He was the tribe’s certified public accountant until two years ago and continued to process monthly per-capita income checks and prepare taxes for individual Chumash members. Sorenson, Benecorp’s vice president, had served as an accountant for the Chumash tribe since 1997. He is listed as a “silver member” of the California Nations Indian Gaming Assn. It is not known how many members of other California tribes participated in the plan.ĭrake, the founder and president of Benecorp, promoted his tax-reduction plan in articles written for Indian Gaming magazine and at trade shows in Las Vegas and Palm Springs. Several Chumash members were actively involved in promoting the tax avoidance plan at trade shows and to other tribes. Many of the 32 participants now face the prospect of having to pay the government delinquent taxes, interest and penalties.

He noted that the tribe could not prevent individual members from participating.Īrmenta said the Chumash band had fully cooperated with the IRS and paid $4 million in taxes that Benecorp had not properly withheld from tribal members’ casino income. “Our attorneys did not believe it was a program that should be tribally sponsored, and we discouraged our membership from getting involved,” Armenta said in a statement. The Justice Department complaint states that the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act prohibits Native Americans from enrolling in a tax plan unless it is approved and implemented by their tribal government.Ĭhairman Vincent Armenta said the tribe refused to adopt the plan. The complicated tax plan, which they called CapNet 7, had been the subject of contentious debate among Chumash members since the accountants began promoting it to the tribe in July 2003.Īt a monthly general council meeting April 13, 2004, experts retained by the Chumash warned members that the program “is being administered in a way that is not authorized under current IRS laws,” according to internal tribal records.

Shooting at chumash casino resort hotel