Former Quapaw Nation lawyer Jack N. Brill II faces criminal charges in tribal court, accused of embezzling millions of dollars from Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff and funneling it to himself, former Quapaw Business Committee Chair John Berrey, and several associates.
The charges were filed June 1 in tribal criminal court in Quapaw, Oklahoma, and involve many of the same allegations that led to charges against Berrey and Tamara Smiley-Reeves, the former tribal secretary-treasurer, in 2021.
The criminal embezzlement and conspiracy complaint accuses Brill, former attorney for Downstream Casino Resort in Quapaw, Oklahoma, of arranging for $2.34 million to go to Berrey, Smiley-Reeves and two former officials at Downstream.
Those officials are Janet Cummings, former general manager of the Oklahoma casino, and Merlin Kent Jones, its former chief financial officer. Jones died in 2021
Berry and Reeves were charged in 2021 on criminal and civil charges filed in Quapaw Nation Tribal Court, accused of embezzlement, conspiracy and abuse of office. That case focused on more than $7 million in what prosecutors say were misappropriated from tribal enterprises, including Saracen.
The allegations do not involve anyone now working at the Pine Bluff casino.
In a statement, the Quapaw Nation Business Committee said, “These charges are an extension of the original charges filed in Quapaw Nation Tribal Court in 2021. All of the parties mentioned are no longer associated with Saracen or the leadership of the Quapaw Nation.”
Quapaw Nation Special Prosecutor Doug Dry issued a statement on the new charges: “After careful examination of the evidence, documents and statements gathered by Innovation Gaming Solutions (IGS) from the Quapaw Nation and its commercial subsidiaries, my office, without input from any elected official or unelected official of the Quapaw Nation, determined that the elements exist to warrant criminal charges in these cases.”
The complaints say Brill took money from the Saracen resort and its Q Store, which opened while the main casino complex was under construction, under the pretext that the recipients had earned it as bonuses.
Brill is a practicing attorney in Missouri, reinstated in 2021 after his license was suspended for non-payment of taxes.
George “Ranny” McWatters Jr. and Marilyn J. Rogers, both of Oklahoma, have been charged with abuse of office when they were members of the Quapaw Tribal Business Committee. According to court documents, they are accused of receiving severance pay and extra compensation not approved by the tribe’s business committee.
An audit that began after Berrey and Reeves lost their tribal re-election bids in 2020 found irregularities at Saracen and the tribe’s Downstream Casino Resort in Quapaw, Oklahoma.
It found that proper authorization was never obtained for a $1 million bonus for Jones, who was a former CFO at Downstream Casino, and a $1.5 million bonus given to Berrey, a University of Arkansas graduate.
It listed what the complaint called unauthorized payments to Berry of $1.5 million between Dec. 31, 2019, and May 1, 2020. Three other payments to Berrey were dated July 27, 2020: $189,525, $33,290 and $312,464.
Brill’s unauthorized compensation included $100,000 between May 30, 2019 and Nov. 117, 2020; $256,349 between Nov. 1 and Dec. 3, 2019; $513,000 between March 6 and July 2, 2020; and a “Saracen Supplemental Bonus of $128,250 on July 27, 2020.
Improper payments to Reeves were also made on July 27, 2020, according to court documents. They were in the amounts of $72,631, $104,596, $25,644 and $171,237.
McWatters received allegedly unauthorized payments of $250,000 and $350,000, and the Jones got payments of $11,521 and $168,585. Jones died on April 7, 2021.
The total of unauthorized payments, the complaints said, was $5.3 million.
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