With support from the Fund, Judith Matloff spent a year investigating a group of white investors who promised to give a tribe in northern Nevada their windfalls from a legal marijuana farm. The venture with the impoverished Ft. McDermitt nation fell apart amid mismanagement and lack of transparency. The story, co-published in The Guardian and High Country News, chronicled how the business shuttered when tribal members began to question where the money was going. Madoff’s reporting showed that the investors failed to keep proper records of profits and spending, leaving the tribe in the dark as to how much was made or owed to them. For the story, Matloff obtained contracts, SEC filings, spreadsheets, official tribal memos, testimonies, photos and legal correspondence.
Grantee investigates white investors who mismanaged a tribal cannabis operation in Nevada
