$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

Operating under the hijacked banner of the "Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians" since the mid-1970s, the Sacramento-Verona Band has publicly admitted a complete lack of historic roots in El Dorado County—a fact confirmed by U.S. Census records showing zero local presence prior to 1970.

This constructed front organization functions as the indispensable "straw entity." By co-opting the identity of the historic Wopumnes Tribe, they provide the fake tribal standing required to unlock and launder a $3 billion pipeline of federal grants, transportation subsidies, and casino revenues for complicit state and local agencies.

All information presented on this site is public record.

This is a Whistle Blower website for educational and investigative purposes.

Smiling for the camera...

What are they standing there knowing? They know they are an unverified proxy group, not a historic tribe. They know state and local agencies cannot access federal transportation, environmental, and infrastructure funds without their cooperative signature.

This constructed "Council" of Hijackers acts as the straw entity, rubber-stamping state and local "pet projects"—including major environmental reviews and transit developments—by bypassing true historic lineal descendants.

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

Executive Summary: For more than a decade, the public took officials at their word—relying on assurances from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal leadership while trusting what was presented as the legitimate Shingle Springs community. But a rigorous examination of the primary public record shatters that trust.

What is actually exposed is an entrenched, multi-agency grant-laundering apparatus: rogue BIA officials at the Pacific Regional Office shielding an unverified proxy group, county and state leaders cutting backroom deals to trade local oversight for millions in mitigation funds, and Sacramento-Verona Band leadership caught misleading Congress regarding their true lineage.

Contrast this manufactured corporate front with the authentic, suppressed historical record: the documented 1935 IRA Shingle Springs Rancheria electorate, the 1905 Kelsey Census, and Washington D.C.'s formal Clerk and Commissioner C.F. Hauke rulings which anchored the true Wopumnes lineal descendants as the recognized Tribe creating the Shingle Springs Ranchieria. Step inside the evidence room to see how true tribal sovereignty was buried to fund state and local "pet projects"—and how federal oversight failed.

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

What the public records reveal is a textbook case of administrative erasure executed in tandem by the Pacific Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Indian Gaming Commission, and complicit state and local agencies. The following timeline traces the public record step-by-step, exposing how taxpayers were defrauded, billions in grant funds laundered, and the historic Wopumnes Tribe systematically suppressed...

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 to conceal the Sacramento-Verona Band hijacking.
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.

Congressman Tom McClintock

ON FACEBOOK

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.

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 ]

NEVER TERMINATED!

What you can do...

Take action today to report fraud. No downloads:

Just copy the text from the template letters provided.
Paste the text into an email or document.
Send it directly to the listed oversight agencies.
Report it to https://america.gov/fraud

URGENT LEGAL CEASE AND DESIST DEMAND

TO:
Regina Cuellar, Chairwoman, and Governing Council
Sacramento-Verona Band (acting under the false dba "Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians")
Sacramento, California

FROM:
Louie Lawrence Smith, III, Chairman
Wopumnes Nisenan and Mewuk Heritage Society 501(c)(3)
“1935 IRA Shingle Springs Indians Lineal Descendants”
3385 Bass Lake Rd, Ste 100 #1110
El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
Email: info@Wopumnes.com

DATE: November 7, 2026

RE: IMMEDIATE CEASE AND DESIST FROM FRAUDULENT PUBLIC REPRESENTATION, FALSE ADVERTISING, USURPATION OF ABORIGINAL IDENTITY, AND UNLAWFUL PUBLIC PERFORMANCES

This letter serves as a formal and final CEASE AND DESIST DEMAND requiring you and the organization you represent (the Sacramento-Verona Band) to immediately halt all public misrepresentations, false advertising, fraudulent identity claims, and public parades or appearances falsely posing as the historic "Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians" and the true aboriginal Wopumnes/Shingle Springs Miwok Tribe.

Your recent appearance in the Native American Day Parade in Sacramento, California, parading under a hijacked historic identity to which you have zero genealogical, historical, or legal standing, constitutes an egregious violation of federal and state laws.

I. THE FACTUAL BASIS: ABSENCE OF HISTORICAL STANDING

As documented extensively in the public record, federal archives, and Department of the Interior findings:

The Verona Census Invalidation: The individuals comprising the Sacramento-Verona Band originated outside El Dorado County. Between 1916 and 1920, Department of the Interior Chief Clerk C.F. Hauke formally reviewed and invalidated the Verona census, establishing that your members had zero historical residence or geographic presence in El Dorado County prior to the modern era. Modern U.S. Census records confirm your group had no presence in El Dorado County prior to 1970.
The True Heirs: The true historic Aboriginal Shingle Springs Indians (the Wopumnes) are anchored exclusively by the 1905 Kelsey Census, the 1935 Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) voting electorate, and subsequent 1966 federal partition records (such as the Padilla recognition).
The Corporate Imposter Structure: Since the mid-1970s, your organization has squatted on remaining Rancheria lands and unlawfully usurped the sovereign name, franchise, and identity of the historic Wopumnes Tribe to operate as an unverified proxy group.

II. VIOLATIONS OF LAW

Your public performances, fraudulent parade appearances, and ongoing misrepresentations violate multiple civil and criminal statutes, including:

False Advertising & Consumer/Public Deception (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17500 et seq.):
Publicly parading and marketing yourselves as the "Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians" deceives the citizens of California, event organizers, and public officials regarding your true identity, misleading the public into believing you represent the aboriginal inhabitants and historical stewards of El Dorado County.
Defrauding Congress & False Statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001):
Leadership of your organization has previously provided false testimony and representations to federal authorities and the U.S. Senate (specifically during 2025 proceedings) under a hijacked aboriginal identity to secure federal recognition, grants, and administrative standing. Using this same fraudulent standing in public exhibitions compounds your federal liability.
Unlawful Trade Practices and Appropriation of Tribal Goodwill:
Misappropriating the name, culture, history, and sovereign goodwill of the historic Wopumnes Tribe for public pageantry, political positioning, and the protection of an illicit multi-billion-dollar grant-laundering apparatus constitutes tortious interference and unlawful appropriation.

III. DEMAND FOR IMMEDIATE COMPLIANCE

YOU ARE HEREBY COMMANDED TO:

CEASE AND DESIST IMMEDIATELY from participating in any public parades, cultural events, government meetings, or public exhibitions under the name, title, or guise of the "Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians," the Shingle Springs Rancheria, or as historic Miwok people aboriginal to El Dorado County.
IMMEDIATELY REMOVE all public signage, promotional materials, float displays, and digital representations falsely asserting your group's lineage as the historic Shingle Springs Miwok Tribe.
ISSUANCE OF PUBLIC RETRACTION: Issue a public corrective statement acknowledging that your organization is the Sacramento-Verona Band and possesses no aboriginal or historic standing as the Wopumnes / Shingle Springs Tribe of El Dorado County.

IV. CONSEQUENCES OF NON-COMPLIANCE

Failure to comply with this Cease and Desist demand immediately upon receipt will result in the prompt initiation of formal legal action. This will include, but is not limited to, filing civil lawsuits for injunctive relief, damages for unfair business practices and false advertising, and notifying federal investigators (including the Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Department of Justice) of your ongoing violations under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and related federal fraud statutes.

GOVERN YOURSELVES ACCORDINGLY.

Sincerely,
Wopumnes Nisenan and Mewuk Heritage Society 501(c)(3)
“1935 IRA Shingle Springs Indians Lineal Descendants”
info@Wopumnes.com |

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