{"id":27844,"date":"2015-03-12T19:07:40","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T02:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=27844"},"modified":"2015-03-12T19:07:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T02:07:40","slug":"california-tribal-faction-accused-of-looting-casino-for-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-tribal-faction-accused-of-looting-casino-for-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"California Tribal Faction Accused of \u201cLooting\u201d Casino For Millions"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_27845\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27845\" data-style=\"width: 368px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-27845 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/casinofront.jpg\" alt=\"Rolling Hills Casino, Northern California\" width=\"368\" height=\"247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/casinofront.jpg 368w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/casinofront-142x95.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/casinofront-164x110.jpg 164w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 368px) 100vw, 368px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-27845\"class=\"text-description\">Rolling Hills Casino in Northern California: the scene of a cyber-attack and an armed standoff following the ousting from power of the controlling tribal faction. (Image: glenncounty.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A tribal faction that once controlled the Rolling Hills Casino near Corning in Northern California engaged in a \u201c12-year looting spree\u201d and plundered the casino for tens of millions, according to a lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint states that former tribal officials of the Paskenta Band of Nomaki Indians frittered away the tribe\u2019s money on \u201cabsurdly luxurious lifestyles of private jet travel, luxury homes, high-end vacations, custom sports cars and high-profile sporting events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe casino is the primary source of the tribe\u2019s income,\u201d the lawsuit states. \u201cThe income the tribe has derived from the casino over the last 12 years has made a dramatic difference in the lives\u2019 of the tribes members and has continued to improve their standard of living.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 171-page complaint includes claims under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) and names 19 defendants, who controlled the casinos finances from\u00a01998 until 2014, when the faction was ousted. Four defendants are named as ringleaders of the group: the first is a former Sacramento FBI agent <a title=\"John Crosby\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thesmokinggun.com\/documents\/crime\/man-jailed-threats-against-npr-hosts-123964\" target=\"_blank\">John Crosby<\/a>; his mother, Ines Crosby, the former tribal administrator; her sister, Leslie Lohse, the former tribal treasurer; and her husband, Larry Lohse. They are accused of embezzlement and misuse of company funds.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Fools\u2019 Gold<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>A recent audit revealed the extent of the misuse of funds: $17 million had been spent on private jet travel and over $1 million on tickets for Sacramento Kings basketball games. Meanwhile, $93 million had been invested in gold, real estate and \u201cunproven, high-risk startup companies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On June, two months after it had been toppled from power, the faction launched a cyber-attack on the casino\u2019s systems before attempting to retake control of the property by force, resulting in a weeklong armed standoff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn April 2014, in an impressive and inspiring expression of self-determination and democracy, the tribe came together and removed the RICO Ringleaders from power,\u201d the lawsuit states. \u201cThe Rico Ringleaders did not, however, go quietly.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Armed Assault<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIn an effort to both retake control of the tribe and prevent discovery of their criminal enterprise and the illegal benefits that they derived from it, the RICO\u00a0defendants launched an armed assault on the tribe\u2019s Rolling Hills Casino\u00a0in coordination with a destructive cyberattack on the casino and tribe\u2019s computer systems.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p>\u201cThe RICO defendants intended these attacks to shut down the casino \u2013 far and away the most significant source of income for the tribe and its members \u2013 to force the tribe to allow them back in control, essentially using the economic welfare of every other tribe member as a hostage. They further intended to, and did, destroy electronically stored information that could be used as evidence of their years of criminal activity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The <a title=\"Rolling Hills\" href=\"http:\/\/rollinghillscasino.com\" target=\"_blank\">Rolling Hills Casino<\/a> opened in 2002 and generates $100 million annually, providing $54,000 a year for each member of the 300-strong band.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A tribal faction that once controlled the Rolling Hills Casino near Corning in Northern California engaged in a \u201c12-year looting spree\u201d and plundered the casino for tens of millions, according to a lawsuit. The complaint states that former tribal officials of the Paskenta Band of Nomaki Indians frittered away the tribe\u2019s money on \u201cabsurdly luxurious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":27845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>California Tribal Faction Accused of \u201cLooting\u201d Casino Millions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former California Tribal Casino leaders accused of embezzling and mismanaging millions from Rolling Hills Casino. \u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California Tribal Faction Accused of \u201cLooting\u201d Casino Millions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former California Tribal Casino leaders accused of embezzling and mismanaging millions from Rolling Hills Casino. \u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-tribal-faction-accused-of-looting-casino-for-millions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-13T02:07:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/casinofront.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"247\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-tribal-faction-accused-of-looting-casino-for-millions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-tribal-faction-accused-of-looting-casino-for-millions\/\",\"name\":\"California Tribal Faction Accused of \u201cLooting\u201d Casino Millions\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-tribal-faction-accused-of-looting-casino-for-millions\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-tribal-faction-accused-of-looting-casino-for-millions\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/casinofront.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-13T02:07:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-13T02:07:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Former California Tribal Casino leaders accused of embezzling and mismanaging millions from Rolling Hills Casino. \u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-tribal-faction-accused-of-looting-casino-for-millions\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-tribal-faction-accused-of-looting-casino-for-millions\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-tribal-faction-accused-of-looting-casino-for-millions\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/casinofront.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/casinofront.jpg\",\"width\":368,\"height\":247,\"caption\":\"Rolling Hills Casino in Northern California: the scene of a cyber-attack and an armed standoff following the ousting from power of the controlling tribal faction. 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