Tribe: Lawyer provided 'faulty' tax advice MIAMI, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Florida Miccosukee Indians blame a lawyer's allegedly faulty advice on personal income tax disputes for their $25.8 million in debt to the U.S. government. The debt, owed by more than 100 members of the tribe, comprises back taxes, penalties and interest on income the tribe distributed to members from gambling profits at its West Miami-Dade casino operation, The Miami Herald reported. The tribe disclosed the debt, stemming from Internal Revenue Service audits for 2000-2005, in its malpractice lawsuit against its former lawyer, Dexter Lehtinen, who is attempting to have the suit thrown out. Lehtinen's "faulty advice" on the personal income tax disputes caused the tribe's members to incur "outrageous interest and penalties," the tribe said in court papers. The Miccosukees said for many years, Lehtinen had told tribe members they owed no individual income taxes on distributions from the gambling operation. Lihtinen, the tribe said, provided misleading advice that shows a "clear and concise picture of the fraud he committed upon tribal members in order to collect outrageous fees." The tribe says it has paid $50 million to Lehtinen's law firm, which began representing the tribe in 1992, for counsel on income tax, environmental and other issues. As a sovereign nation, the Miccosukee Tribe is not required to pay taxes but members must pay them when they receive income from gaming profits, the IRS says. Joseph Klock, the lawyer for Lehtinen -- a former U.S. attorney in Miami and the husband of U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami -- said the tribe sued his client because it needed a "bogey man" to pay for the mistakes of its political leaders, who fired the lawyer in 2010 after a change in tribal leadership. "Those folks left him high and dry," Klock said. Their case is absolutely ridiculous.