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Quapaw Nation charges former leader and others with embezzlement
Quapaw Nation charges former leader and others with embezzlement
JOHN BERREY: Former Quapaw leader charged with embezzlement.
The
Quapaw Nation, owner of the Saracen casino in Pine Bluff, announced today criminal charges and a civil complaint against
John Berrey, the former leader of the tribe, and other former tribal officials for misspending millions for unauthorized pay and bonuses and using casino proceeds for personal purposes.
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Berrey, who was ousted as tribal leader last year and planned to seek tribal office again this year, sent an email response to KOSU:
“The latest events are just more efforts to defame. It was posted the day filing for candidacy opened and it’s an attempt to stop me. I look forward to clearing my name and running for vice chairman of the Quapaw Nation and begin to heal our Nation.”
4:39
After more than 20 years at the helm of the Quapaw Nation, former Chairman John Berrey was soundly defeated in July by Joseph Tali Byrd.
Now, following an internal audit and growing questions from tribal citizens, the new tribal administration is alleging Berrey and the tribe’s former secretary treasurer illegally doled out more than $34 million worth of pay raises, bonuses, severance pay and donations, including more than $4 million dollars to former University of Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer. The Quapaw Nation confirmed today the tribe is looking closely into potential criminal conduct on the part of several former employees and tribal officials, including former Quapaw Nation Tribal Chairman John Berrey and former Quapaw Nation Secretary/Treasurer Tamara Smiley-Reeves,” Byrd said in a statement.
Audit raises questions about spending by past Quapaw Nation leader, including for Arkansas casino development
February 2, 202112:13 pm
John Berrey and I stopped in Little Rock on the way to the Derby to pick up @Keithjackson88 and Larry Lacewell! pic.twitter.com/kP8N4nNQ43
John Berrey, including past spending on the development of the tribe’s
Saracen casino in Pine Bluff.
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Berrey was defeated in a bid for re-election as chairman in July by
Joseph Byrd. Since then, an audit has questioned some $34 million in spending during Berrey’s more than 20 years of leadership, including more than $4 million paid to former football coach
This article originally appeared in Reasons to Be Cheerful, and is reprinted with permission.
On the surface, Oklahoma’s Downstream Casino Resort looks like any other: lines of brightly lit slot machines snake past entrances to steakhouses and sports bars, while cocktail waitresses shuttle trays to craps and blackjack tables. A takeaway café serves gourmet coffee, and an all-you-can-eat buffet is stacked with prime rib on Saturday nights.
But beneath this familiar facade is a very different kind of system one that applies traditional Indigenous food and farming principles to modern hotel operations. The Quapaw tribe, which runs the Downstream Casino Resort, operates seven greenhouses and two sprawling gardens that provide the hotel with 20 varieties of vegetables and herbs. The tribe also has an apiary with 80 beehives, as well as a craft brewery and a coffee roaster that supplies the hotel and casino.