Senecas Totally Got Hustled (& Howe)
“Dewey, Cheatem & Howe” is a fictional law firm that has existed in pop culture in some form since the early 1800’s. Unscrupulous attorneys are a part of American tradition. In fact, they’re about as American as apple pie; or perhaps it would be more suitable to say “they’re as Buffalonian as chicken wings!”
RECAP
Last month, New York State (NYS) Governor Kathy Hochul froze Seneca bank accounts, strong-arming the Seneca Nation of Indians (SNI) into paying the state $564 million. The next day, Hochul announced that $418 million from the Seneca payment was already committed towards building a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills in Hochul’s hometown. The payment was rushed just one day prior to the Department of the Interior issuing new draft regulations, seemingly in SNI’s favor. The Seneca gaming compact is currently being investigated by Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland.
Governor Hochul’s husband, Bill Hochul is senior vice-president and general counsel for Delaware North (DNC), SNI’s direct competitor in casino gaming. Delaware North was involved in violating the exclusivity aspect of the original gaming compact; resulting in the 2013 amendment and the five year long dispute between SNI and NYS that ended last month in the state’s favor.
Delaware North’s longtime lobbyist Bolton-St. Johns (BSJ) signed a contract with SNI while the BSJ/DNC contract was still active, creating a huge conflict of interest. Recusing herself from all state dealings with DNC, Hochul signed the power to negotiate with DNC over to her secretary, who is married to BSJ lobbyist Michael Keogh. Keogh is listed on the agreement between BSJ and St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, who have their own contemptuous gaming compact with the state.
SNI recently hired BSJ to lobby the negotiation of a new 2023 gaming compact with NYS. When the Mothers of the Seneca Nation found out, they pressured SNI tribal council and President Matthew Pagels into immediately terminating the BSJ contract. This termination included the immediate forced resignation of SNI lead attorney Michele Mitchell, who was formerly legal counsel for St. Regis Mohawk Tribe.
Lastly, we touched on the fact that oil and gas billionaire Terry Pegula, owner of the Buffalo Bills, was forced to shut down a fracking operation in 2018 due to Seneca led opposition against the project. Construction of the new Bills stadium using public tax dollars is a fine example of major tax subsidies for billionaires.
DO THE HUSTLE!
Jeremy Jacobs (photo from The Jacobs Institute Board of Directors)
Last Real Indians published a deep dive analysis of Delaware North; Owned by Jeremy Jacobs, their murky past includes a known relationship with organized crime (regarding casinos) and a federal racketeering conviction. Albany’s Times Union published an article exposing the fact that Delaware North has been lobbying NYS budget officials on the topic of the Seneca Gaming Compact. Furthermore, we have taken a deeper look into the origins of the original 2002 gaming compact, and the fact that Delaware North had knowledge of questionable methods by which the compact was initiated (methods which have been deemed illegal by several officials). In our analysis, we briefly mentioned that Jeremy Jacobs is a card carrying member of the clandestine group of Buffalo ruling class elitists, known as the Group of 18.
According to Dan Miner of Buffalo Business First, “A panel of high-ranking Buffalo business executives was quietly formed last summer to help push a Bills stadium deal across the finish line.” Terry Pegula approved of all eight members of the group, who were privy to sensitive information about the negotiations. The group’s duties included strategizing and constructing the “overall scope of the project and who will pay for it.” We now know that the Seneca People are paying for a large chunk of the new stadium costs, so there’s that. Before we take a closer look at Pegula’s special group of advisors, let’s focus on the Group of 18 for a moment.
THE GROUP OF 18
According to Buffalo author and community development expert Diana Dillaway, the Group of 18 (or the Buffalo Eighteen) was formed around the year 1975 (three years after Jeremy Jacobs testified in court on the federal racketeering charges). Dillaway’s book, “Power Failure: Politics, Patronage, and the Economic Future of Buffalo, New York,” is probably the best source of information on the formation and antics of the Group of 18. In her book, she writes “These few conspirators began to research how other cities approached economic development. Their findings were compelling, and they agreed that Buffalo’s most pressing need was for the private sector to lead. They conceded it would take more than public relations and slogans; they must assume control of the Greater Buffalo Development Foundation and the Chamber of Commerce.”
