FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) – A trial starts Monday for a Navajo Nation lawmaker charged with funneling tribal funds to his children, including $1,800 in three payments for a band trip that largely was paid for by his daughter’s school and summer tuition that didn’t exist, prosecutors say.

Mel Begay has maintained he is innocent and will be cleared of the 10 criminal charges of conspiracy, and submitting or permitting a false tribal voucher. He faces the loss of his legislative seat, jail time and fines if convicted following the two-week trial in Window Rock.

“I intend to defend myself to the fullest extent of the law against these unwarranted charges,” Begay said in a statement last week.

Begay’s trial is the first of two in cases filed against 16 former and current lawmakers in the investigation of $32 million in discretionary funding meant for Navajos facing extreme hardship. The other defendants have resolved their cases through plea agreements.

Two tribal employees also were charged criminally, and prosecutors brought ethics cases against a dozen other current and former lawmakers.

Tribal law prohibits nepotism, and prosecutors say Begay and his children never disclosed their relationship. A criminal complaint charging conspiracy accuses Begay of approving $33,750 in dozens of payments to his six children from 2006 to 2010. The false voucher charges take in $5,500 of that.

Court documents outline several requests from Begay’s daughters for help with heating and utility bills, rental payments and car parts, sometimes posing as voters from Coyote Canyon, New Mexico. Prosecutors say the girls were minors at the time and weren’t responsible for those costs. The requests also exaggerated the cost of school trips by hundreds of dollars, prosecutors said.

Begay sought to have the case dismissed on numerous grounds, challenging the impartiality of Window Rock District Judge Carol Perry, the statute of limitations and the prosecutors’ authority. The courts rejected those bids.