Former tribe chair gets 3 years in casino bribe scandal
The former chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe will be trading in three-night stays in an executive suite at the ritzy Seaport Boston Hotel for three years in prison.
Cedric Cromwell, 57, of Attleboro, flexed his position as the then-chairman of the tribe responsible for the proposed First Light Resort and Casino in Taunton to receive steady bribes like that May 2017 birthday stay at the hotel from the owner of a Providence architecture firm interested in maintaining his company’s lucrative contract in the casino project.
“Rather than striving to make his community better through honorable deeds of service, he dishonored his people and his position by accepting bribes for his own personal gain,” U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said
Cromwell was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Boston’s Seaport District by U.S. Senior District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to three years in prison to be followed by a year of probation. Cromwell still faces four counts of filing a false tax return.
David DeQuattro, 56, of Warwick, R.I., was the owner of the architectural firm contracted to design that casino and, on Tuesday, Judge Woodlock sentenced him to a year of probation to be spent in home confinement with electronic monitoring. A jury convicted both men on May 5 following a 10-day trial.
Cromwell was convicted of two counts of accepting bribes as an agent of an Indian tribal government, three counts of extortion under color of official right and one count of conspiring to commit extortion.
DeQuattro was convicted of one count of paying a bribe to an agent of an Indian tribal government.