Former Mashpee Leader Admits Tax Fraud Linked to $1B Casino Project

Posted on: July 28, 2025, 06:32h. 

Last updated on: July 28, 2025, 06:32h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.
  • Cromwell admits to underreporting $177K in taxable income
  • Convictions tied to stalled First Light casino project reinstated
  • Supreme Court declined to hear Cromwell’s final appeal

Cedric Cromwell, the former chairman of Massachusetts’ Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, has pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud charges, three years after he was sentenced to prison for soliciting bribes tied to a tribal casino project.

Cedric Cromwell, Mashpee Wampanoag, First Light Casino, Tribal tax fraud, Federal extortion charges
Cedric Cromwell in an image from 2020 when he still was chairman of the Mashpee. His lawyer says Cromwell is now ready to bring a long and difficult legal process to an end. He awaits sentencing on extortion and tax evasion charges in November. (Image: Mashpee Wampanoag tribe)

In 2022, Cromwell, now 60, was convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for protecting an architectural firm’s $5 million consultancy contract on the tribe’s $1 billion First Light Casino Project in Taunton, Mass. – a project that remains unrealized.

Though a federal judge initially threw out some of Cromwell’s convictions after trial, a federal appeals court reversed that ruling in September 2024, reinstating the charges. In May 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Cromwell’s appeal, letting the convictions stand.

Looking for Closure

Last Thursday, he pleaded guilty to four federal counts of filing false tax returns and of failing to declare more than $177K in taxable income from 2014 to 2017 while he oversaw the project as tribal chair and president of its gaming authority.

Cromwell’s lawyer Daniel Cloherty told The Cape Cod Times that the disgraced former leader Is now ready to end a “long and difficult” legal process.

“After many years of litigation, he and his family are looking forward to having the matter finally resolved,” Cloherty said.

In 2016, the First Light project, financed by Genting, was ready to break ground with the hope it would provide economic self-determination to the Mashpee, who are descended from the tribe that broke bread with the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving.

But a federal court ruling paused the project and led the Trump administration to move to revoke the tribe’s land-in-trust status. That decision was later reversed under the Biden administration, restoring the tribe’s sovereign land and reviving hopes for the casino.

Removed from Office

Cromwell was removed from office after his indictment by a federal grand jury in November 2020. He was ultimately convicted of soliciting three bribes from David DeQuattro, owner of Rhode Island-based RGB Architects. These included checks, a Bowflex home gym, and a hotel stay, according to court documents.

DeQuattro later had his conviction quashed on appeal when it was determined that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove he knowingly participated in the bribery scheme with criminal intent.

In contrast, the same panel determined that Cromwell’s intent was to extort, which was shown by the pattern of payments, requests, and concealment efforts.

That ruling was upheld when the US Supreme Court declined to hear Cromwell’s case in May of this year.

Cromwell is scheduled to be sentenced in November on both the tax charges and the extortion convictions that were reinstated on appeal.

The false tax return charges carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison, up to one year of supervised release, and a $100,000 fine. The extortion counts each carry up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines up to $250,000 per count.