{"id":9684,"date":"2020-01-15T13:46:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T18:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/lawsuit-filed-in-fraudulent-bond-sale-scheme\/"},"modified":"2020-01-15T13:46:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T18:46:13","slug":"lawsuit-filed-in-fraudulent-bond-sale-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/lawsuit-filed-in-fraudulent-bond-sale-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit filed in fraudulent bond sale scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span><\/div>
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Heather Dawn Thompson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Raycen Raines<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Part I of series
\nRAPID CITY \u2013 A lawsuit filed in October in the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation scandal that defrauded retirement trust funds of $43 million, alleges three law firms and several individuals involved, failed to perform their due diligence in the issuance of \u201cworthless\u201d bonds and is waiting to go to trial.
\nThe Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation, located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, designated by the U.S. Census Bureau as one of the poorest areas in the Nation, was the victim of a complicated scheme orchestrated to use these unsica (poor) people as a front to enrich themselves.
\nThe main perpetrators were caught and are currently serving federal jail time for securities fraud. (See www.justice.gov\/usao-sdny\/pr\/john-galanis-sentenced-10-years-prison-his-participation-scheme-defraud-native-american<\/a>)
\nHowever the trust funds that were bilked out of $43 million believe more individuals and several law firms are culpable in the scheme and have filed suit.
\nThe case, filed by Chicago Transit Authority Retiree Health Care Trust and the Board of Trustees for the Chicago Transit Authority Retiree Health Care Trust (RCHT) is aimed at the law firms Dilworth Paxson, LLP; Timothy Anderson; and Greenberg Traurig, LLP
\nAccording to the brief filed on October 18, 2019, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois County Department, Law Division the \u201clawsuit arises from the Defendants\u2019 participation in, and assistance with, the issuance of $43 million in worthless bonds (the \u201cBonds\u201d) to unwitting public pension funds, including RHCT. The Bonds were not part of a legitimate public finance project, but rather a criminal scheme to enrich several individuals connected to the Defendants, including well\u00ad known fraudster, John Galanis, his son, Jason Galanis (collectively, the \u201cGalanises\u201d), and fly\u00ad by-night tribal financiers, Steven Haynes and Raycen Raines, the latter allegedly was romantically involved with the Greenberg partner [Heather Dawn Thompson] representing the issuer during the transaction.\u201d
\nAccording to the lawsuit Heather Dawn Thompson, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, who once served as a federal prosecutor and currently a partner at Greenberg Affiliated in their Denver office, was hired in 2014 by Raycen Raines the CEO of the WLCC to represent them in bond transaction.
\nThe brief states, \u201cIn or about May, 2014, [Timothy] Anderson informed Raines that he would be representing the Galanis\u2019s and their companies in the bond transaction, and not his former client WLCC. As a result, Raines needed to find separate counsel to represent WLCC.
\nHeather Dawn Thompson (\u201cThompson\u201d) is a partner with Greenberg affiliated with its Denver office, but lives in South Dakota near or on the Oglala Sioux\u2019s Pine Ridge Reservation.
\nThompson, who specializes in matters related to tribal law and economic development, served as Greenberg\u2019s primary client relationship attorney for the bond transaction.
\nThompson was allegedly dating Raines, WLCC\u2019s CEO, at the time Greenberg represented WLCC in the Wakpamni bond transactions, and the two are now married.
\nThompson was assisted by two partners from Greenberg\u2019s Denver office: Michael McGinnis and Jennifer Weddle. McGinnis is an experienced bond lawyer and member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers.\u201d
\nAccording to the lawsuit Raines had previously incurred criticism for being involved in what was termed \u201cpredatory lending\u201d practices in the set-up of online payday loan companies which allegedly put him at odds with the leadership of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. (See projects.aljazeera.com\/2014\/payday-nation\/sioux-tribe-payday.html<\/a>)
\nFearing bad publicity might hinder the bond transaction, Anderson drafted two resolutions of support commending Raines\u2019 business practices which were sent to Raines and Thompson via email, to be signed by the leadership of the Wakpamni District and the Oglala Sioux Tribe. \u201cRaycen \u2013 this is what I had in mind and will go a long way in calming everyone down and keeping these projects on track,\u201d Thompson allegedly stated.
\nThe lawsuit states, \u201cHowever, instead, on June 24, 2014, the OST\u2019s Tribal Council passed a resolution stripping Raines of authority to act with respect to tribal economic development matters, including \u2018Tribal Economic Development (TED) Bonds,\u2019 but also \u2018any other economic development projects.\u2019 (Exhibit C, June 24, 2014 OST Resolution.) The resolution specifically noted that Raines had exerted undue influence over OST\u2019s then-president to gain support for economic development projects.\u201d
\nThe lawsuit alleges that neither Greenberg nor Dilworth disclosed to the bondholders or the Indenture trustee, U.S. Bank, that OST had passed a resolution stripping Raines of authority to issue TED bonds.
\nThe lawsuit also alleges that Greenburg mislead RHCT and other investors by indicating the Oglala Sioux Tribe had issued the bonds and were therefore secure.
\nCount V of the indictment alleges that on the First Offering as bond council, Greenberg owed RHCT and the other investors a duty of care in preparing the offering documents and opinion letters and had an obligation to decline representation that is known or suspected to be fraudulent or criminal in nature and that it was their obligation to withdraw from council.
\nThe suit alleges that Greenberg breached its duties to RHCT in one or more of the following ways:
\n\u2022 Making false or misleading statements in the opinion letter about the annuity, source of funds, and use of funds for the Bonds;
\n\u2022 Failing to investigate the annuity on which the opinion was based;
\n\u2022 Making false or misleading statements about the economic development projects backing the Bonds; and
\n\u2022 In general, issuing an opinion letter on the validity and enforceability of a bond transaction that a reasonably prudent bond lawyer knew or should have known was a securities fraud or financial crime.
\nNext week Hunter Biden implicated in Wakpamni Lake scandal. Later in series response from Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation.<\/p>\n

(Contact Ernestine Chasing Hawk at production@nativesunnews.today<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>

Visit Original Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/div>

Heather Dawn Thompson Raycen Raines Part I of series RAPID CITY \u2013 A lawsuit filed in October in the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation scandal that defrauded retirement trust funds of $43 million, alleges three law firms and several individuals involved, failed to perform their due diligence in the issuance of <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> January 15, 2020<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":9685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5627],"tags":[10105,3222,6657],"class_list":["post-9684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resource-directory-blog","tag-archive","tag-news","tag-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}