Ceremonial victim of forger?
Authorities investigating stolen checks

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Independent correspondent

GALLUP — Law enforcement officials are investigating a series of forgeries involving stolen checks from the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial office.

The investigation was made public Thursday during a meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee, which was meeting at the state’s convention and visitor’s center near the New Mexico-Arizona border.

The purpose of the meeting with Ceremonial officials was to talk about the organization’s finances and what the committee could do to help resolve problems the organization was having with Gov. Bill Richardson, who had vetoed the group’s funding for this fiscal year.

David Abbey, the committee’s legislative aide, said there was a question about the legality of Richardson’s action since the governor did not have the authority to do what he did.

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