Three Affiliated Tribes faces racketeering claims in business dispute

By Jodi Rave
Buffalo’s Fire

FORT BERTHOLD RESERVATION, N.D. — A woman who shared profits from an aggregate business with the Three Affiliated Tribes on Wednesday filed a Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization lawsuit in federal court against the tribe. The suit also specifically identifies a former tribal councilman. 

Laura “Lori” Bird of Bird Industries, a citizen of the tribe, signed a joint venture with the TAT-Four Bears Development Corporation, a business entity of the tribe. The partners agreed to process aggregate materials from a gravel pit and to develop a ready-mix concrete plant. The tribe and Bird established a checking account in the name of Lakeview Aggregates LLC at Wells Fargo Bank. 

The business was created by representatives of the Three Affiliated Tribes and Four Bears Segment, one of five political districts on the Fort Berthold Reservation. Each district, or segment, has an elected leader who makes up the TAT Tribal Business Council.“In the course of its unlawful conduct, defendants caused losses and damages to Bird by engagement in a criminal enterprise, by theft of property, conspiracy, breach of contract and interference in business advantage,” according to the federal filing. In an interview on Wednesday, Bird said she looks forward to a trial to prove allegations in her lawsuit.

It’s estimated the tribe defrauded Bird of $45.7 million, according to the suit. Chairman Mark Fox did not respond for comment on Wednesday, nor did several TAT Business Council members who were contacted about the alleged RICO conspiracy. In July 2020, three people, including two former TAT business council members, were indicted on federal charges for bribes and kickbacks in a separate matter. They are awaiting trial. Councilman Frank Grady, then the elected representative of the Four Bears Segment, is named in Bird’s court filing.

Bird went into business with the Three Affiliated Tribes, also known as the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, on April 22, 2015. She provided equipment, management and manufacturing skills to Lakeview Aggregates. The plan included selling gravel and concrete to the public, the lawsuit says.

Court documents show Bird was to receive 40 percent of the aggregate operations profit and 49 percent of the ready-mix concrete sales, while the Three Affiliated Tribes-Four Bears Segment was supposed to receive 60 percent of the profits from aggregate sales and 51 percent from concrete. Bird said she invested millions of dollars into Lakeview Aggregates. She also brought her own construction equipment from her oilfield service business. In addition, she financed aggregate operating equipment for the job site. 

The tribe and the Four Bears Segment agreed to reimburse her for half the start-up expenses, according to the claim. But, this is where Bird alleges the deal went wrong. One year after operating as a joint business operation, Councilman Grady said she was being removed from all day-to-day activities, according to the RICO claim. 

What’s more, Bird was also told the operation would wind down because it wasn’t making any money, she said in an interview. Consequently, tribal representatives offered her several buyouts. The offers started at $5,000, then increased to $25,000, $75,0000, and then $250,000. A final offer of $320,000 was made on May 23, 2017. 

Tribal Councilman Fred Fox, to whom Bird was once engaged, helped broker the final deal. She said she accepted the buyout after being given false information about the company’s financial condition. She believed she had no other options except to take the deal, she said. The final check to Bird was issued from a bank account controlled by the Tribal Business Council, the suit says. 

Bird’s story might have ended here if she had not received a call from Brandon Bentley, who was hired to help manage the aggregate and concrete operation. In the federal suit, Bird said Bentley told her additional bank accounts were set up to conceal true finances and income from the gravel pit. He provided bank statements to prove his allegations. The federal complaint refers to a “racketeering enterprise” that diverted Lakeview profits through at least “40 verifiable” wire transfers in less than one year alone.

Armed with information from Bentley, Bird filed an arbitration claim in October 2019. Her joint venture contract with the tribe contained a mandatory arbitration clause. If a dispute should arise, she could enter into arbitration. The RICO lawsuit notes Bentley has since died. In a previous interview, Jaleh Haghighat, Bentley’s girlfriend, told Buffalo’s Fire that his death remains under investigation. She said law enforcement officials still do not know who is responsible for shooting Bentley in St. Louis in January 2020. 

Meanwhile, Bird said she wasn’t going to let the tribe’s sovereign immunity shield prevent her from pursuing justice. She decided to file the RICO claim in federal court after her arbitration claim was dismissed in December 2020. The arbitration judge in her case ruled that the Three Affiliated Tribes was protected by sovereign immunity.

Bird hopes to recover, not only a sense of justice, but lost profits as well as punitive damages in a RICO trial.

“After my arbitration claimed was dropped my heart still wasn’t at peace,” Bird told Buffalo’s Fire. “During my research, I learned sovereign immunity doesn’t shield you from criminal activity. With all remedies exhausted, I had to find strength within to stand against corruption.”

Jodi Rave is the founder of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, which publishes on BuffalosFire.com.