| Seneca Nation probing financing of own casinos |
The Seneca Indian Nation intends to put to rest simmering questions about how its casinos were financed and built with the help of an outside law firm hired to conduct an independent investigation.
The probe was approved in November following the election of Seneca President Barry Snyder, who ran on a platform of financial accountability.
Results are expected in February.
The Senecas borrowed $80 million from a Mayalsian billionaire at 30 percent interest to transform the former Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center into the Seneca Niagara Casino in 2002. The Senecas then raised $300 million in a bond sale to help pay for a Salamanca casino and a $200 million 26-story hotel now under construction in Niagara Falls.
The probe will determine whether the financial transactions were conducted in the best interests of the nation, free of conflicts of interest and according to state, federal and tribal law.
"We need to know the truth about what happened and someone of the highest level of integrity and competence to assess it for us," said Robert Odawi Porter, a Seneca Nation attorney.
Washington attorney Roscoe Howard Jr., the District of Columbia's former U.S. attorney, was hired following a unanimous vote by the Tribal Council. The measure directs investigators to follow procedures that would allow information gathered to be used in criminal persecutions, if required.
The council cited "significant influence of non-Seneca entities and individuals" as one of its motivations. Mickey Brown, the chief executive of Seneca Niagara Falls Gaming, who is not a Seneca, helped arrange the financing with Malaysian billionaire Lim Kok Thay, who reaped more than $90 million in the deal.
Brown had previously worked with Thay's family to arrange financing for Connecticut's Mashantucket Pequot Foxwoods Casino.
Seneca Nation officials, in approving the high-interest loan in 2002, said conventional financing was not available. The Mashantucket Pequots had similarly said that commercial banks would not loan money for projects on sovereign land which can't be foreclosed on.
The Senecas entered the bond market this May. The $300 million in investment carried a 7.25 percent interest rate. The Tribal Council's resolution names a second law firm to review the debt taken on by the nation.
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Information from: The Buffalo News, http://www.buffalonews.com
Source: Staten Island Advance
Friday, 31 December 2004
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