SAULT TRIBE FACTS - If it is not a fact it must be fiction................................

In the below posting Aaron Payment claims a lot of things, a lot of which he leaves out. The STF will do a brief response to Aaron Payments claims.


Thursday, June 4, 2009

Here's a good essay from Chuck Forgrave.

Don't forget the $268,000,000 deal orchestrated by Bernard Bouschor for the benefit of the Greeks at our expense. When he reports that in 2004, we had a $70 million surplus, he neglects to talk about the $268 million we owed the Greeks for which we were in default the day he lost the election in 2004. He hadn't paid them a penny even though we had financed to do so.


Now Aaron anyone with a memory would recall that yourself and Cathy Abramson were on the Board at that time the deal was brokered. Actually Aaron you were there from 1996 to 2008 when you were ousted. The deal is, Aaron Payment knew all along what was happening in Greektown and said nothing because he was party to the scheme. The only time Aaron Payment said anything is when he, Bouschor, and Lumsden became entangled in a dispute.

Vic Matson Jr. said when Aaron Payment took Office there was a 80 million dollars surplus. So it looks like all three of them are confused by ten million here or there.


Do the math. Subtract the supposed surplus from the Greeks debt and you are still $198 million in the hole. During my Administration, we paid down $208 million of this debt and balanced our Tribal budget every year. It is sickening that we had to pay the Greeks at all, but remember Bouschor insisting that we didn't need a partnership agreement prior to Proposal E passing, then the Greeks demanding 50% ownership with only $24,000 down.


How could Aaron Payment possibly balance the budget, when he borrowed over 70 million to meet payments in Greektown and the Northern Casinos? He also borrowed 1.3 Million dollars in December of 2007 for the Employee bonuses.

It really is sickening the Greeks were paid so much, real sickening. What is real sickening is the Board with Aaron Payment allowed Bouschor to do it. Bouschor took care of all of them and made Aaron Payment the Tribes first double dipper. The struggle for power got the best of all of them. But, only at the expense of the Members of the Tribe.

Unfortunately the Membership has succumbed to some sick individuals who's egos have become extremely over inflated.

90% of these people couldn't hold a job in the real world. They are defeated in Elections and get fired, but seem to always get back in the loop through their fabricated stories (lies).

There is a lesson to be learned here. We must learn that we can longer tolerate these rejects ruining our future. Most of them including Aaron Payment had their chances and failed. The message needs to be that they must all move on. We need to weed the greedy out at the door.


--- On Thu, 6/4/09, Charles Forgrave cforgraveus@yahoo.com wrote:

Sault Ste. Marie, Mi...Tight-lipped tribal officials aren't saying anything about it, but an out-of-area news source has confirmed what many tribal members have suspected..Greektown is as good as gone.

While the tribe retains the option of selling it, commercial real estate values have plummeted and bids on the casino have fallen far short of the $ 777,000,000.00 owed on it...leaving it, likely, in the hands of pre-bankruptcy creditors.

Now the blame game will swing into full-gear. For months nothing has been reported to the membership, on the status of the casino. The likelihood here, is, there was nothing good to report. Reporting positive things only, politicians have nothing to say, unless it's something good about things, or themselves.

While Greektown held the future of the tribe in its hands, at one time...looking back, the casino never made it out of the woods.

Right away, it was in debt over its ears. Then, the Watersmeet tribe took it for $ 40,000,000.00. Finally, tribal officials got on the wrong side of Detroit, opting to build a casino in Romulus, despite promises not to. The final punch..which put it down for the full-count..was the country's economic meltdown.

Out-leveraged, out-maneuvered, out-witted from the very beginning, local politicians simply weren't up to the task of owning and operating a casino out in the real world, where they didn't enjoy a total monopoly in the business.

And, so goes the history of the Sault Tribe..hundreds of millions lost in failed businesses; tribal services curtailed, and, members shaken-down for every dollar, in fees; while tribal politicians, themselves, walk away without so much as a reduction in wages.

Thank you, Charles Forgrave