Two charged with theft from Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

PORTLAND (AP) — Two men have been charged with fraud against the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

A federal grand jury in Portland has returned a six-count indictment charging Roderick Ariwite and Thomas Adams with conspiracy and theft/misapplication of funds from a Tribal organization, U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams said in a news release Friday.

The indictment charges Ariwite, of the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, and Adams, of the Warm Springs Reservation, with conspiring to misappropriate $93,700 of tribal funds and with five counts of substantive misappropriation of tribal funds. It wasn’t immediately known if the two men have lawyers to comment on their cases.

Ariwite is also charged in a separate indictment in which it says he took a $23,000 check obtained by fraud from a board member of a tribal business entity from Oregon to Idaho.

According to the indictments, Ariwite was CEO of the Warm Springs Economic Development Corporation and Adams was a manager under Ariwite’s supervision in 2017 when he and Adams created a construction company and worked on projects while on tribal time.

The indictment also alleges that in one instance Ariwite and Adams used $48,900 in tribal funds to hire a subcontractor for a construction project happening under their own company. Ariwite and Adams also hired a consulting company Ariwite operated for two projects that gave no benefit to the Tribe, the indictment claims.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this case with the Warm Springs Police Department, Williams said.