TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The Kickapoo Tribe has accused its former chairman of financial malfeasance in a tribal court lawsuit.

The suit's filing on Aug. 12 comes nearly seven months after the tribal council voted to remove Clifford "Steve'' Cadue from his job as chairman, The Topeka Capital-Journal reports.

Cadue said the lawsuit is without merit and should have been handled through the tribal council, not in a courtroom.

"It shows negligence and ignorance of the laws of the Kickapoo Nation," Cadue said.

The 30-square-mile Kickapoo Tribe reservation is located just a few miles west of Horton in Brown County. Kickapoo vice chairman Fred Thomas said the lawsuit against Cadue marks the first time in tribal history that a tribal official was sued as a person, not a tribal official, for malfeasance.

At issue are minutes from a Kickapoo Tribal Council meeting on Oct. 16, 2013, which claim that tribal chairman Lester Randall made a motion to adopt a $17 million budget. According to the minutes, the motion was seconded by council member Curtis Simon and unanimously approved by a vote of 5-0.

But Randall, Simon and another person recall the issue being tabled. As a result, the tribe claims in the court filing that the meeting minutes and budget resolution ``were created fraudulently to appear as if the 2014 Kickapoo Tribal Budget was approved.''

The budget itself was crafted using dramatically inflated figures, the lawsuit claims. For example, while the tribe took in nearly $600,000 in indirect funds, the budget planned for nearly $1.7 million in indirect funds.

The budget also planned for $3.2 million in revenue from Golden Eagle Casino, despite audits and memos from the casino's general manager informing Cadue that revenue from the casino would be roughly $2 million, according to the lawsuit.

"They spent money they didn't have and they spent money without authorization,'' Thomas said.

A date for the first hearing in the case hasn't been set, Thomas and Cadue said.

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Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com