Dillaway continues, “They began their takeover. A few core leaders identified a group of eighteen people in the private sector they considered to be ‘change masters,’ whom they dubbed ‘The Buffalo Eighteen’ - or ‘Group of Eighteen.’ Together they worked strategically to gain control of the targeted organizations in order to put their own people into primary positions of power. Within two years, this quasi-secret assemblage did just that, with two members of the Group of Eighteen elected the chairmen of both boards.”
By scrutinizing both the players in the Seneca gaming compact, and the players who strategized financing the new Buffalo Bills stadium, it becomes clear that the Group of 18 have great influence over both New York State and the Seneca Nation of Indians. Says Dillaway, “The Group of Eighteen’s direct involvement in local activities paid off in political influence that they pushed statewide.” Dillaway notes the year 1985 in regards to this statewide push, and says “Lobbying in the state capital became a large part of this plan.” Dillaway focuses in on the fact that the Group of 18 ignored the need for revitalization of neighborhoods, stating “Business leaders, from their point of view, claimed that capital funneled into low-income neighborhoods ‘never comes out’ to get recycled into the economic system.”
One of the founding fathers of the Group of 18 was Stanford Lipsey, who became publisher of the Buffalo News after it was purchased by billionaire Warren Buffet. Of this, Dillaway notes, “Perhaps without such an opening, and the publisher’s involvement in the Group of Eighteen’s core group planning strategy, the takeover of elite business institutions might not have succeeded.” The Buffalo News is currently pedaling implicitly racist undertones against the Senecas. A recent Buffalo News article, published under the anonymous “News Editorial Board” pseudonym, tells the Senecas to “stop grumbling about New York forcing it to pay its debts”; stating Seneca “leaders should tone down the rhetoric”, and “their fingerprints are all over this mess”; finally adding that the Senecas “should be good losers and look to the future.” Very fair and unbiased reporting from the Buffalo News Editorial Board.
The Buffalo News has also censored the Seneca Mothers, attempting to dismantle their message and smother their voices. Leslie Logan, co-founder of the 2022 iteration of the Mothers of the Seneca Nation, states “If the Buffalo News were a president, they’d be Andrew Jackson — the president with a cruel Indian removal policy, nicknamed by Natives as ‘Indian killer.’ Native people view him as an Indian hater. The Buffalo News – the largest newspaper in the Buffalo-Niagara region – in its present iteration, may not have engaged in the physical removal or slaying of Native people, but its overt editorial stance is viewed by some in the Seneca Nation as a steady, racist, unadulterated attack on the Nation. The Buffalo News editorial board has, with deliberation, antagonized and excoriated the Seneca Nation again and again.” Read Logan’s full uncensored editorial at Native Viewpoint.
Given the facts, Logan’s opinions about the Buffalo News are justified. When one looks through the scope of history and begins to understand more about the Group of 18, this justification starts to look less like random happenstance and more like a well thought out scheme to suppress the Seneca People.
Says author Diana Dillaway, “By 1991 only thirteen of the original eighteen remained. But it could also be argued that members of the Buffalo Eighteen had played their role as catalysts so well that their work as such was complete; they had served their purpose in transforming and consolidating a new elite leadership. The Group of Eighteen did not expand minority representation on its board of directors and working committees.” Keep in mind that the Seneca Settlement Act was passed in 1990, and in 1993 SNI filed suit against NYS in federal court, claiming title to the islands of the Niagara River. Ultimately, the land claim forced NYS into the gaming compact as a settlement, and the 1990 Seneca Settlement Act was used to override the IGRA regulations (in a move that many officials have deemed to be illegal). This is the true focus of Secretary Debra Haaland’s ongoing investigation.
