FORMER LEECH LAKE LEADER INDICTED

Former Chairman of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Peter D. White has been charged with 17 counts of accepting illegal gratuities in a federal case against businessman Craig Keith Potts. Prosecutors accuse White of taking roughly $19,000 over a four-month period when he operated a check cashing business on the reservation near Walker. Federal authorities said White asked for and received money from Potts in $1,000 and $1,500 increments that were not documented as loans and record of repayment doesn't seem to exist. White was the Band's chairman from February 2003 to June of 2004.