The former finance director of the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s Pleasant Point reservation who was fired last year for lying about his identity has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of stealing more than $20,000 from the Maine tribe.
Charles Fourcloud, 59, has been in federal custody since April 25, when he was arrested in northern California after federal authorities in Maine obtained a warrant charging him with one count of theft from an Indian tribal government and three counts of embezzlement from an Indian tribal organization.
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The grand jury in Maine indicted Fourcloud on those charges Wednesday, according to a copy of the indictment made available in U.S. District Court in Bangor on Thursday.
Fourcloud, who is also known by multiple aliases, is accused of stealing $20,052 from the Passamaquoddy Tribe by submitting false expense claims with fake supporting documentation, mostly for travel and moving expenses.
If convicted, he will face as much as 10 years in prison on the theft charge and as much as five years in prison on each of the three embezzlement charges. He also faces fines of as much as $1 million.
Fourcloud changed his name numerous times over the years after being convicted in South Dakota in 1997, under the name of Arlynn Knudsen, for theft from another Indian tribe.
He changed his identity to Arlyn Knudson, Charles Four Cloud, Arlyn Eaglestar, Arlynn Eaglestar, Charles Johnson and Charles Eaglestar, among other names, but kept the same birth date and Social Security number as he changed names, according to an affidavit filed in court by Eric Hafener, an agent for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Fourcloud was hired as chief financial officer by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, in the coastal town of Perry on the Canadian border, in the spring of 2013, the year the tribe was awarded a federal grant of $4,344,618 from the Department of Health and Human Services for education, energy assistance and health services, Hafener wrote.
“Fourcloud applied for the CFO position using a resume containing fictitious employment history and fake references and concealing the fact that he had been convicted of a crime and had served a prison sentence,” Hafener said in the affidavit.
The tribe paid Fourcloud $5,052.30 in travel expenses in April, July and August of 2013 and paid him $15,000 in moving expenses in May 2013 after Fourcloud submitted fake receipts for those expenses, Hafener wrote.
Fourcloud was ordered held in federal custody after a court hearing in San Jose, California, but he has not yet made his initial appearance to face the charges in Maine.
He has not yet been required to enter a plea.
Scott Dolan can be contacted at 791-6304 or at:
Twitter: @scottddolan
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