The Seminole Tribe of Florida has been awarded more than $800 million for trust fund mismanagement.
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla.—A Broward County, Florida, jury has awarded more than $800 million to the Seminole Tribe of Florida after finding that Wachovia Bank and its new owner, Wells Fargo Bank, charged more than $7 million in unauthorized fees and mishandled a trust fund set up for the tribe's children.
The Florida tribe first set up the Seminole Minors Per Capita Payment Trust in 2005 as it prepared to purchase Hard Rock International, the music-themed chain of restaurants, hotels and casinos.
As the purchase prospered, the tribe set up funds for the tribal children, which they could collect when they reached 30 years old, had taken taken financial management courses and proved to be drug-free.
In 2016, the Seminole tribe removed Wells Fargo from the trust because of low rates of return and $7.6 million in questionable fees charged by the bank. When the bank tried to broker a new deal, the tribe filed a lawsuit, accusing Wells Fargo and eight of its representatives of bilking 2,000 beneficiaries of an estimated $818 million in damages and lost income by breaching their fiduciary duty, engaging in intentional misconduct and unlawfully collecting millions of dollars in unlawful fees.
And as Seminole tribe members from six Florida reservations filled the courtroom for the six-week trial, the Broward County civil jury agreed, after only six hours of deliberations.
They jury awarded more than $825 million in damages and more than $7 million in compensation for fees collected. Judgments ranging from $50 to $500 were assessed against individual employees.
The trust account has now more than doubled since moving to another management firm, increasing from $1.4 billion in assets in 2016 to currently about $3 billion.
