The former chief of the Mosquito First Nation has pleaded guilty to defrauding the band of more than $5,000 in Treaty Land Entitlement trust funds.
Clarence Stone, 59, was silent in the prisoner's box Friday in Saskatoon Court of Queen's Bench as his lawyer entered a guilty plea during a brief hearing.
Stone remains free as he awaits a sentencing hearing June 28 in Battleford, Sask.
Two former trustees of the TLE fund were jailed after they pleaded guilty to criminal breach of trust in the same matter.
Alphonse Peter Moosomin, 62, and Eldon Starchief, 55, were sentenced in December 2010 to a year in jail and two years' probation for their roles in the 2002 crime.
Charges against Clifford Lawrence Spyglass, a band councillor, and former TLE trustee Gerald Arthur Bird, 59, are still before the courts. Both are charged with theft, fraud and criminal breach of trust.
Spyglass, 49, also is charged with forgery and uttering a forged document.
The charges result from a five-year investigation by members of the Saskatoon RCMP commercial crime section and the North Battleford detachment.
The North Battleford-area band, whose full name is Mosquito, Grizzly Bear's Head, Lean Man First Nation, was paid $9.6 million as part of the 1992 TLE agreement, which compensated 33 Saskatchewan First Nations for land they'd been owed since the signing of the treaties.
The moneys were placed in trust accounts and were to be used to buy land and, if a band chose, to invest in economic development projects.
The Mosquito First Nation was required to purchase at least 8,132 hectares to add to its reserve, but the fund has been exhausted without meeting the requirement.
View the Article Here Maggie Jo.
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