[M]ore than 400 defrauded EB-5 immigrant investors in the Jay Peak projects do not have permanent green cards, and some could face deportation if the federal government doesn’t take action soon.
The temporary green cards issued to investors are set to expire in the coming months, and many are worried they could be asked to leave the United States. None of the foreign investors have heard from USCIS about whether they can remain in the country. About 300 of the 700 foreign investors in Jay Peak have received permanent residency status.
The U.S. Customs and Immigration Service has ignored requests for meetings and telephone conversations with state officials and Michael Goldberg, the court-appointed receiver for the Jay Peak projects.
Last week Patricia Moulton, the secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, and Goldberg went up the bureaucratic food chain and sent a formal letter to Jeh Johnson, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Loretta Lynch, the U.S. Attorney General, asking them to intervene on behalf of the investors.
They asked Johnson for a face-to-face meeting to discuss “the urgent issues facing the victims of the Jay Peak fraud.”
Goldberg and Moulton told the head of Homeland Security that USCIS has been “non-responsive” to requests from the state “to resolve outstanding issues in a manner that allows investors the opportunity to achieve green card status.”
“These victims are completely innocent of any wrongdoing and have fully attempted to comply with the law, yet they are in jeopardy of being further victimized by the inaction of the USCIS,” Moulton and Goldberg wrote.
The fate of the immigrant investors, Goldberg and Moulton told Johnson, is “a matter of national interest and equitable treatment for immigrant EB-5 investors facing deportation in the alleged Jay Peak fraud case.”
USCIS prefers all communication in writing, Moulton said, and a June 24 response to the state she said “felt like a form letter to me, it’s not the kind of response we’re looking for.”
“USCIS is an interesting agency,” Moulton said. “You can’t speak with a human, you have to file a letter through the general mailbox.”
The state and the SEC receiver on May 24 formally requested a meeting with Nicholas Colucci, chief of the Immigrant Investor program at USCIS, to help resolve “the urgent policy implications surrounding the unique issues facing the Jay Peak EB-5 investors and their attainment of green cards.”
In response, Colucci sent a letter on June 24, explaining how his agency adjudicates EB-5 petitions. He referred Moulton and Goldberg to the USCIS website.
USCIS has refused to answer questions about the immigration status of investors who in exchange for permanent green cards put up $500,000 each in projects at the ski resort, Burke Mountain Resort and a biomedical plant in Newport. Each half million dollar investment must create 10 jobs under USCIS rules.
The developments are at the center of a Securities and Exchange Commission fraud case against Bill Stenger, the former CEO of Jay Peak Resort, and his partner, Miami businessman Ariel Quiros, which was filed on April 12 in the U.S. District Court of South Florida in Miami. The two men are accused of misusing $200 million out of $350 million in immigrant investor funds. Of that amount, Quiros systematically stole more than $55 million, according to SEC documents. The state of Vermont has also sued the developers on 15 counts of securities fraud.
Because the Stateside condo development and AnC Bio Vermont were not completed, not all of the promised jobs were created.
The SEC receiver and the state have asked USCIS to consider several ways to give the immigrant investors residency in spite of the shortfall in job creation. First off, they requested that the federal agency waive the job creation requirement and issue permanent green cards to the defrauded Jay Peak investors under an “extraordinary” circumstances clause.
Another option the state and the receiver presented is the possible pooling of “excess” jobs created by the first five phases of the Jay Peak Resort development under a “one-project” umbrella. In this scenario, the additional jobs would be counted toward the unfinished AnC Bio and Stateside projects.
Goldberg and Moulton argue that the Jay Peak projects have “substantially met” the job creation targets required by USCIS for the issuance of green cards.
The SEC receiver also requested permission to change the business plans for the Stateside condo project so that he can finish the development, which has been only partly constructed.
Sen. Patrick Leahy’s office has been actively involved in immigration issues and has also tried to arrange a meeting between officials at USCIS and state officials — to no avail. Leahy is a personal friend of Stenger’s and helped to promote the Jay Peak projects overseas. The senator has said he has felt “betrayed” by the alleged fraud revelations.
In an interview last week, Leahy said he wished the state officials had told him they wanted to meet with Secretary Johnson who happened to appear at an oversight hearing on the Orlando shooting held by the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 30 — the same day Goldberg and Moulton sent their letter to the secretary. “I would have asked him at the hearing,” Leahy said. “We were going over all kinds of things.”
