Two First Nation chiefs say they were offered money as enticement to sign their communities up for Bank of Montreal loan agreements arranged by a Winnipeg-based financial firm that an internal document shows used “kickbacks” as a tool to secure clients.
The chiefs, from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, said they were offered money by senior officials with The Usand Group, which bills itself as a firm dedicated to helping First Nation communities participate in the “global economy,” according to its website.
They said Usand would arrange the loan agreements with the First Nation and then approach the Bank of Montreal to secure the loan. The loan total would include fees owed to Usand resulting from the firm arranging the agreement.
[…]
[A]n internal Usand document obtained by APTN National News shows that the firm listed the use of “kickbacks” as a potential tool for use in securing deals with prospective First Nation clients.
The document, a 2014 risk management plan, analyzed the potential risks associated with the use of “kickbacks.” The document outlined possible “preventive actions” to mitigate those risks along with “contingency plans” to counter any negative fallout from the use of the tactic.
The main risk associated with the use of kickbacks was the possibility “any ‘favours’ become publicized,'” said the document. The document rated the likelihood of this happening as “medium” and the potential impact as “very high.”
The document suggested that “no written record of dealings” be made of any kickback arrangements which should be shrouded in “vague langue, ie: offer to ‘give money back to community to be used at their discretion.'”
In the event a kickback deal became public, the document suggested Usand employ a “positive PR strategy with (a) communications firm.”
It gets better.
Ovide Mercredi is President of the Manitoba NDP.
Via.
Just Google usand group and click “our team”. Between all the Wannbabees (old Ojibwe word for “skinny pale guy who see fat red reflection”) you’ll find a familiar name or two.
I simultaneously laughed and threw-up a little in my mouth when reading the Bio of Usand COO. How do these leeches attain such highly paid positions
There must be a “typo” in the company name. I think it should be “U send”.. As in send us money.. We heap big slush fund.
Parasites living off Injuns.
Injun parasites livin off Injuns. Just more of the same. Only higher up on the ladder. They look white but read their bios.
Bank vague langue texts:
Big Bad Wad Wampum.
Greasy Palm Slick Deal.
Grinning Fat Bear.
Wolf Need Wide TV.
Chief Sit In Jail Bird..
The document rated the likelihood of this happening (getting caught) as “medium” and the potential impact (Monies/Bonuses) as “very high.”
–
I have learned that the standards set at the top filter throughout a company….[Quoting Professor Thomas Dunfee of the Wharton School:]
‘ A company that fails to take steps to produce a climate conducive to positive work-related ethical attitudes may create a vacuum in which employees so predisposed may foster a frontier-style, everyone for themselves mentality.’ ”
Clarence Louie CHIEF OF THE OSOYOOS BC FIRST NATIONS BAND, is CHRISTLIKE regarding all Canadian Indian affairs.
ALL THE REST ARE merely and all … “WHOLLY” ………..”TAKERS”………!
I stayed on the Cherokee reserve in Cherokee NC back in the summer. The people were great and they were very successful. Articulate, intelligent and outgoing. I couldn’t help comparing them to the natives on the Oshweken reserve where the best they could come up with is selling “smokes”.
On a side note, the natives I talked to were pissed off about the Yankees trying to do away with the Southern flag. They were selling all kinds of merchandise with the flag on it.
it just does not get better than this.
Response from the CEO of the USAND group to APTN report.
http://www.usand.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/UsandResponse.pdf
Somewhat unrelated but check out this story concerning the wife of a prominent Manitoba judge.
http://citycircus.ca/native-womens-agency-staff-left-wondering-did-close-family-ties-deep-six-a-government-investigation-into-complaints-against-the-wife-of-a-prominent-manitoba-judge/
I can’t get any better than this can it???!!!
I am in Winnipeg and we are just sick and tired of the NDP and their continuing BS. Putting this province in the sewer, and now this. I figured they would have had Mercredi to replace doofus as leader but this…….
The corruption is worse than we thought.
Suprise ! Suprise ! Suprise ! Well , not really !
My takeaway from usands response is if they do t call it a kickback it’s not a kickback so all is good.
Exactly!
What a surprise, NDPs involved in a scam to defraud the taxpayers.
He’s an uncommon fellow but not alone. There are others doing good work, but that sort of thing doesn’t make the news, much.
There will be problems of this sort until Natives call themselves Canadian, get off reserves and contribute to Canada something beyond their folklore. They do not abide our laws but they have no problem taking our money and demanding more. Most of us are sick and tired of it all, sick and tired of working and paying taxes and being laughed at and disrespected by tribes across the country.
Wow!
i believe the Winnipeg Free Press, CBC and CTV enable this corruption by refusing to report the truth.
Methinks Erinn Mah speak with forked tongue
Freaking banking financial company considering a ‘MEDIUM’ chance of committing fraud………
Damn..
Glad they are not producing Flu Shots, or Botox..
Hey Kate, I added a link to your story on the WFP story. It was quickly removed.
While we are on the subject, anything new on Senator Brazeau’s illness?
Neck ropeburns methinks…
Anyone want to play a game of “Six Degrees of Separation from the Lying Weasel”?
I’m not surprised. Usand Group CEO Sean McCoshen played in a Winnipeg band called Two Flags in the mid-’80s; after a brief correspondence I sent him $7 for a copy of their album and never heard from him again. Once a financial scammer, etc…
Now you see why we need the indian accountability act to show monies that flow on the Rez. They are all criminals and this has the stench of conspiracy, which last time I looked, was a crime in Canada. Jail boyos!
My thoughts exactly.
For those of you saying ‘this is huge’…heh…not unless the lame stream media say it is the ‘latest (Harper) scandal.’
Sounds like a pretty sweet racket. How do I get a piece?
Yeah, well, at least I can have a smoke after my meal in restaurants on the rez.
When you Google the history of the names mentioned in the APTN story, one would wonder if one chief was incensed at the low-ball offer he got compared to the other chief. Always one on the take, the low-ball payment was likely only intended to keep him quiet. Not that he ever does, and pay back is his traditional bitch.
The internal presentation is dynamite. I would be interesting to ask, under oath, who provided input to it… Sounds like someone or group of someones who know first hand “how things work” in the Indian Industry.
And if BMO really doesn’t deal in “finders fees” how it works becomes obvious. It would be interesting to find out how many other bands across the country have, over the years, paid how many advisers “finders fees” for financing over the years. But the new government is committed to closing the small window that was being opened (a fraction of what any other business or government entity, lets alone those who are mostly tax-payer funded, has to provide publically), so neither the public or the great mass of band members will ever know what the chiefs are doing. Same old, same old.
But let me predict that this drops beneath the fold in a day, and never resurfaces. To complicated; and no one in the media wants to be accused of picking on the survivors of so much abuse – no matter how much of it is self-inflicted. I suspect that there will be some changes at APTN as a result of this ever being reported on.