Pastor sentenced in case of unrecognized Indian tribe
Crime/Justice - Criminal Cases
By Roxana Hegeman
Wichita, Kansas (AP) 6-08

A pastor ensnared in the federal prosecution of a group that claims to be an American Indian tribe was sentenced to time served for falsely claiming he was a U.S. citizen to get a Social Security card.

Jaime Cervantes, 45, who had already served nine months, was handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation to Mexico. He was arrested in September as part of the prosecution of the Kaweah Indian Nation and its self-proclaimed chief, Malcolm Webber, in an alleged scam to sell tribal memberships to immigrants under the guise that the documents would give them U.S. citizenship.

Investigators now believe that between 10,000 and 15,000 immigrants in at least 15 states were defrauded into buying tribal memberships in the group, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson said.

“Once this case was filed, we saw a dramatic drop off in that activity,â€