Nearly 100 Miccosukee Indians are blaming their former lawyer as the reason they owe the International Revenue Service $26 million in taxes, penalties and interest.
In a malpractice lawsuit that began in 2010, the tribe claims that their former lawyer Dexter Lehtinen gave them "faulty advice" when he said they did not owe taxes on their gaming profits, according to the Miami Herald.
Lehtinen told the court that he advised the tribe to set up a fund in case they owed money to the IRS, but that the money was distributed between the Miccosukee.
The Indian tribe owes the government $9.4 million in penalties, but the total reaches $26 million because of interest.
Tribe attorney Bernard Roman did not return calls to The Herald.
Under federal law the individual Miccosukee members are required to pay taxes on his or her gaming profits.
Lehtinen's attorney Joseph Klock said that the money owed is a result of the tribe's own mistakes and not of Lehtinen's, who the fired in 2010, the newspaper said.
“Those folks left him high and dry,” Klock was quoted as saying. “Their case is absolutely ridiculous.”
The IRS is looking into the tribe's 600 members for allegedly failing to report tens of millions of dollars of income.
The tribe's former chairman owes $2.8 million in taxes and $6.65 million in penalties, according to The Herald.
