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Court upholds jury verdict following tribal turmoil

Wednesday, June 29, 2005 | 9:11 a.m.

WAUSAU, Wis. -- A state appeals court Tuesday upheld a jury's award of nearly $400,000 to a northern Wisconsin Indian tribe from its accounting firm after turmoil in the late 1990s prompted an embezzlement probe and forced a casino to be shut down.

The accounting firm failed to persuade the 3rd District Court of Appeals there was not enough evidence of its negligence in performing its contract with the Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

The jury properly concluded the firm had "closed its eyes" to questions about a septic project on the reservation in which fraudulent invoices were submitted in a scheme to steal money from the tribe, the appeals court said.

The Brown County jury properly awarded $370,796 to the tribe from the accounting firm and its insurance company, which was about the amount former tribal planner DuWayne Derickson had embezzled, the three-judge appeals court said.

Court records identified the accounting firm as Schenck S.C., which formerly was known as Schenck and Associates and Shinners, Hucovski and Co.

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