LOOSE LIPPES SINK SHIPS
Gerald Lippes (photo from The Jacobs Institute Board of Directors)
Gerald Lippes is one of the founding fathers of the Group of 18. Lippes also founded the law firm Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman LLP, which currently represents the Seneca Nation of Indians, including the handling of the $564 million payment to New York State. Gerald Lippes is a long time colleague, business partner and close friend of Delaware North owner Jeremy Jacobs; he also sits on the board of directors for the Jacobs Institute alongside Chairman Jeremy. In 1999, Lippes and Jacobs were trustees of the University at Buffalo Foundation; their names are listed alongside fellow trustees Jordan Levy, Frank L. Ciminelli (also a member of the Group of 18) and former Seneca Nation of Indians President Barry Snyder (who infamously signed the settlement to the gaming compact in 2013).
Lippes attorney/partner Carol E. Hickman, who handled the recent Seneca Nation of Indians payment to the state, also represents the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe.
In 1993, while SNI was filing their land claim against NYS; the Group of 18 orchestrated the merger of the Greater Buffalo Development Foundation with the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce. This resulted in the creation of the so-called Buffalo Niagara Partnership (BNP). Today, the President & CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership is Dottie Gallagher; Gallagher joined the Buffalo News in 1996 as director of promotions and affairs and was promoted to vice president in 2001. In her position, she reported directly to Stanford Lipsey, former President & CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership prior to Gallagher’s appointment (and card carrying member of the Group of 18).
Dottie Gallagher (photo from the Buffalo Niagara Partnership)
Terry Pegula’s specially appointed team of advisors for the new Buffalo Bills stadium are as follows: Dave Anderson (retired CEO of Highmark Western and Northeastern New York); Jonathan Dandes (senior vice president at Rich Products Corp.); Richard Gold (President and COO of M&T Bank); William Maggio (managing partner at Lorraine Capital); Anthony Masiello (lobbyist at Masiello, Martucci & Associates); Tom Wiley (current president and publisher of the Buffalo News); Jordan Levy and Dottie Gallagher.
No wonder the Mothers of the Seneca Nation are hitting roadblocks with the Buffalo News. Advising Terry Pegula alongside former Buffalo News bigwig Dottie Gallagher, is current Buffalo News president and publisher Tom Wiley. In our previous article “Delaware North: Head of the Snake,” we took a close look at SoftBank Capital managing partner Jordan Levy; who was an integral part of Seneca Holdings (the financial investment arm of the Seneca Gaming Corporation). Levy is an investor in Huffington Post and he serves on the board of BuzzFeed. The new millennium began with the Group of 18 ceremoniously passing the torch to a new group called 43X79 Group (of which Levy and Jacobs are members). Jordan Levy and Jeremy Jacobs are old friends and colleagues. Pegula advisor William Maggio is not only affiliated with the Jacobs Institute, he is also Chairman of 43North Foundation (along with Jordan Levy). In 2020, Erie County turned to 43North to administer federally funded PPP loans. Applications were reviewed by several entities, including M&T Bank (of which Pegula advisor Richard Gold is president and COO). 43North VP of Marketing Strategy Maura Devlin told Buffalo Business First, “Erie County approached 43North so that we could help them administer a program that was going to get the funds out there in a meaningful and impactful way.” Records found on www.gerbenlaw.com show that Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman LLP received $2,960,607.00 in PPP loans.
Jordan Levy (photo from SBNY)
Of the eight advisors to Pegula, four are on the Board of Directors of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership (Gallagher, Gold, Wiley and Dandes). The other four are directly associated with members of the BNP Board of Directors. Also sitting on the BNP Board of Directors is Kevin Nephew, President & CEO of Seneca Gaming Corporation. Pegula advisor Anthony Masiello’s lobbyist firm previously represented the Seneca Nation of Indians in matters relating to the gaming compact. Masiello, Martucci & Associates was hired in 2012 while Seneca attorney Robert Odawi Porter was SNI President. Porter told the Buffalo News "From the early days in 2002 when the Senecas first entered into gaming, Tony Masiello has been there in support. He knows the issues with the state.” Yes, I’m sure he does…