Published January 13, 2015
The leader of an unrecognized American Indian tribe is facing charges including trying to defraud the federal government and harboring illegal immigrants.
Prosecutors say he offered to sell tribal memberships to immigrants, by falsely claiming that the documents would make them U.S. citizens.
The federal complaint names Malcolm Webber, who's also known as Grand Chief Thunderbird the Fourth.
A federal prosecutor says immigrants have apparently been showing up in Social Security offices and driver's license bureaus in Kansas , Nebraska , Texas , California and elsewhere, with documents they bought from Webber.
They'd offered those documents as proof of citizenship, to try to get driver's licenses and other forms of ID.
Authorities say the Bureau of Indian Affairs ruled in 1984 that Webber's tribe isn't an American Indian tribe — and that Webber, or Grand Chief Thunderbird, isn't an American Indian.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/tribal-chief-charged-in-immigration-scam