$3 Billion Grant Fraud Scheme - report it to America.gov/Fraud

Sac-Verona Band

The Front for the $3 Billion Multi-agency Federal Grant Laundering scheme

The Sacramento-Verona Band has operated as the "Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians" since the mid-1970's. They have no roots in El Dorado County, having no United States Census records in EDC until after 1970.

This constructed entity operates has been operating as a front organization. By co-opting the identity of the historic Wopumnes tribe, they act as the necessary "straw entity" to trigger a $3 billion pipeline of federal grants, infrastructure subsidies, and casino revenues for complicit state and local agencies.

All information presented on this site is public record. This is a whistleblower website for educational and investigative purposes.

This is a Whistle Blower website for educational purposes.

Standing there knowing...

They know that without a recognized "proxy indigenous group", the agencies have no access to BIA funds, Federal Transportation and Infrastructure grants. The constructed entity "Council" acts as the straw entity, providing the necessary tribal signature to trigger the $3 billion pipeline for Federal grants to State and Local Agencies unwanted pet projects.

By falsely testifying before the U.S. Senate under a hijacked aboriginal identity in 2025, the front organization's leadership committed a direct violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (Defrauding Congress).

Executive Summary: The Sacramento-Verona Band is not a historic sovereign nation aboriginal to El Dorado County. The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors explicitly agreed and promoted this fact in 2003, yet they have since engaged in "willful blindness" to secure millions in federal mitigation funds.

Using a hijacked historic aboriginal identity, the Sac-Verona group provides the essential, fabricated tribal standing required by a coordinated network of government agencies to unlock and launder an estimated $3 billion—actively waylaying the intended TRUE HEIRS of these federal treaty benefits.

True Heir Lineage Fraud, Federal Grant Fraud, Diversion, Oppression, False Advertising,
and the Public Record...

What the public records and explanations reveal is a textbook case of administrative erasure, executed in tandem with the Pacific Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Indian Gaming Commission and State and Local agencies. The following timeline traces the public record step-by-step, showing exactly how the public was defrauded, tax payer dollars diverted and the historic entity was left without...

Timeline

Evidence Room

Map showing Verona 75 miles away from Shingle Springs

1900 Census Sutter-Verona, Sandwich Islands

1915 Terrell Census Sutter County

SMOKING GUN: Membership materials showing they are not Miwok or Nisenan of El Dorado County.

WILLFUL BLINDNESS : El Dorado County Board of Supervisors Statement 2003,

2025 CUELLAR CONFESSION: they are from Sacramento! Invalidating every CEQA they ever signed-off over the last 26 years.

THE HIJACKING IN ACTION: Misleading a Congressman

STOLEN HISTORY: Congressman Tom McClintock Address to Congress December 9, 2025

The Evidence: Video footage of Congressman Tom McClintock advocating for the "Shingle Springs Indians," during which he unwittingly recites the historical narrative of the true El Dorado County indigenous people.
The Significance: This footage captures the exact mechanism of the identity theft in action. The historical suffering, legacy, and ancestral records of the true Wopumnes are being stripped from them and falsely attributed to the Sacramento-Verona Band by a sitting U.S. Congressman.
The Fraud: This demonstrates how the constructed entity weaponizes the Wopumnes' authentic history. By co-opting the true tribe's historical record, the front organization successfully deceives federal representatives into justifying their standing, thereby securing the legislative and financial pipelines that belong to the Wopumnes.

13K views · 111 reactions | The Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians survived near annihilation during the Spanish colonization and Gold Rush eras to become a prosperous and integral part of El Dorado County and I am honored to carry this legislation that will continue their progress and contributions to their posterity and to our community into the years ahead. | Congressman Tom McClintockThe Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians survived near annihilation during the Spanish colonization and Gold Rush eras to become a prosperous and integral part of El Dorado County and I am honored...

20+ years of statewide CEQA, NEPA, Federal Grant Fraud

Environmental protection laws like the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) require government agencies to consult with authentic, historic tribal entities to protect cultural resources. But what happens when the entity claiming those rights is operating under a false identity?

The records in this section expose a calculated pattern of regulatory manipulation and federal grant fraud. By exploiting the CEQA and NEPA review processes, and funding, authority, territorial rights have been unlawfully diverted away from the historic El Dorado County Treaty Tribe and their rights to preserve their ancestral lands. THIS APPLIES TO EL DORADO COUNTY PROJECTS PENDING NOW!

LOCAL COMPLICITY: The El Dorado County "Willful Blindness" Trap: How does a non-aboriginal entity bypass California environmental laws (CEQA)? With the knowing participation of local county officials. These two public records demonstrate exactly how El Dorado County agencies engaged in "willful blindness" to facilitate regulatory fraud.

The Significance: Despite his written admission in 2008 that this group was the Sacramento-Verona Band, the LAFCO Executive Officer accepted their fabricated aboriginal standing in 2011 to push through a CEQA exemption. This paper trail proves that local agencies are not innocent victims of identity theft—they are active participants who knowingly process fabricated indigenous credentials to streamline county development and bypass environmental hurdles.

