TLE Looters Given Jail Sentences After Appeal

TLE Looters Given Jail Sentences After Appeal

Friday, January 20, 2006 at 16:32

A couple of former band officials from the Saulteaux First Nation found guilty of stealing from their band’s Treaty Land Entitlement trust account will be going to prison after all.

Last year, Archie Moccasin and Mervin Night were handed suspended sentences that could be served in the community.

Moccasin, Night and former chief Gabe Gopher were earlier found guilty of fraud for making approximately $1 million in unauthorized expenditures.

Court heard they gave the money to family members and friends, and kept some for themselves, when it should have gone to band economic development projects.

The Crown appealed their original sentences, arguing the crimes the men committed were too serious to not result in prison time.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal released its ruling in the matter today, and sentenced the men to just over 2-and-a-half years in a federal prison.

(with files from CBC Radio)