Mohegan Sun Casino Owners Received $54 Million In Stimulus Money

Tribe that runs casino raking in $1 billion-plus per year got government check.

ByABC News

June 11, 2010, 2:08 PM

June 17, 2010  -- With the support of Sen. Chris Dodd, D.-Conn., the federal government has awarded $54 million to Connecticut's politically well-connected Mohegan Indian tribe, which operates one of the highest grossing casinos in the U.S.

The tribe runs the sprawling Mohegan Sun casino, halfway between New York City and Boston, which earned more than $1.3 billion in gross revenues in 2009. Each tribe member receives a cut of the profits, a number a tribal official said was "less than $30,000" per capita per year. The stimulus money is a loan from a U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development program that is meant to help communities of less than 20,000 people that have been "unable to obtain other credit at reasonable rates and terms and are unable to finance the proposed project from their own resources."

Lynn Malerba, chairwoman of the Mohegan Tribal Council, defended the award of the stimulus loan to the tribe, and said that every member of Connecticut's seven-member Congressional delegation except one had provided assistance in securing the funds. "The whole Connecticut delegation, I think aside from [Rep.] Jim Himes, who was traveling, sent a letter in support."

Bryan DeAngelis, communications director for Sen. Dodd, confirmed Dodd's support for the loan. "Senator Dodd supported this project in the same manner and for the same reasons he supports federal assistance for other Connecticut projects – creating and preserving local jobs," said DeAngelis. "The only factor that mattered in Dodd's support of these loans was job creation and economic recovery in Connecticut." A former aide to Dodd, Charles Bunnell, is Chief of Staff for External and Governmental Affairs for the tribe.

An aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman said the senator "is supportive of any constituent that applies for federal funding that will create jobs."

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