Oneida Seven Generations Corporation’s and Artley Skenandore’s former business partner, Ron Van Den Heuvel, appears to have committed fraud, including not reporting the many lawsuits he’s lost and reusing the same collateral against different loans in order to obtain over $1 million from Gov. Scott Walker’s Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, which also gave a loan to another ‘entrepreneur’ that a Wisconsin judge determined to be involved in a scheme that had “all the earmarks of fraud.”
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: WEDC gave loans to entrepreneur in case with ‘earmarks of fraud’
Ron Van Den Heuvel, described as a longtime Republican donor, has a history of apparent political donation pay-to-play including his $10,000 donation to Fmr. WI Gov. Tommy Thompson being returned due to the appearance of impropriety after Ron’s company received a $24 million in tax-exempt bonding from the Thompson administration.
Ron Van Den Heuvel told WEDC that four states (which seem to include Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota and Georgia) have loaned him a minimum of $17 million each. Plus, he was on the path to receiving $125 million in tax-exempt bonds from the Michigan Strategic Fund and pursued another $125 million in tax-exempt bonds from the City of De Pere, WI.
Did Ron Van Den Heuvel commit fraud in order to obtain state loans of federal funds (including money from the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act) with the purpose of using that ill-gotten money to obtain other state loans in order to donate those monies to Republican candidates (directly or indirectly through organizations like the Wisconsin Club for Growth) in the belief that the WEDC, the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF), and other agencies would eventually write off any overdue loans to the long distressed Green Box NA?
Did Ron Van Den Heuvel give money to get money to give more money to get more money with the belief that the state & federally funded loans would eventually be written off and/or that he could declare bankruptcy when it caught up to him, all on the back of phony ‘green energy’ claims by Green Box NA which is actually promoting incinerators in disguise that would benefit companies like the Koch Brothers’ Georgia-Pacific by potentially allowing them to get tax credits for their industrial garbage being used as ‘feedstock’ by schemes like Green Box NA?
Did WEDC agree to join Marco Araujo’s lawsuit against Green Box NA only as an attempt to create the phony appearance of an adversarial relationship with long distressed Green Box NA and deflect accusation of pay-to-play when Ron Van Den Heuvel’s pattern of not paying his bills or court judgments but instead donating to Republicans was already well established and perhaps relied on as a predictable result of givng him other people’s money?
Milwaukee’s Shepherd Express provides a good overview of the recent court decisions regarding the ‘John Doe investigation’:
In the John Doe investigation, prosecutors were looking at whether the Walker campaign coordinated with these allegedly independent special-interest groups – Walker eventually admitted that he did fundraising for Wisconsin Club for Growth – and whether that coordination was legal. Special prosecutor Schmitz argued that not only did the coordination exist on “issue ads” but also on campaign ads that explicitly advocated for or against a candidate.
The defendants challenged the case, saying that their free speech rights allow them to coordinate on issue ads without disclosing that relationship or donors. The state Supreme Court took up the matter as an original action, meaning that no lower court heard the arguments in the case and developed a factual record, and the court canceled oral arguments scheduled for April.
Again, not surprisingly, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided in Walker and his allies’ favor and declared that candidates and outside groups can coordinate on issue ads and not disclose their relationship.
No other court in the country has come to the same conclusion, although federal Judge Rudolph Randa made a similar decision last spring and shut down the case and ordered the return or destruction of evidence. His decision was promptly overturned on appeal by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said the decision now allows donors to give freely—and anonymously—to dark money groups while knowing that their funds will benefit a specific candidate, as long as the ads in question don’t use the magic words of “vote for” or “vote against” a candidate. He said the decision “renders contribution limits meaningless.”
He said the campaign coordination aspect of the decision could be challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court on constitutional grounds and said the Wisconsin Supreme Court made new law in the case instead of interpreting it.
“While this decision was not unexpected it’s still highly shocking that the state Supreme Court would have gone further than any other court in the country, and certainly any other federal court, in unraveling and destroying campaign finance limitations and law in Wisconsin,” Heck said.
