Several inquiries have been made regarding the connection between Tony Defeo,Diana Knowles, and the Mackinac Bands. Prompted by the policy of the Mackinac Bands to be completely transparent, I have been asked to provide answers to those questions.
When Diana Knowles was chastising the Sault Tribe for their failure to do due diligence while also pushing the attributes of DeFeo, was she aware of who this scoundrel really was? It was Knowles that also introduced him to the Mackinac Bands and pushed to have the MB board sign a Memorandum of Understanding devised by Knowles....which we did not.
With the memorandum came a promise of funding for legal services, which was true, until DeFeo didn't pay the attorneys. DeFeo was made out to be Mr. Wonderful by his associates and those who claimed to know him. He was going to fund a health center for the MB because
he just wanted to see its members have health care. At first, we jumped at the chance and wanted to hear what he had to say all the while keeping in mind that it seemed too good to be true.
At his side was his associate and now, codefendent, Kim Lewis as well as an Alaskan attorney, another from the Detroit area, a mysterious investor from Dubai, the brother of Lewis "Brett" and lastly Knowles, a Mackinac Band and Sault Tribe member who was very insistent that we work with Anthony DeFeo.
When Diana Knowles was chastising the Sault Tribe for their failure to do due diligence while also pushing the attributes of DeFeo, was she aware of who this scoundrel really was? It was Knowles that also introduced him to the Mackinac Bands and pushed to have the MB board sign a Memorandum of Understanding devised by Knowles....which we did not.
With the memorandum came a promise of funding for legal services, which was true, until DeFeo didn't pay the attorneys. DeFeo was made out to be Mr. Wonderful by his associates and those who claimed to know him. He was going to fund a health center for the MB because
he just wanted to see its members have health care. At first, we jumped at the chance and wanted to hear what he had to say all the while keeping in mind that it seemed too good to be true.
At his side was his associate and now, codefendent, Kim Lewis as well as an Alaskan attorney, another from the Detroit area, a mysterious investor from Dubai, the brother of Lewis "Brett" and lastly Knowles, a Mackinac Band and Sault Tribe member who was very insistent that we work with Anthony DeFeo.
Knowles had high hopes of handling the employment of MB members to work in tribal facilities through her small employment agency in Pontiac, American Heritage, so was this her motivation behind being the voice for Defeo? Understandable, I guess, since the rest of us were also filled with high hopes that maybe DeFeo was for real even though we weren't ready to make any sort of agreement with him until we had time to discuss the matter.One person that went ahead of the game, did his research and found out what DeFeo was really about was Bob . It was Bob that insisted DeFeo was shady. Fortunately, most of us came to our senses thanks to Bob,(some later rather than sooner). Tommer Bruning was one who maintained his complete faith in Bob. What would have happened if we had stuck with DeFeo? Was he just hoping to get his hands on possible federal funding or was he hoping he could entice other investors such as Bill from Dubai into making him rich off other people's money?
2 comments:
I recall hearing that Tony Defeo and Ms.Knowles was connected in some potential big business deal years back; honestly there wasn't much attention given to the claim at the time as she is often all talk and extremely gifted at embellishing details about herself, her business and the activities she is involved with. I also seem to remember hearing rumors that Defeo was thought to somehow be connected to organized crime. The fact that she was involved with him only made that statement more credible in my mind as that would be the type of business person I could imagine her pushing on trusting individuals or organizations; all the while presenting them as professional & reputable.
I wonder if Ms. Knowles would be permitted to be involved in tribal business in any manner if they knew she was a felon who served 2 yrs in Michigan prisons for selling a large qty of cocaine to an undercover Narcotics officer in Oakland County (1988); she was convicted and began serving her sentence in 1989. I for one would think not!
Yes "Tony"? Or should we use his other alias Mr. Spero? This guy has ripped off numerous people with his invest and get return scheme throughout Macomb County, Mi. After, hearing and meeting this SCAM artist prior to the accusations I know of 1 person he screwed over fo almost 300k. The worst part of this scammer is he has made others look like bad people and has stole from hundreds of people. I hope someone finds this "SCUMBAG".
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