Thirteen House Democrats asked North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein this week to investigate land deals around the Catawba tribe's casino that's under construction in Kings Mountain.
The attorney general plans to decline, with a spokeswoman telling WRAL News on Friday that the office "does not have authority to launch an investigation like this" without a request from a local district attorney.
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"As it currently stands, this would have to be a local investigation," spokeswoman Laura Brewer said in an email.
Rep. Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe, the lead signer on a letter asking for the inquiry, said Friday she wasn't sure on next steps. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which owns competing casinos and has pushed back from the beginning on the Catawba tribe's plans, circulated the letter.
"As soon as the word gets back to the Eastern Band, (a local request is) probably their next step," Fisher said.
An attempt to reach the band's General Assembly lobbyist, John Metcalf, wasn't immediately successful, nor were attempts to reach representatives of the Catawba casino project.
The Catawba casino, which broke ground late last year, has been a saga in North Carolina, with political intrigue never fully revealed. The tribe is based in South Carolina but was denied a casino there. It turned its sights to North Carolina, eventually winning federal approval to cross state lines.
Gov. Roy Cooper's administration inked a deal earlier this year that moves the facility a major step closer to full table gaming less than an hour west of Charlotte. The Cherokee Nation has casinos in Cherokee and Murphy.
Fisher and other lawmakers who signed the letter asking Stein to intervene said they couldn't point to specific wrongdoing, but they worry about land deals surrounding the project and who stands to gain.
“The main goal, as far as I was concerned, was to get some transparency," Fisher said. "There are a number of LLCs [with] no names attached. ... I think it would make sense to have more transparency to find out who exactly is investing in this."
The letter questions whether there were any “closed door hearings” where local leaders “might have received information that could be used to gain improper benefits." It also says unnamed properties were "bought by a nearly untraceable network of LLCs, sometimes by entities that do not seem to have any legal organization or registration.”
The letter mentions one local name: Kings Mountain Mayor Scott Neisler, saying he stands to benefit from casino development through family land nearby.
Neisler told WRAL News Friday that he would welcome an investigation. He said he doesn't expect to profit from the casino and that the roughly 700 acres his family owns a few miles from the project is, for the most part, being mined and "not buildable because of the mineral rights on it."
"There's no smoke here," he said.
"This heavy-handed pressure the Cherokees have put on our state legislators by attempting to manufacture a conspiracy theory is shameful," he added.
House Speaker Tim Moore isn't mentioned in the letter, but that's part of the subtext for some signers.
Moore, R-Cleveland, is from Kings Mountain, is the county attorney for the Cleveland County Board of County Commissioners and, years ago, represented Kings Mountain landowners working with developers on the casino proposal, The Carolina Journal reported in 2014.
Moore's spokesman didn't respond Friday to a request for comment.
Some of the speaker's other business deals have raised eyebrows, including a Siler City chicken plant he bought out of bankruptcy in 2013 and later sold at more than six times the purchase price.
Moore was investigated two years ago over legislation he sponsored in 2013 that forced Durham to extend water and sewer services to a large development nearby. A company owned by that developer later hired Moore as an attorney, but Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said a review "found no misuse of public office for private gain or other wrongdoing."
The casino letter was circulated by a lobbyist for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and many of the signers are from western North Carolina, where the Cherokee tribe has stronger political influence. But some are from the Triangle area.
“That deal clearly smells of stinky money," Rep. Graig Meyer, D-Orange, said Friday.
Meyer said he couldn't point to specific allegations, saying he wants to know more about "who’s bought up the properties" near the casino site and "what are their business relationships?”
“I don’t see how this looks like anything other than some insider deal that somebody’s going to cash in on," he said.
Rep. Cynthia Ball, D-Wake, said she signed after being told "there’s some monkey business going on."
"Some under-the-table conversations … that’s the way it was described to me," Ball said. "The reason I signed the letter is, if indeed’s that true, then we need the attorney general to investigate."