Henderson City Councilman Dan Shaw is facing two more lawsuits, accusing him of making illegal loans via a tribal lender allegedly owned and controlled by Shaw and his business partner Greg Jones. 

The filings bring the number of federal class action lawsuits filed against Shaw, Jones, and the lender, Green Arrow Solutions, to six since 2022. Four of the suits, which are almost identical, have been settled in Illinois, Massachusetts, and Indiana, court records indicate.

The new lawsuit, in Illinois, seeks to prevent Green Arrow Solutions, purportedly a tribal enterprise operated by the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians in California, from making and collecting high-interest loans of more than 700% annual interest over the Internet. The company is allegedly using tribal immunity to evade regulation. 

The plaintiff in the case received a loan for $350 from Green Arrow Solutions in February 2023, according to the complaint.  

“The loan would result in repayment of $1,132.28 if paid on schedule,” the complaint says. “The total interest charged would be $787.28, which according to Green Arrow Solutions equates to an annual percentage rate of 852.42%, a rate more than 20 times that permitted in Illinois (36%).”

Shaw, who was appointed to Henderson City Council in 2017 and later won election, faces a general election challenge in November from Dr. Monica Larson.

“The personal and business behavior of elected leaders matters,” Larson said in a statement to the Current. “It goes to the heart of ethics, integrity, and good decision-making. The charges in these current and past lawsuits are serious. Residents deserve better.” 

Elizabeth Trosper, Shaw’s campaign communications director, said she expects Shaw to be dropped from the lawsuit. “It would be inappropriate to further comment on a open lawsuit that includes Dan Shaw or his companies.” 

The Illinois suit, filed May 30, alleges that in an attempt to evade prosecution, “non-tribal owners of online payday lending businesses frequently engage in a business model commonly referred to as a ‘rent-a-tribe’ scheme,” in which “non-tribal payday lenders create an elaborate charade claiming their non-tribal businesses are owned and operated by Native American tribes.”

The alleged scheme, according to the new suit and those filed previously, is purported to shield the lenders from state and federal usury laws under the guise of sovereign immunity. 

“However, the tribal lending entity is simply a facade for an illegal lending scheme; all substantive aspects of the payday lending operation – funding, marketing, loan origination, underwriting, loan servicing, electronic funds transfers, and collections – are performed by individuals and entities that are unaffiliated with the tribe.”

The suit alleges that in exchange for use of the tribe’s name, the true owners pay the tribe “a fraction of the revenues generated.” While the percentage varies, “the number is almost always in the single digits.” 

Tribal administrator Ben Ray did not respond to requests for comment. 

A map on Green Arrow Solutions’ website indicates it does business in Nevada. 

“On information and belief, the list of states in which Defendants do not make loans depends on the likelihood they will face public or private enforcement actions,” says the Illinois suit.

The complaint lists five other Internet lenders that purport to be operated by tribal enterprises, but are owned by Nevada Impact Management, LLC, a company that lists Shaw and Jones as officers. 

“Attempting to circumvent state interest rate caps by fraudulently hiding behind tribal sovereign immunity has been found to constitute criminal conduct,” the suit says, noting a New York jury convicted two individuals in 2017 on 14 felony counts for operating a network of tribal lending companies. 

A Wisconsin suit was filed this week. Only a cover sheet has been filed. The attorney representing the plaintiff did not respond to requests for comment.

LAS VEGAS (AP):

An ailing former Los Angeles-area gang leader has been denied release from a Las Vegas jail ahead of his trial in the 1996 killing of music legend Tupac Shakur, despite a bid by a hip-hop music figure to underwrite his US$750,000 bond.

A Nevada judge rejected house arrest with electronic monitoring for Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, 61, saying she wasn’t satisfied with assurances that Davis and his would-be benefactor, Cash ‘Wack 100’ Jones, weren’t planning to reap profits from the sale of Davis’ life story.

A Nevada law prohibits convicted killers from profiting from their crime.

Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny said in her ruling issued Wednesday that a review of Jones’ financial records also did little to address her concerns that Jones might be a “’front’ or ‘middleman’ for the true bond poster”.

Davis has sought to be released since shortly after his arrest last September made him the only person ever charged with a crime in the killing, which has drawn intense interest and speculation for 27 years.

Prosecutors allege the gunfire in Las Vegas that killed Shakur stemmed from competition between east coast members of a Bloods gang sect and west coast groups of a Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a musical genre known at the time as “gangsta rap”.

Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His trial is scheduled for November 4. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

After a 45-minute hearing Tuesday, Kierny said she was left with more questions than answers after Davis’ legal team tried to demonstrate the source of the funds.

Prosecutors have argued that Davis intends to benefit from retelling his story about the killing of Shakur and played a recording of a jailhouse phone call in which Jones describes to Davis a plan to produce “30 to 40 episodes” of a show based on his life story.

“It is an illegal benefit, profiting from this crime,” prosecutor Binu Palal told the judge. Palal didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday on the judge’s decision.

Jones, a music record executive who has managed hip-hop artistes including Johnathan ‘Blueface’ Porter and Jayceon ‘The Game’ Taylor, offered sworn testimony Tuesday by video from an unspecified place in California.

He said he paid 15 per cent of the bail amount, or US$112,500, as “a gift” from his business accounts to secure Davis’ release.

Davis’ attorney, Carl Arnold, didn’t respond to emails or phone calls left at his office Wednesday seeking comment. A spokesperson for Arnold didn’t immediately have comment when reached by email.

The judge said in Wednesday’s two-page order she wasn’t convinced the bail money was not being paid “out of profits from Mr Davis discussing the killing of the victim in this case.”

While Jones testified he was bonding out Davis because Davis was fighting cancer and “had been a pillar of the community”, previous interviews “suggested another motive”, Kierney wrote.

She said Jones indicated there were “stipulations” on the bond and “that Mr Davis would be signing a contract regarding the rights to his life story, ostensibly including the shooting of Mr Shakur.” She said that was supported by a recorded phone call at the jail when Jones “insisted that a contract be signed before the bond premium was paid”.