A lawyer for Genting told a Florida lawmaker recently, that the controversial gambling giant had ” nothing to do with the Mashpee.” How interesting.
The Boston Magazine article that talks about how Genting would not waste the ($17 million) investment in Mashpee in a wide open lucrative market like Massachusetts. Really? Another inaccuracy in the article is that the interest rate on that loan is listed on the few documents released as %16.5, not %15. That means it’s probably higher than that in light of the hundreds of thousands of dollars supposedly charged for wire transfers that ended 3 months ago. The article did say that Cedric Cromwell would not comment on the actual amount of the debt. Meaning the debt is at at least $24 million. The reporter also forgot to mention that this incredible debt, that has produced nothing but embarrassment, was acquired over the course of 2 years. Two years!
Cedric Cromwell with Fall River Mayor and the whereabouts of $3.4 million deposit on the Fall River boondoggle, is still a mystery.
He also forgot to mention that the Marshall administration ( that included Cedric Tobey Cromwell who had to be told to get on the tribal rolls ) finalized recognition at a cost of $15 million over 10 years. The money was used to hire professionals to get the job done. That’s how White corporations do it in the USA. After 30 years of rebuke, the Mashpee got wise. Course we’re not supposed to do that.
Jack Abramoff
Another inaccuracy…the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe never hired Jack Abramoff. He mentioned the tribe in an email. By then the work was all done by pros hired by the tribe during that 10 years prior to recognition. And if campaign contributions to congressman were illegal, everyone would be in jail.
While the Carcieri Supreme Court decision dealt a decisive blow to the tribe’s ability to complete it’s sovereignty and get land into trust, Cedric Tobey Cromwell was clueless about the devastating February 2009 decision and failed to act quickly to shore up the tribe’s position. Treasurer Mark Harding, who is amazingly silent these days, and Cedric busied themselves firing the very lawyers who knew what to do. Then, they never contacted our number one advocate, US Senator Ted Kennedy, who would of cleared the way for us. They had no idea how serious the Supreme Court decision was. Almost 3 years later, Cromwell is running around Washington making silly speeches, running up the charge card, chatting about the need to correct the law…when the bill has no companion in the ( republican) US House. That means the Carcieri fix is dead on arrival. Can’t you see Cedric working the bill in the US House? And there’s no way to get land into trust as mandated by the new state law.
Here we are basically destitute, because of a gross malfeasance and misfeasance by the current administration and not a single economic development program in place to put our people to work. We have digressed dramatically, actually loosing numerous grants put in place by the previous administration, because this administrators can’t refile the damned things or miss deadlines.
The Mashpee Wampanoag is now experiencing a recurring nightmare. Because there’s no way the tribe benefits from a commercial casino, even if it could meet the new laws requirements, which it cannot. That is mentioned in every newspaper article and television news story. No land in in trust, no casino license.
The bill is what Reel Wamps said it would be months ago. A bad deal for the tribal members, because there is no guarantee that members would share in the profits….because it’s commercial. And the chairman must promise not to build a casino under the federal protection. No tribe does this, for obvious reasons. This kind of exploitation is so bad the Congress passed a FEDERAL LAW protecting vulnerable Indian nations from this pattern of abuse that popped up all over the place.
You cannot blame the state for protecting the interests of the Commonwealth, they have waged that war against us for centuries. But when the tribal leader is a party to the assault…that’s an atrocity we cannot fault the White man or the Black man for.
The deal with the previous South African investors involving Middleboro, that included a large group of folks brought together by Herb Strather, was a good deal. That $15 million spent over that 10 year period paid for lawyers, lobbyists, to get recognition and grants and the environmental clearance necessary to build a resort casino and allow the land in Mashpee and Middleboro to be placed into trust. Carcieri stopped all that, again, Cedric had no strategy for a ” fix”. They were too busy trying to seek revenge against Marshall. That’s why we do not have a ” principle” reservation in Mashpee and have a ” fake ” Tribal Court, and have to go to court in Barnstable or the federal court for any redress.
The deal also called for the tribe to pay for infrastructure in Middleboro, which is standard for any kind of huge project like this. The entity bringing hundreds of thousands of people into a community has to pay for the stress it places on roads, law enforcement etc….So that $250 k to Middleboro was a small price to pay for a casino where roughly 75 -80 % of the profits would go to the tribe. And the investors who would build the resort casino would get only 6% of the profits over 20 years. The interest on the loans by Strather’s group and the South Africans was %6. How about the math on that? That was an interesting piece of information left out of the equation as the article talked about Cedric being saddled with cleaning up the Glenn Marshall ” mess .”
Glenn Marshall left the tribe in good shape. Whatever he did wrong in the eyes of the US Government, he will have paid for .
Cedric however…that’s something else. The article accurately talked about the bags under Cedric’s eyes and how he can’t sleep more than a few hours a night. No doubt it’s contributing to his other serious health problems.
But with a record like this, who would feel sorry for him?
