State: Tribal thefts case topples

FORT LAUDERDALE -- A trial that provided a rare glimpse into the freewheeling spending habits of the Seminole Tribe came to an abrupt end Tuesday when a federal judge threw out conspiracy, embezzlement and money laundering charges against three former tribal employees.

U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas' decision to acquit Timothy Cox, Dan Wisher and Michael Crumpton turned on the surprise testimony of longtime Seminole Chairman James E. Billie, who claimed he authorized every phase of a secret project to set up an offshore Internet gambling site.

Billie said the $2.77-million used for the project came from a tribal allocation that is spent at the chairman's discretion.

That admission torpedoed the contention of federal prosecutors that the three defendants stole tribal money and funneled it through a shell corporation into a Nicaraguan hotel deal. The unrefuted testimony also blunted a federal investigation that initially targeted Billie, but settled instead for indictments of some of his top lieutenants.

Under questioning from the judge Tuesday, prosecutor Edward N. Stamm expressed doubts about Billie's credibility, saying Billie himself may have been involved in covering up theft. But Dimitrouleas said Billie's story left him no alternative but to dismiss all charges.

"I don't think a reasonable jury can conclude that Mr. Billie knew nothing about all this and just came in to lie for his friends," the judge said.

Defense attorneys had argued that unconventional spending by Billie and other elected officials was the norm for the Seminoles, a 2,800-member tribe that has parlayed Indian bingo into a $300-million-a-year casino business.

"The basic problem of the government's case is that this is not the world of General Motors, it is the world of the Seminole Tribe," said Kenneth Lipman, Cox's attorney. "It might be horrifying, but it's their money to do whatever they want with it.

"Billie could have given these men the money and said, 'Go ahead and line your pockets with it.' That's the way this crazy place works."

In the first week of the trial, Seminole council member David Cypress testified that he ran through his $5-million annual allocation, asked for more and ended up spending $57-million in less than four years.

Cypress said he spent so much on Cadillacs and Lexuses for friends that he forgot who got all the luxury cars. He said he poured $350,000 into a pal's boxing gym and paid $5.8-million to a friend's landscaping business to landscape 32 homes on the Big Cypress reservation -- an average of $181,250 per home.

The millions allocated to Seminole officials are supposed to be used for the benefit of the tribe. But in 24 years, no one has ever defined what is a "benefit," and no allocation has ever been turned down, according to testimony.

Traditionally close-knit and secretive about money matters, the tribe bars outsiders from its council meetings. But the three-week corruption trial in Broward County offered an unusual look into the tribe's free-spending ways.

Some think it could lead to change.

"It was always no one else's business," said Jim Shore, the tribe's general counsel. "But things have changed with this publicity and the tribe's inner workings being explored. It may lead to reforms internally."

Whether Billie would be part of any reform movement remains to be seen.

A charismatic folksinger and alligator wrestler, Billie, 58, was tribal chairman from 1979 until last year, when the council ousted him amid questions about spending and sexual impropriety. The federal indictments that led to the corruption trial stemmed from an audit done when Billie was suspended.

Auditors, and later, FBI agents discovered falsified software invoices that masked $2.77-million in tribal funds wired to Belize. On the witness stand, Billie claimed the funds were paying for an Internet gambling project he hoped would bring in $740-million in just three years.

But some of the money went other places, Billie admitted. He said he loaned Cox, his handpicked tribal operations manager, $80,000 from the pot of money, and sank another $500,000 into a Nicaraguan hotel purchased by Cox and Wisher, the tribe's computer consultant.

Illegal expenditures? Not at all, Billie said: The money came from his $10-million chairman's allocation and could be spent as he wished.

In the parlance of the criminal defense team, it was the way "the crazy place works."

Billie said he kept the plan under wraps because of federal measures to outlaw Internet gambling, as well as Shore's concern that the project might jeopardize the tribe's gambling licenses. Billie also said he demanded secrecy because he feared a competitor might steal the idea.

But a question troubling some observers was why Billie didn't reveal his involvement in the apparently legal project when Cox, Wisher and Crumpton were indicted.

"What baffles me is, if Mr. Billie's testimony was as represented on the stand, why did he not come forward and avoid a lengthy and expensive prosecution?" asked tribal attorney Donald Orlovsky.

The answer may be that Billie feared his own indictment.

Early in their investigation, federal agents arrested Billie's former pilot, Charles Kirkpatrick, who agreed to testify that he had split profits with Billie from tribal aircraft deals. Kirkpatrick reneged on the plea deal and was sent to prison.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in South Florida still has an open investigation into whether Billie, Cox or others were involved in illegal sales of pharmaceutical drugs distributed to the tribe.

But on Tuesday morning, Billie walked smugly from a federal courtroom, where his words once again thwarted the government's efforts to bring him down.

The win ranks with his triumph in 1983, when Billie beat federal charges of slaughtering an endangered Florida panther by testifying that he had to kill the animal to become a medicine man.

It also adds to a personal legend Billie intends to exploit. He has said he wants the chairman's job back, and the tribe's elections are in May.

-- Jeff Testerman can be reached at (813) 226-3422 or by e-mail at testerman@sptimes.com .

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