BEND — Two men were indicted Friday, Sept. 25, on federal charges for allegedly misappropriating $93,700 from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

Roderick Ariwite, 65, CEO of the Warm Springs Economic Development Corporation, and Thomas Adams, 48, manager of Warm Springs Construction Enterprise, are accused of creating their own construction company in October 2017 and collecting tribal salaries and travel reimbursements while working on their own construction projects, according to the federal indictment.

In a separate indictment, Ariwite, a resident of the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, is accused of transporting a fraudulent $23,000 check from the personal bank account of a Warm Springs tribal business board member from Oregon to Idaho in 2018.

Ariwite oversaw Warm Springs Ventures, a management organization for several tribal business venues. One of those ventures was the Warm Springs Construction Enterprise, which Adams managed under the supervision of Ariwite.

The two men then created their own construction company, Warbonnet Construction Services, which they used to defraud the Warm Springs tribe, according to the indictment.

In one instance, the indictment accuses Adams, a Warms Springs resident, and Ariwite of using $48,900 in tribal funds to hire a subcontractor for a Warbonnet construction project.

Another time, the two men allegedly paid a consulting company that Ariwite operated $9,800 for two projects that gave no benefit to the Tribe. One of the projects was to have the consulting company create a statement of qualifications for Adams’ Warm Springs Construction Enterprise. But Adams and Ariwite created the qualifications and included false information about Warm Springs Construction Enterprise, including how it had worked on projects that the two men’s private company, Warbonnet, actually completed, according to the indictment.

The two men also paid Ariwite’s consulting company $28,000 in tribal funds to submit an application to the U.S. Small Business Administration for a business development program for small, disadvantaged businesses. Awarded applications are given preferences to bid on government contracts, according to the indictment. The consulting company was paid but never produced an application, essentially misappropriating $28,000 from the tribe, according to federal prosecutors.

Ariwite and Adams are being charged with six counts of fraud crimes, including conspiracy and theft/misapplication of funds from a tribal organization.