Cobell SNAFU: Some payments going to wrong addresses

Editor’s Note: Yes, I’ve experienced the same problems. Even though I was asked to update my address (twice) when I called the Cobell hotline on other matters, my settlement check was sent to a previous address. In fact I still haven’t received it as of Jan. 7, 2013. — Jodi Rave

BY ICTMN

Reports are surfacing of problems being experienced by some Cobell class members who say that the federal government does not have the correct addresses to send their settlement checks.

Indian appeals of the $3.4 billion Cobell settlement concluded last month, so initial so-called stage 1 checks of $1,000 each for individual class members were supposed to be delivered by Christmas, government officials and Cobell lawyers have said. Stage 2 payments are supposed to go out at a later date.

But it has not been a smooth process for some of the thousands of class members.

“I was alarmed to learn today that the Bureau of Indian Affairs [BIA] has sent 6 year-old address information to the Garden City, New Jersey court-appointed group that is responsible for disbursing the Cobell Indian trust settlement funds,” says Robin Kickingbird, a Kiowa citizen of Norman, Oklahoma.

“I never lived at the old address they had on file. This is my brother’s address. I inherited my trust land from my father, who passed away in 2005.”

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/mobile/article/cobell-payments-being-sent-wrong-addresses-special-master-appointed-146498