The business entities focused primarily on federal contract procurement in Alabama, but because the entities are small business with socially and economically disadvantaged owners, most of the businesses received “8a” status from the federal Small Business Administration, which allows them to be awarded U.S. government contracts without competition from other bidders.

From 2012 to 2019, Terry is accused of writing checks from tribal town business entities to law firms to pay for his son’s legal fees totaling about $124,800; to his son totaling about $71,800; and to “a person known to the Grand Jury to remove a lien on a property owned by (his son)” for $106,000, according to the indictment.

Terry’s son, identified in the indictment only as “J.T.,” was sentenced in the Northern District of Alabama in 2014 on charges of wire fraud, making false statements to the SBA, making false statements to a financial institution and money laundering, the indictment states.

The indictment also alleges that Terry charged more than $600,000 in personal and family expenses to tribal town credit cards justified in each fiscal year report as “employees advances” and used nearly $223,000 in tribal town funds to pay off his and his wife’s debts to the Internal Revenue Service and a personal loan and to purchase a BMW and Jeep Wrangler.