Seminoles sift rubble of failed block house venture

For $300,000 invested in a building venture, the tribe got nothing. The former chairman and his partner got $15,000 lots.

By JEFF TESTERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 19, 2002

TAMPA -- Four years ago, Seminole Chairman James Billie and partner James M. Chapman managed to get $300,000 of tribal money on a promise to build vacation homes using a revolutionary block-making machine.

The device used soil, crushed coquina shell and Portland cement to create fireproof, 32-pound "terra blocks" that could be stacked to form walls without mortar. A coat of exterior stucco left an energy-efficient structure that was an easy profit-maker because of low costs in both labor and materials.

Or so the pitch went.

The tribe's return on the investment? Zero.

Chapman, a Sarasota man with a lengthy arrest record involving auto theft, delivery of dangerous drugs, extortion and fraud, ended up buying two lots in Charlotte County, giving one to Billie, then walking away from two unfinished terra block homes that were recently declared safety hazards by the county and demolished.

Today, records show that Billie still owns his $15,000 lot in the Deep Creek subdivision near Punta Gorda. Chapman says he's willing to deed his lot back to the tribe. But it has a price tag attached. Charlotte County put a $9,226 code enforcement lien on Chapman's property for the expense of demolition.

The failed terra block machine investment has a familiar ring to tribal officials, who last year ousted Billie in the midst of a multiagency federal investigation. The tribe is now reviewing every major business deal the flamboyant chief floated in his two-decade reign.

While Billie is credited with pioneering Indian casinos that now bring each Seminole tribal member a $3,000 dividend check each month, he also stands accused of backing business deals for himself and cronies that cost the tribe a fortune.

One example: the Micco Aircraft plant in Fort Pierce, named after Billie's son. Billie, an aviation enthusiast, pushed for the production of two-seat acrobatic planes at the plant. Eighteen planes were sold for an estimated $3.6-million, but only after more than $24-million in tribal funds were pumped into the venture.

The tribal council pulled the plug on the airplane-making venture in November and heard this month from a prospective buyer.

The tribe is also out $800,000 invested in the Lightning Casino, a facility on the tiny Caribbean island of St. Maarten. Top Lightning investors included James P. "Skip" Weisman and his brother, Eugene P. "Butch" Moriarty, longtime managers of the tribe's sprawling Hollywood casino.

Weisman was removed from the bingo hall in 1997 and his company fined $3.4-million for running it without first gaining the approval of the National Indian Gaming Commission, the federal agency that oversees Native American gambling.

The tribe's St. Maarten investment evaporated last year when the Lightning Casino was closed down for failure to pay local taxes.

Billie, elected continuously since 1979 to lead the tribe, was suspended May 24 for misconduct. The tribal council cited a lawsuit by former tribal administrator Christine O'Donnell, who claims Billie got her pregnant, forced her to get an abortion, fired her and then misappropriated $100,000 worth of phony sick time to pay her off.

The tribe later sued Billie and his new administrator, Tim Cox, accusing them of securities fraud that drained the tribal treasury of $20-million.

Billie remains the target of a federal task force of FBI, IRS and Interior Department agents looking into allegations of embezzlement of tribal funds.

Last week, Billie failed in a petition attempt to regain his elected position when the tribal council said the signatures had not been presented in time. Billie could not be reached for comment.

As for the $300,000 investment in the terra block construction venture, Chapman says Billie is to blame for its failure.

"It was all legal, all real," Chapman said. "There was no funny business.

"We were marketing to Europeans, and the first two homes were going to be models that we would hold a year and sell."

But the tribe's cash began to dry up, Chapman said, when Billie ordered him to go to Canada and try to get an initial public stock offering on the terra block business.

When that didn't work, Billie instructed Chapman to take the block-making machines to Nicaragua, where Billie and Cox had quietly begun investing tribal money in land, cattle and the Legends, a Managua hotel.

Billie "got distracted" with a plan to put a Hard Rock Cafe casino in the Legends, Chapman said, and never went back to the building business. Tribal leaders later determined that tribal money had secretly been used for the $3.5-million Legends purchase, and are now trying to gain control of the hotel.

"I walked away from it all," said Chapman. "But it was James who dropped the ball on the terra block business."

-- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Jeff Testerman can be reached at (813) 226-3422 or by e-mail at testerman@sptimes.com.

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