S moke S ignals
FEBRUARY 15, 2017
21
'It was a real eye-opener for council'
BANKING continued
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ergy Transfer Partners’ controver-
sial Dakota Access Pipeline project
in North Dakota.
The project became a public
battle last year between Native
American water protectors and
the Standing Rock Sioux Nation
and oil pipeline workers and local
law enforcement. Tribal nations
throughout the United States, in-
cluding the Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde, expressed support
for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s
efforts to ensure clean water now
and for future generations.
Other problems arose at Wells
Fargo that were public enough to
also show up on the Tribe’s radar.
In September 2016, Wells Fargo
was fined $185 million after it was
discovered by the Consumer Finan-
cial Protection Bureau, the Los An-
geles City Attorney and the Office
of the Comptroller of the Currency
that employees created fake bank
and credit card accounts for more
than 2 million customers without
their knowledge or approval be-
tween May 2011 and July 2015.
Five days after the fine was
announced, Wells Fargo issued
a statement ending its employee
sales program, which the bank
said was the reason for the fraud.
The Los Angeles City Attorney al-
leged Well Fargo sales staff opened
accounts without customers’ per-
mission to meet corporate sales
goals and earn personal financial
rewards.
On Oct. 12, Wells Fargo Chair-
man and Chief Executive Officer
John Stumpf retired and Tim
Sloan was promoted from within
to replace Stumpf as CEO. Stumpf
forfeited his bonuses and planned
severance compensation upon leav-
ing Wells Fargo.
Sloan admitted in January that
several employees were fired in
retaliation for bringing the bank’s
fraudulent practices to light.
In November, Wells Fargo an-
nounced in regulatory filings that
its sales practices were being in-
vestigated by the Securities and
Exchange Commission. There are
still several active investigations
related to the banking scandal.
Leno said that he has shared
his concerns about Wells Fargo’s
recent transgressions with bank
representatives and that he was
assured that the Tribe’s govern-
mental, casino and Grand Ronde
Station accounts are separate from
the retail division, which had such
public problems.
The Tribe’s accounts with Wells
Fargo are used to hold money only
for short periods and are used to
pay bills, Leno said.
Representatives for Wells Fargo,
which has 6,200 banking locations
in 39 states and has been in busi-
ness since 1852, told Leno and
Tribal Council that the problems
it experienced were on the retail
side with personal accounts. Bank
officials said that there is no over-
lap of division management and
that individuals responsible for
problems on the retail side are not
involved with commercial account
oversight.
“Council has listened to the mem-
bership and we are looking at it all,”
said Tribal Council Chairman Reyn
Leno. “One of the big issues for our
Tribe is when you are dealing with
the Tribe’s money you have to make
sure you are taking care of it. One
of the big issues is how many banks
can collateralize the type of money
that we have.”
Reyn Leno said Tribal Council
learned much from looking into
the issue.
“It was a real eye-opener for coun-
cil to find out that there are only a
certain amount of banks that can
collateralize that kind of money,”
Reyn Leno said. “If you are a Tribe
trying to make money and you are
investing money to make money to
keep building your endowments,
you have to have that money col-
lateralized.”
Tribal Council member Kathleen
George echoed Reyn Leno on the
need for the Grand Ronde Tribe to
conduct its financial business with
one of the nation’s larger banks
to ensure protection of the Tribes’
resources. She also said she agreed
that the Tribe needed to look at its
relationship following Wells Far-
go’s public tribulations.
“It's good business practice and
it is certainly important to us as a
Tribal government to be responsive
to our Tribal members when they
tell us that they have very legit-
imate concerns about the banks
that we do business with,” said
George. “This bank is invested in
the DAPL, so I think it is in the
Tribal members’ interest to invest
our business with corporations that
are not investing in projects that
are going to harm Tribal people.
“It happens to be good timing
for us to look at who our business
partners are. We will certainly do
that at this time with that lens. I’m
very glad we are doing this. From
a Tribal Council perspective, one
thing that is kind of challenging is
that with the kind of significant ac-
counts that our Tribal government
has at this time, there are only
a certain number of large banks
that can collateralize the amount
of money that just through our
business operations that we have
to cover.”
Chris Leno said that although
the Tribe’s commercial accounts
were not affected, he said that he
was aware that individual Tribal
members could have been affect-
ed by the fraudulent practices at
Wells Fargo. He said those issues
and the concerns brought about
by the bank’s involvement in the
controversial pipeline project were
enough to get the Tribe asking im-
portant questions.
“It is very important for us to
respond to our members so we
brought that up in our meeting
with them on Tribal accounts,” said
Chris Leno. “We have 5,500 Tribal
members across the country that
could be impacted by the issues on
the retail side.”
Tribal Council member Chris
Mercier said he wants the Tribe
to adopt a “green” policy regarding
essentially all Tribal business, even
banking and investing services.
“I think it needs to be a philoso-
phy of the organization and a prac-
tice going forward, not just have it
be specifically in response to public
pressure from membership,” said
Mercier. “We should look at that in
all facets of what we do. Whatever it
is, I just think it needs to be some-
thing that we are consistent on
and I think our goal as leadership
is to make that our practice going
forward.”
Chairman Reyn Leno said he
thinks one of the most important
issues for all Tribes to examine
after the Standing Rock situation
is who is looking after their money
and asking questions of the people
who invest Tribal resources.
“I think the biggest thing to come
out of Standing Rock, not necessar-
ily for Standing Rock, but for other
Tribes is when you invest money,
what are those investors investing
in? And then you look at it and de-
cide is that all right; is that not all
right? … People are asking where
that money is invested. So I think
that result benefits not only the
Native American Tribes but the
United States in general. Business-
es are now looking into where their
money is invested.”
Reyn Leno said it is Finance Of-
ficer Chris Leno’s job to give lead-
ership choices at this point.
“We’ve had conversations with
council. We know that the mem-
bership is concerned by that project
and Wells Fargo’s association with
that project, and I felt it was pru-
dent as the Finance Officer recog-
nizing that to at least go out at that
point and put out an RFP where we
could solicit proposals from Wells
Fargo and other financial institu-
tions,” said Chris Leno.
“That RFP not only gives us an
opportunity to look at banking
services and fees and all the things
that go along with an RFP, it al-
lows us to talk to not only Wells
Fargo, but any of these financial
institutions about some of the
questions we hadn’t asked before
on philosophical issues. It gives
us an opportunity to have those
conversations.”
Mercier said Tribes are in a posi-
tion to make a difference with their
financial resources and that the
decisions the Grand Ronde Tribe
makes will be noticed.
“Tribes are in a position where
they can raise the visibility of those
issues,” said Mercier.
Fee assistance
Enrolled Tribal members can request assistance with test fees (i.e. GRE,
SAT, LSAT, ACT) and admissions application fees. Contact Higher Education
for more information at 1-800-422-0232, ext. 2275.