The tax deadline in Newport was 5 p.m. Tuesday, and no payment arrived to cover the bill for the parcels in the city that are associated with developer Bill Stenger, of Newport, and Miami businessman Ariel Quiros.
In Newport the total delinquent amount for the properties is $55,012, the city clerk and treasurer, James Johnson, said Thursday.
That figure includes $22,651 for the properties on Main Street that had been slated for a four-story development proposed by Stenger and Quiros known as the Renaissance Block. It was to feature retail and office space as well as a hotel.
The site is now referred to as the “hole in the ground,” because buildings were razed but work stalled before construction began.
Also, $32,361 was due to the city for properties on Lake Road where the two developers had planned to convert the former Bogner plant site into a biomedical research center that never materialized. Federal regulators have termed that project, called AnC Bio Vermont, “nearly a complete fraud.”
The delinquent payments in Newport come on the heels of missed tax deadlines in Burke and Jay over recent weeks for other properties connected to the fraud case.
Federal and state lawsuits filed in April against Stenger and Quiros allege the two men misused $200 million raised from immigrant investors through the federal EB-5 visa program.
Stenger is the former CEO and president at Jay Peak. Quiros is the owner of Q Resorts, a company that includes Jay Peak.
Michael Goldberg, the court-appointed receiver for properties associated with the fraud allegations, could not be reached Thursday for comment.
He has said in previous interviews regarding late tax payments in Burke and Jay that he expected to pay them with proceeds from a settlement with Citibank, which he planned to receive sometime this week or early next week.
Last month, a federal judge approved the $13.3 million settlement Goldberg reached with Citibank stemming from a line of credit the bank extended to Quiros in March 2015.
Goldberg has also said he expected to present legal arguments to local officials seeking to waive the late fees that come with missing a tax payment.
In Burke, home to the recently opened Burke Mountain Hotel and Conference Center, the town is owed a total of $440,991 in unpaid taxes and fees.
In Jay, where several of the EB-5 funded projects at the heart of the case against Stenger and Quiros are located, including Hotel Jay, the unpaid taxes and fees total about $2 million.
Altogether, the unpaid taxes associated with the fraud case in the three communities are roughly $2.5 million.
In Newport, taxes are due twice a year, in November and May. Tax payments for the Main Street and Lake Road parcels were received in May, Johnson said.
As for an 8 percent late-payment penalty, he said that is added only for missing the May tax deadline.
“It’s 1 percent (interest) per month up until May 15, and on May 16 we put another 8 percent on it,” Johnson said.
He said no one contacted him about the possibility of paying the taxes late for the Newport properties connected to the fraud case.
“Very few people do that,” he said. “If they’re going to be late, they’re going to be late.”