2008: The County Admits the Truth

In an October 2008 letter, El Dorado LAFCO Executive Officer José C. Henríquez explicitly confirmed in writing that the agency understood the tribe's name on a 1987 application was the "Sacramento Verona Band of Homeless Indians". The county undeniably knew the group's true historical identity.

2011: The CEQA Fraud is Executed

Just three years later, Chairman Nicholas Fonseca sent a letter to the exact same official, José C. Henríquez, to support a CEQA Categorical Exemption for a local project. However, Fonseca signed this official government correspondence under the hijacked identity of the "Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians".

FATAL FLAW: Invalidating the Bullet Train's CEQA & NEPA Compliance ... TRAINWRECK!

By utilizing the Sacramento-Verona Band as the consulting tribe for the California High-Speed Rail (bullet train), state and federal agencies have effectively poisoned the legal viability of the project's environmental clearances.

STATUTORY FRAUD: The High-Speed Rail CEQA/NEPA Invalidation

The Legal Requirement: Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA / AB 52) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), infrastructure projects receiving state and federal funds must conduct government-to-government consultation with the historic, aboriginal tribes affiliated with the impacted geographic area to protect cultural resources.
The Fraud: The High-Speed Rail Authority bypassed the authentic El Dorado County Indians and instead executed Tribal Consultations with the Sacramento-Verona Band—a non-aboriginal front organization of Feather River descent that possesses no historic ties to the project's geographic footprint.
The Significance (The Invalidation): A non-aboriginal entity cannot legally or culturally authorize the clearance, excavation, or destruction of Wopumnes cultural resources. Because the Environmental Impact Reports (EIR) and Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) rely on sign-offs from a constructed entity with fabricated standing, the High-Speed Rail's CEQA and NEPA compliance is fundamentally invalid.
The Financial Impact: Billions of dollars in state and federal infrastructure funding are legally contingent upon valid environmental clearances. By relying on a front organization to rubber-stamp the cultural resource assessments, complicit agencies have placed the entire High-Speed Rail project in legal jeopardy.

INVALID CEQA/NEPA

TRAINWRECK

STATUTORY FRAUD

Why Now?

THE CATALYST: September 30 BIA Confirmation

The Question: If this fraud has been ongoing since 1980, why is this whistleblower action happening now?
The Evidence: On September 30, the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs provided formal, documented confirmation regarding the status of the authentic El Dorado County historic tribe.
The Significance: The BIA explicitly agreed that the true IRA Tribe (the Wopumnes) was never terminated.
The Impact: This fresh, federal confirmation proves that the authentic tribe's legal standing, federal rights, and jurisdictional authority remain fully intact today. Because the true tribe legally exists and was never dissolved, the $3 billion pipeline currently flowing to the non-aboriginal "front organization" is not a closed historical issue—it is an active, ongoing financial crime that demands immediate federal intervention.
[ Button / Link: View the Sept. 30 BIA Confirmation ]

Sac-Verona Band

The Front for the $3 Billion Multi-agency Federal Grant Laundering scheme

Standing there knowing...

True Heir Lineage Fraud, Federal Grant Fraud, Diversion, Oppression, False Advertising,
and the Public Record...

Evidence Room

THE HIJACKING IN ACTION: Misleading a Congressman

STOLEN HISTORY: Congressman Tom McClintock Address to Congress December 9, 2025

20+ years of statewide CEQA, NEPA, Federal Grant Fraud

2008: The County Admits the Truth

FATAL FLAW: Invalidating the Bullet Train's CEQA & NEPA Compliance ... TRAINWRECK!

STATUTORY FRAUD: The High-Speed Rail CEQA/NEPA Invalidation

INVALID CEQA/NEPA

TRAINWRECK

STATUTORY FRAUD

Why Now?

THE CATALYST: September 30 BIA Confirmation

NEVER TERMINATED!

What you can do...

Sac-Verona Band

The Front for the $3 Billion Multi-agency Federal Grant Laundering scheme

Standing there knowing...

True Heir Lineage Fraud, Federal Grant Fraud, Diversion, Oppression, False Advertising,and the Public Record...

Evidence Room

THE HIJACKING IN ACTION: Misleading a Congressman

STOLEN HISTORY: Congressman Tom McClintock Address to Congress December 9, 2025

20+ years of statewide CEQA, NEPA, Federal Grant Fraud

2008: The County Admits the Truth

FATAL FLAW: Invalidating the Bullet Train's CEQA & NEPA Compliance ... TRAINWRECK!

STATUTORY FRAUD: The High-Speed Rail CEQA/NEPA Invalidation

INVALID CEQA/NEPA

TRAINWRECK

STATUTORY FRAUD

Why Now?

THE CATALYST: September 30 BIA Confirmation

NEVER TERMINATED!

What you can do...

True Heir Lineage Fraud, Federal Grant Fraud, Diversion, Oppression, False Advertising,
and the Public Record...