The Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians lost $8.5 million in a shady deal to open a casino in Mexico.

Juan Jose Rojas-Cardona, who has a criminal record in the U.S., owns 60 permits for casinos in Mexico, McClatchy Newspapers reports. He started courting the tribe in 2006, when gaming was getting off the ground in Mexico.

"The numbers they were throwing out, I thought, 'How can we not invest with these guys?' I was excited," Tyrone McGeshick, a former council member, told McClatchy.

But nothing ever came of the deal. The tribe and other U.S. investors who gave Rojas-Cardona money say he simply pocketed it.

"What do we do? Do we just say, well, it's over? I can't accept that, especially when you've taken from 600 tribal members," James Williams Jr., who was the tribe's chairman at the time.

The tribe operates a casino on its reservation and won a $79 million in a lawsuit against the city of Detroit. The courts ruled that the tribe was unfairly denied a chance to bid on a commercial casino.

Get the Story:
Corruption in Mexico casinos takes a toll in the U.S., too (McClatchy Newspapers 11/22)
For U.S. investors, reclaiming money is tough (McClatchy Newspapers 11/22)