By By ADAM PRESTRIDGE – For The Standard
Poarch Creek Indian Tribal Chairman Fred L. McGhee confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the tribe is investigating financial discrepancies in its gaming operation.
McGhee, who is attending the United South and Eastern Tribes (USET) meetings in Orlando, Fla., this week, spoke via cell phone.
Rumors of various amounts of missing money and related investigations have been circulating in Atmore for about a week.
When the Poarch Tribal Council met last Tuesday night, an agenda item called for discussion of $65,000 that was misplaced between the Creek Bingo Palace in Atmore and a local bank. In the discussion, it was alleged that a surveillance tape from the date of the transaction is missing and that the FBI is investigating the incident.
Chairman McGhee said Tuesday that the incident occurred two years ago.
McGhee also stated that he was unaware of any FBI involvement.
Chairman McGhee is unsure if the money is truly missing or has honestly been misplaced. He said it could be due to an accounting error as well.
Chairman McGhee did say that the financial discrepancies were one of the deciding factors in the Tribal Council voting on Sept. 18 to strip the gaming board of all its decision-making authority. In that decision, the council also suspended former Tribal Chairman Eddie Tullis from the gaming board, which he chaired. Tullis also is a Tribal Council member.