Click here for a price chart of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
WEDC has shown a pattern of making ill-advised loans to Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign donors, and the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin (ONW) regularly donates to the GOP, including a $5,000 political donation to the Republican Party of Wisconsin on April 29, 2015, just prior to the RPW State Convention held in La Crosse, Wisconsin on May 15-17, 2015. (Nice salute, Scooter!)
That $5,000 donation to the Republican Party of Wisconsin, like any political donation by the ONW, would have to be approved by the ONW’s Director of Legislative Affairs, who happens to be former OSGC Board member Nathan King, and before that was OSGC CEO & GBRE President Kevin Cornelius which raises the question:
Given that the current and former Directors of Legislative Affairs for the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin were on OSGC’s Board, why did OSGC violate Wisconsin’s campaign donation laws and give a check to Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt directly from the OSGC checkbook?
The April 2015 $5,000 donation was made to the Wisconsin GOP by the ONW after OSGC had received clawback letters from WEDC over being delinquent in repaying $4 million in loans to OSGC and OSGC’s subsidiary (or alter ego/facade) Oneida Energy, Inc. for use by the misleadingly titled OSGC-subsidiary (or alter ego/facade) Green Bay Renewable Energy.
Was it made in the hopes of avoiding a lookback to see if OSGC, its subsidiaries, and the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin had engaged in fraud to obtain WEDC loans?
Is OSGC concerned that the WEDC might examine the record to see if OSGC had engaged in any fraud to obtain loans like their former business partner Ron Van Den Heuvel?
Did Ron Van Den Heuvel teach Oneida Seven Generations Corporation & Green Bay Renewable Energy the ropes in using fraud and illegal political donations to obtain support from politicians and receive taxpayer funding?
Or did OSGC’s officers & executives figure it out on their own?
Recall that OSGC CEO & GBRE President Kevin Cornelius said to General Tribal Council at the April 11, 2011 GTC Meeting about OSGC’s waste gasification plans:
We went and we talked to the Faithkeepers in the Longhouse, we talked to people in the community. This was not something that was targeted by us, there is a lot of woe is me…’I’m a dumb Indian’; well, that’s not the case over here. We’re the ones who went out there and went to find Mr. Mahjoob [of ACTI, Inc.].
What a coincidence!
OSGC just happened to go out and “find” Mr. Latif Mahjoob of American Combustion Technologies Inc. (ACTI), which is the same company that Nature’s Way-partner Ron Van Den Heuvel’s Green Box NA was working with as stated in Exhibit B of the Amended Complaint in one of the lawsuits filed against Ron Van Den Heuvel by Marco Araujo and later WEDC.
It’s a small, small world!
WDFI.org records show that Zafari’s Inc. was incorporated in Wisconsin on May 25, 1983, but changed its name in 1999 to American Combustion Technologies Inc. and was eventually dissolved on June 13, 2003, with Saboor Abdul Zafari listed as the ‘Registered Agent.’
Accordingly, California’s Sec. of State’s records show that in 1999 American Combustion Technologies Inc. surrendered its rights to do business in the State of California with Wisconsin listed as the company’s new jurisdiction and the ‘Agent for Service of Process’ being Saboor Zafari.
However, California records also show that on May 13, 2002 – one year before American Combustion Technologies Inc. was dissolved in Wisconsin by Saboor Zafari – Latif Mahjoob acted as the ‘Agent for Service of Process’ in the incorporation of American Combustion Technologies of California, Inc.
Nevertheless, Latif Mahjoob currently lists himself as the Owner of ‘American Combustion Technologies, Inc.‘ in his LinkedIn profile and this website with that name listed presumably belongs to him: American-Combustion.com. [UPDATE: The link to the left goes to an archive because the web address now redirects to Latif Mahjoob’s new business, American Renewable Technologies, Inc.]
Nevada records show that on April 16, 2015 CH2E Nevada LLC filed a lawsuit against American Combustion Technologies of California Inc. & Latif Mahjoob for “Fraud” in Case No. 2015CV694.
As for OSGC going to the “Faithkeepers in the Longhouse” to receive their blessing for building a waste gasification plant on the Oneida reservation, at least that part of what Kevin Cornelius said was (kinda) true.
