‘Used his position … to exploit’ First Nation

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This article was published 29/04/2025 (192 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation is suing a former consultant and others it alleges conspired to defraud the community’s administration and then tried to cover their tracks, costing the band, to this point, more than a half-million dollars.

Winnipeg lawyers Jamie Kagan and Elizabeth Pappas of law firm Thompson Dorfman Sweatman filed Sioux Valley’s statement of claim in Manitoba Court of King’s Bench earlier this month.

The court filing names as defendants Phillip Grey & Company Ltd. and its sole director as well as several past employees of the First Nation: two who worked in information technology and the former information governance director.

None of the defendants has responded to the lawsuit with a statement of defence and the allegations haven’t been heard in court. Sioux Valley is west of Brandon.

The lawsuit is seeking a judgment of at least $750,000 and other damages. The filing also seeks a court order requiring the defendants to account for any allegedly fraudulently obtained money and allow Sioux Valley to trace it through any financial institution.

The court filing accuses the defendants of breaching contracts and their duty to act in Sioux Valley’s best interests.

The lawsuit claims the First Nation submitted a proposal to Indigenous Services Canada to fund a three-year comprehensive community plan on governance, culture, language and resources in November 2019.

The federal department accepted the proposal in October 2020 and allocated $101,500, plus $116,5000 for 2021-2022 and $116,500 for 2022-2023, the court papers say.

Sioux Valley then inked a consulting agreement with Phillip Grey in November 2020 to help work on the federally funded plan, providing services related to economic development.

Then, the court documents claim, Sioux Valley hired the firm’s sole director personally in February 2022 to work as the band’s director of operations for a three-month term, which was extended indefinitely until he departed in October 2023. He was paid about $190,000 yearly.

The role saw him oversee operations and the delivery of the band’s programming and services and oversee other senior managers, with no direct or immediate oversight.

Sioux Valley claims the consulting firm and its director failed to obtain approval for expenditures over $1,000, then got reimbursed; bought items or improperly used money unrelated to its scope of work and sometimes unrelated to Sioux Valley at all; and failed to disclose conflicts of interest.

Further, the First Nation claims, the consultant conspired with the other defendants to delete or destroy information to obscure unlawful conduct.

The court papers accuse him of creating a scheme while the band’s director of operations that saw him and his company both provide invoices for the same work, amounting to double or multiple payouts.

It also alleges he tendered invoices for work that wasn’t performed or completed; entered into the agreement with Sioux Valley without disclosing conflicts of interest; certified construction plans without authority; and identified himself as an engineer when he was not one.

“SVDN says, and the facts are, that (he) used his position as director of operations, and the oversight responsibilities entrusted to him, to exploit SVDN,” the court filing claims.

Sioux Valley accuses the man of unjustly enriching himself and his company at the deprivation of the First Nation.

The lawsuit claims Sioux Valley’s former employees that are named as defendants breached contracts by deleting proprietary information, data and correspondence stored on the First Nation’s digital network; misusing their access to obscure their conduct and conspiring with one another and the consultant.

The lost data included “significant financial information” and the court papers say Sioux Valley was left unable to operate its finances and was limited in its ability to investigate the alleged financial impropriety, requiring it to spend more than $500,000 on new consultants to recreate the lost information.

Further, Sioux Valley says it was required to account to Indigenous Services Canada for the allegedly misappropriated funds.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca