Editor’s note: This commentary is by Tony Sutton, approved as spokesman for 20 of the 35 Jay Peak Phase 1 EB-5 investors.
The Jay Peak Phase 1 EB-5 investors are appalled by, and object to, Ms. Patricia Moulton’s Oct. 10, 2014, letter to the editor and board of VTDigger. Rather than dedicate the Vermont Regional Center’s resources, and her time and energy, to helping the Phase 1 investors get to the bottom of exactly what has transpired at Jay Peak, and what really happened to their investments under her agency’s watch, Ms. Moulton is far more preoccupied with publicly resuscitating the tarnished reputations of her agency, her subordinates, Mr. Stenger and Jay Peak.
Specifically, and in her recent letter, Ms. Moulton wastes no time rushing to endorse Mr. Stenger’s unilateral and contemporaneously undisclosed seizure and conversion of the investors’ $17.5 million equity interest in the Tram Haus Project … into unsecured promissory notes that, contrary to what Jay Peak has publicly stated, are without any form of guarantee.
If Ms. Moulton is genuinely concerned with the Vermont EB-5 program’s well-being, she should consider devoting her time to ensuring that the investors — and the certified forensic accountant whom the Phase 1 investor group have retained to investigate this matter — have complete and unfettered access to the basic and necessary financial information from Jay Peak …
Whatever her personal opinions might be, there is no doubt that what Ms. Moulton innocently characterized as “an action taken by Bill Stenger,” in fact, resulted in the Phase 1 investors being completely divested of their multimillion dollar ownership interest. Ms. Moulton is well aware that Mr. Stenger’s conduct is the object of an active and ongoing investigation and for Ms. Moulton to prejudge and endorse Mr. Stenger’s action, by declaring to the public that “Mr. Stenger’s action was not in conflict with any federal law or regulations enacted for the EB-5 program” is the height of self-serving irresponsibility.
Is Ms. Moulton a judge, prosecutor, or otherwise possessed of the expertise required to so confidently opine on and adjudicate such matters (particularly without the benefit of any state audit of Jay Peak’s EB-5 program, and without the Vermont Regional Center’s having ever received or reviewed any of the quarterly reports Jay Peak was obligated to provide)? The answer, quite obviously, is that Ms. Moulton is not and, in this regard, her public exoneration simply adds insult to the grave injury which years of the Vermont Regional Center’s idleness and failed oversight have already inflicted on the state’s EB-5 investors, who invested in Vermont’s EB-5 program in good faith and only because of the Vermont Regional Center’s assurances of the program’s integrity.
If Ms. Moulton is genuinely concerned with the Vermont EB-5 program’s well-being, she should consider devoting her time to ensuring that the investors — and the certified forensic accountant whom the Phase 1 investor group have retained to investigate this matter — have complete and unfettered access to the basic and necessary financial information from Jay Peak, rather than penning lengthy editorials which attempt to gloss over and excuse her, Brent Raymond’s and the Vermont Regional Center’s glaring failures to date. Either way, it is at this point clear that the only thing sustaining Stenger is the state and its functionaries who, at every turn, appear bent on doing everything in their power to justify, excuse, defend and explain away his conduct.
We are but the first group of investors and have been treated with utter contempt. Later investors should beware.