OSGC did engage in a cynical campaign to exploit the ONW Longhouse’s religious community to try to fool GTC into believing that OSGC’s dioxin-emitting waste gasification projects were somehow a ‘clean’ and ‘green’ form of ‘recycling’ and therefore in keeping with an environmentally protective cultural philosophy, but it was all just a fraud in clear violation of the intent of OBC Resolution 11-08-00-B, ‘Dioxin and Persistent Organic Pollutants‘, which says:
…[T]he ability of our Native Community to be protected from the effects of dioxin poisoning is critical to the future of our tribal nations and all life that sustains us…. [T]ribal communities and families continue to be disproportionately exposed to dioxin and other persistent organic pollutants. Many of our tribal members are more susceptible to these dangerous toxins due to our land based culture and subsistence practices, and…dioxin has been classified as a ‘known human carcinogen’ with the ‘highest’ level of certainty by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and acknowledged by the World Health Organization that dioxin exposure is linked to severe health effects[.]
NOW, THERE, BE IT RESOLVED: that the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin requests that the United States State Department pursue ending the production and release of Dioxin and other Persistent Organic Pollutants in the United States.
Despite that warning of dioxin’s disproportionally destructive impact on tribes, part of OSGC’s & GBRE’s ‘business model’ was to give tours of its proposed waste gasification facilities on the ONW reservation and in Green Bay to try to sell dioxin-emitting incinerators to other tribes and municipalities as well:
Not only did the Oneida Business Committee in 2010 vote to support OSGC building a dioxin-emitting waste gasification plant on the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin’s reservation via OBC Resolution 12-08-10-B, ‘Supporting Oneida Seven Generations and Oneida Energy in the Development of the Waste-to-Energy Project, the next OBC also voted unanimously to reaffirm their own support for OSGC’s waste gasification plant on April 11, 2013.
- April 11, 2013 OBC Emergency Meeting Minutes re: Fmr. OBC Chair Ed Delgado’s call for OBC to acknowledge and address the blatant contradiction between OBC Resolution 11-08-00-B, ‘Dioxin and Persistent Organic Pollutants,’ versus OBC Resolutions in support of OSGC’s admitted Dioxin-emitting project, whether built on or off the Oneida Reservation, but the corrupt OBC voted to reaffirm their support for OSGC’s experimental dioxin-emitting incinerator project
A. Executive Session
- Rescind resolution 12-08-10-B Supporting Oneida Seven Generations and Oneida Energy in the Development of the Waste-to-Energy Projeect
Motion by Tina Danforth to raffirm resolution 12-08-10-B Supporing Oneida Seven Generatoins and Oneida Energy in the Developent of the Waste-to-Energy Project, seconded by Paul Ninham. Motion carried unanimously:
Ayes: Melinda J. Danforth, Tina Danforth, Vince DelaRosa, Greg Matson, Patty Hoeft, David Jordan, Paul Ninahm; Not present: Brandon Stevens
- Green Bay Press-Gazette: Oneida Business Committee reaffirms alt-energy support; Board still stands behind Green Bay gasification plant
In reality, the OBC voted to reaffirm OBC Resoluton 12-08-10-B which states the OBC supports OSGC & subsidiary Oneida Energy Inc. …
as corporations wholly owned by the Tribe constructing this facility on the Oneida Reservation, OSGC and Oneida Energy are bound to comply with tribal land use and environmental laws as well as federal environmental laws
HOWEVER, the Hurlbut St. parcel in the City of Green Bay which the OBC claimed their reaffirmation vote was in favor of is NOT on the Oneida Reservation. Oops.
Maybe the OBC were influenced by Mormon Branch President Kevin Cornelius telling them about the ‘blessing’ OSGC’s project had received from the ONW Longhouse ‘Faithkeepers.’
Oh, and by the way…
Artley Skenandore just happens to be an ONW Longhouse ‘Faithkeeper.’
Also, ONW Longhouse ‘Faithkeeper’ Tsyoshaaht Cathy Delgado just happens to be a former OSGC Board member and the sister of former Oneida Business Committee Treasurer & current Oneida Business Committee Chair Cristina Danforth (who’s long served as a travelling OSGC waste gasification cheerleader):
Recently there’s even been a push by some ONW Longhouse members to have Artley Skenandore declared a Sub-Chief of the entire Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Good grief.
(Bad karma.)
See also:
Related:
UPDATE:
