Judge Rejects Claim of Eastern Pequots
May 4, 2005
By Rinker Buck - The Hartford Courant

Who gets to make all the money if the Eastern Pequots eventually secure tribal recognition and build a casino?

That question has moved closer to resolution now that Superior Court Judge Susan Peck has rejected the Eastern Pequot's claims of "sovereign immunity" from contract obligations. The ruling came Monday at Superior Court in New Britain in the first round of a complicated lawsuit brought by the financial backers who initially helped the tribe gain federal recognition, and who brought in Donald Trump to develop an Indian casino.

Since 1992, Amalgamated Industries of Windsor had a formal contract with the Paucatuck Eastern Pequot tribe that entitled the company to 2 percent of all financing deals and a 10 percent cut from all business ventures after they obtained tribal recognition. Thomas Kokoska, Amalgamated's general counsel, said that the company and casino developer Donald Trump had spent more than $14 million supporting the tribe's bid for federal recognition.

But this partnership was thrown into disarray in July 2002, when the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs recognized the Paucatucks by combining them with a longtime feuding faction, the Eastern Pequots.

The larger Eastern Pequot faction already was working with its own group of partners, Fairfield golf course developer David Rosow and Florida billionaire William Koch. In June 2003, the tribal council of the unified Pequot group voted to scuttle the Amalgamated-Trump group in favor of continuing its relationship with the Rosow-Koch partnership.

Amalgamated sued one month later for breach of contract, and the decision on Monday dealt with the Pequot's pretrial motions for dismissal on several grounds, including sovereign immunity from lawsuits.