Former Mashpee Chairman Cedric Cromwell Convicted in Casino Bribery, Extortion Case

Cedric Cromwell, former chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts, was convicted of bribery and extortion charges by a federal court inward Boston on Thursday.

Cromwell was indicted in January 2021 and accused of extorting almost $60,000 from an architecture unwaveringly that was overseeing the evolution of the tribe’s proposed First Light Casino inwards Taunton, Mass.

The owner of Rhode Island-based RGB Architects, Saint David DeQuattro, was also convicted of graft inward the case.

Cromwell was cleared of some charges, including ace look of extortion and a matter of graft conspiracy, according to prosecutors. But he was found hangdog of accepting $10,000 from RGB, positive a home gym system of rules and a detain inwards a swanky Hub of the Universe hotel.

Second-Hand Gym

Prosecutors said he used the tribe’s $5 trillion declaration with the steadfast as leverage. The contract could live terminated for make with I week’s notice, or for convenience with a month’s notice. This allowed Cromwell to tap bribes in interchange for “favorable process or inaction” on the contract, prosecutors said.

Last week, the panel heard that Oliver Cromwell was enraged when RGB sent him second-hand gym equipment instead than a brand-new set.

The quid pro quo scheme that he orchestrated with St. David DeQuattro was an affront to the Tribe that elected him to wait on their topper interests,” Joseph Bonavolonta, head word of the FBI’s Bean Town office, said in a statement.

DeQuattro’s lawyer, Steve Martin Weinberg, had argued his client but donated to Cromwell’s political campaign. But the architect paid checks into a eggshell company controlled by Ironsides called One Carry Nation Development, according to prosecutors. Oliver Cromwell used the money non for his political campaigns, but for his have personal expenses. These included payments to his mistress, they claimed.

Separately, Cromwell also faces taxation evasion charges for failing to story around $176,000 in income to the IRS.

Both Cromwell and DeQuattro are scheduled to follow sentenced in September.

‘Healing the Nation’

The $1 1000000000 First Light project, financed by Genting, was ready to breakout strand inwards 2016. But the externalize was torpedoed by a federal royal court ruling that later caused the Trump administration to settle to withdraw the tribe’s earth from trust.

But the lunar time period turned again. In December, the Biden disposal affirmed the tribe’s sovereign land, and the externalise is now back from the dead.

Cromwell’s predecessor as Mashpee chairman, John Glenn Marshall, was also convicted on putrefaction charges. He served tierce and a half years for making illegal military campaign contributions, embezzling nearly $400,000 from the tribe, filing sour tax returns, and fraudulently receiving Social Security impairment benefits.

Cromwell’s successor, Brian Weeden, said the folk could now put all this behindhand it and “focus on healing our nation.”

“Tribal members are disappointed inwards Cedric Cromwell,” Weeden said in a statement. “We put a tremendous amount of combine inwards our elected officials. Cedric ill-treated that trust.”