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The Cache Creek Casino Resort in Yolo County has moved its owners, the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians, from poverty to immense wealth. But the Rumsey Band claims its ex-lawyer and financial adviser engineered deceptive deals that benefited the defendants far more than the tribe. Sacramento Bee file, 2005/Anne Chadwick Williams

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'This lawsuit is about greed and betrayal,' begins the 58-page complaint filed in Yolo Superior Court. It claims fraud, negligence and breach of contract.

It names as defendants prominent Indian gaming attorney Howard L. Dickstein and financial adviser Arlen Opper, both of Sacramento.

The suit says the tribe placed its trust in Dickstein and Opper starting when it was a small, impoverished band in the Capay Valley. The tribe was rewarded with great success but also with 'a course of dealing that involved breaches of trust and violations of duties of the most basic, and, indeed, sacred kind.'

In their civil filing, the Rumsey Band charges that Dickstein, Opper and other defendants involved the tribe in a series of lopsided investments and real estate deals that benefited the defendants more than the tribe.

The lawsuit marks the first time one of the many Indian nations represented by Dickstein have turned on him with such fury.

Called the 'Godfather of California Indian Law' by one prominent legal publication, Dickstein, 62, has arguably done more to bring Indian gaming to California than any other individual.

Since the 1988 passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which opened the door to modern Indian gaming, he's helped numerous tribes around the state open and operate gambling halls.

In an interview with the Bee on Tuesday, the lawyer said the allegations are unfounded.

'We stand by our record with Rumsey,' he said. 'It's a 20-year record when the tribe went from less than $100,000 to a gargantuan entity with assets over a billion dollars.'

'For them to be coming back against the people who represented them with little or no compensation for the first 10 years is very mean-spirited and disappointing.'

Dickstein said the Cache Creek Casino now makes more than $300 million a year.

Filed by lawyers in the San Francisco office of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, the lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages along with the return of millions of dollars in tribal assets.

'The Tribe's former trusted counsel and investment advisor literally fed off the Tribe's financial success, or allowed others to do so, without the Tribal Council's knowledge and approval,' the lawsuit claims.

The suit comes on the heels of last year's change of tribal leadership, when members voted to oust former tribal Chairwoman Paula Lorenzo, who worked closely with Dickstein, and install current Chairman Marshall McKay.

Dickstein and Opper were also dismissed in the transfer of power. Afterward, the tribe hired Kroll Associates, one of the world's leading investigative firms, to look at its past business dealings under the duo.

'We felt there was something very wrong,' McKay said Tuesday. 'There was a feeling we were being taken advantage of.'

The lawsuit was filed because the 'tribal council is determined to take control of our business and to protect the sovereignty of our tribe,' he said.

According to the court filing, the investigation found a troubling history in which Dickstein and Opper enriched themselves at the tribe's expense.

Among the allegations are that Dickstein misused tribal assets, from taking a $224,000 trip to France on a tribal jet, without properly reimbursing the tribe, to mishandling money in a $9 million trust account.

It also claims that Dickstein and Opper sold the tribe on investments that were more lucrative to others, including themselves, their friends and business associates. These deals were 'fraught with self dealing and conflicts of interest they failed to disclose,' the complaint alleges.

Dickstein, for instance, urged the tribe to invest in a casino in San Pablo to be operated by the Lytton Band, a tribe he also represented as a lawyer, the suit claims. He didn't disclose the pitfalls of representing multiple clients in the deal, nor the fact that he stood to gain $1 million a year in fees, according to the complaint.