Each year, Howard would call the main bank at Gold Country Casino to inform the teller how much money would be withdrawn for the party. In total, the lawsuit claims more than $1.3 million was charged to the credit card and paid for by Berry Creek.īetween 20, Howard and Brown were responsible for organizing Berry Creek’s annual Christmas party, which would include cash gifts to tribal youths, the lawsuit states. The credit card was used for a multitude of expenses over several years, including the purchase of Kenny Chesney and G-Eazy concert tickets, UFC and Sacramento Kings tickets, hotel room stays in Palm Springs and La Jolla, and vacation getaways to Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Disneyland, Napa and Calistoga wineries, among others. The first action, the lawsuit alleges, was Howard issuing a “secret” credit card to Brown without tribal authorization. The lawsuit filing was first reported by the Sacramento Bee. The lawsuit seeks more than $38 million in damages, specifically, $2.9 million it claims the couple stole, in addition to approximately $26 million in punitive damages, and more than $8.8 million in Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization damages. Brown were the only authorized individuals),” the lawsuit states. Brown’s departures from the Tribe in 2017 when the bank finally disclosed the existence of the aforesaid credit card (after first informing the Berry Creek Tribal Council that its members could not access the account because Ms. “This course of conduct went on for years, involved thousands of individual transactions, and was only discovered long after Ms. Giving themselves approximately $250,000 in unauthorized payroll distributions through the system Howard managed.Skimming more than $1.1 million in cash receipts from the Berry Creek-operated Smoke Shop.
Misappropriating more than $200,000 over five holiday seasons for Christmas gifts meant for tribal children.Issuing a “secret” credit card to Brown that was charged more than $1.3 million for personal expenses.District Court for the Eastern District of California, in Sacramento, alleges the two, who have since married, used their “joint power” of presiding over the tribe’s finances and business affairs to “carry out a grand scheme centered around misappropriating tribal assets on a grand scale.”īetween 20, the lawsuit claims Howard and Brown did this in four unique ways: The two former in-house employees named are Deborah Howard, former chief financial officer, and Jesse Brown, former tribal administrator. OROVILLE - The Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians has filed a fraud and money laundering lawsuit against two former top employees of tribe-operated Gold Country Casino Resort, alleging they took more than $1 million for personal gain.
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