. Abramoff advised
them that in order to advance its recognition effort, the Tribe needed to make significant political
contributions to certain Members of Congress so that they might build political pressure on the
DOI to act favorably on the Tribe's petition.
Around the same time, the political consultant and certain of the other professionals hired
by the Tribal Council told MARSHALL that they preferred to be paid directly by the Tribal
Council, rather than by AtMashpee. MARSHALL then arranged to have AtMashpee fund the
Tribal Council for the payment of such services, and that such funds would be deposited into an
account in the name of the Mashpee Fisherman's Association, a defunct corporation on which
MARSHALL and another officer of the Tribal Council were authorized signatories. The
account had been dormant for several years.
From 2003 to 2007, AtMashpee paid approximately $4 million into the Fisherman's
Account, a sum that MARSHALL willfully omitted to report to the IRS on the Tribal Council’s
federal tax returns. MARSHALL used most of the money to pay for legal, lobbying and public
relations expenses in connection with the Tribe's recognition effort. The Tribe's lobbyists
included Abramoff until in or about 2004, and thereafter, Abramoff's former associates, who
lobbied members of Congress and DOI officials concerning the Tribe's petition. They also
included lobbyists and a public relations firm in Boston to make the case before state legislators
and other state officials that once the Tribe became federally recognized, the state should enter
into a compact with the Tribe that would permit it to operate a casino.
In consultation with Abramoff and his team as well as the Boston-based lobbyists, the
political consultant recommended on numerous occasions to MARSHALL which state and
federal legislators should receive campaign contributions. To finance these contributions,
MARSHALL turned to the Tribal Council funds in the Fisherman’s Association account.
Beginning in or about 2003 and continuing through 2006, MARSHALL used funds in the
Fisherman's Association account to make campaign contributions to various elected officials in
order to curry favor for the Tribe's recognition petition and its effort to build a casino on tribal
land.
MARSHALL was aware that federal law prohibited corporations, including the Tribal
Council, from making contributions to federal campaigns. In order to disguise the fact that the
Tribal Council was making contributions to federal campaign, MARSHALL solicited various
individuals to act as straw contributors, including members of his family and officers of the
Tribal Council. In each instance, MARSHALL asked the straw contributor to write a check to a
candidate's reelection committee, insisting that the contribution was necessary to further the
Tribe's recognition effort and promising the straw contributor that the Tribal Council would
reimburse him or her for the contribution. MARSHALL himself also made such straw
contributions.
From in or about 2003 to 2007, MARSHALL caused the Tribal Council, through
payments from the Fisherman’s Association account, to reimburse thirty-four straw contribution
totaling $49,950.00 to federal campaigns, and another twenty-five straw contributions totaling
$10,550.00 to elected state officials. MARSHALL paid all of the reimbursements by check or
cash drawn from the Tribal Council funds in the Fisherman's Association account.
During the same period, MARSHALL used funds in the Fisherman’s Association
account for personal expenses, knowing that the funds belonged to the Tribal Council.
Specifically, MARSHALL spent approximately $380,000 from the Fisherman's Association
account on such personal expenses as groceries, vacation trips, tuition payments for his daughter,
dining, home repairs, home mortgage payments and jewelry. MARSHALL willfully failed to
report not only these expenses as personal income on his tax returns, but his $44,000 salary from
the Tribal Council as well.
In addition, MARSHALL had received disability benefit payments since the late 1980's
based on his representations to the Social Security Administration that he was unable to work as
a result of a disability. In 2000, MARSHALL began working full-time for the Tribal Council as
Chairman, yet he refrained from disclosing his employment status to the Social Security
Administration, knowing that it would have rendered himself ineligible to receive further
benefits. He thereafter collected approximately $10,000 a year in benefits to which he was not
entitled.
The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Inspector General of the Social Security
Administration. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Mitchell of Louks’
Economic Crimes Unit. Press Releases | Boston Home
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