Tribe says official aided business associate

Don Thompson

Wednesday, May 1, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

SACRAMENTO -- An Indian tribe alleges a top U.S. Interior Department official arranged a meeting with a former business associate who later asked the tribe to pay him for his influence in getting a casino approved.

Wayne Smith, the Interior's deputy assistant secretary for Indian affairs, denied helping his former partner, Philip Bersinger, seek business from at least three tribes.

Federal investigators, including the FBI, are looking into the allegations.

Smith, as the No. 2 official at the Indian bureau, holds sway over decisions that can mean riches or poverty for tribes that are opening Las Vegas-style casinos in California and across the nation.

Officials of the Buena Vista Me-Wuk Rancheria said Smith brought Bersinger with him to a Feb. 19 meeting to discuss a dispute over who controls the small reservation and the potential for a $150 million casino on the tribal property 35 miles from Sacramento.

On March 11 Bersinger called one of the tribe's attorneys, John Peebles, and said he "could solve the Buena Vista tribe problems at" BIA, tribal spokeswoman Jean Munoz said. At a subsequent April 4 meeting with Peebles, she said Bersinger asked for $25,000 a month and a negotiated percentage of the casino's gross revenues.

"We thought that was inappropriate and declined," Munoz said. She said a copy of Bersinger's proposal has been turned over to federal investigators.

Bureau of Indian Affairs spokeswoman Nedra Darling said Smith has no knowledge of that offer.

Smith and Bersinger first worked together under former California Attorney General Dan Lungren. After Lungren left office in early 1999, Smith and Bersinger started a business that helped register card rooms -- establishments that offer limited gambling far short of the Las Vegas-style casinos owned by California Indian tribes.

The two started to dissolve their firm in December, shortly after Smith was named to BIA's No. 2 position in late October. The firm was dissolved within the last month, but Bersinger kept using its old letterhead to seek business with the tribes.

Bersinger has not responded to repeated telephone messages by the Associated Press over more than a week. He previously told Time magazine he did not have Smith's permission to use his name, but added that he may have told Smith he was soliciting tribes. "I was trying to get business," he said.

Earlier this year Bersinger sought $1,000 a month from the Columbia River basin's Chinooks and $5,000 a month from the California Valley Miwoks to help them gain federal recognition.

He sent the tribes nearly identical letters touting his "tremendous access and influence" and his long friendship and business relationship with Smith.

Smith denied having anything to do with the letters and said he'd written Bersinger a letter telling him he believed the solicitations to be "inappropriate."

California Valley Miwok spokesman Tiger Paulk said Bersinger also bragged of his influence over Smith.

The tribe asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton to remove Smith from considering issues they have pending before the Indian bureau. U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., also has asked Norton to investigate what he termed "serious concerns" raised by the allegations.

Smith asked the FBI and Interior's inspector general to investigate his former business partner's activities.