HELENA, Mont. (AP) – Three leaders of an online lending company owned by Montana’s Chippewa Cree Tribe say tribal immunity from lawsuits extends to them as individuals.

Plain Green CEO Joel Rosette and board members Ted Whitford and Tim McInerney  asked a federal judge Tuesday to dismiss a civil case filed against them by two Vermont women.

The women are seeking to certify a class-action suit alleging the Plain Green officers are predatory lenders who are violating trade and consumer laws.

Rosette, Whitford and McInerney say the women name them, instead of Plain Green, as defendants to avoid the sovereign immunity doctrine that protects Native American tribes from many judicial proceedings.

They say sovereign immunity applies to them when they are performing their duties for the company, which is an arm of the tribe.