Lawyers for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission submitted a filing Thursday in federal court in Florida announcing the proposed settlement in their case against Quiros, a Miami businessman who also owned Jay Peak and Burke Mountain ski resorts.
The filing does not specify how much, if anything, the parties have agreed that Quiros will pay in penalties and damages. Instead, SEC attorney Robert Levenson wrote to the court asking to stay the case so he can get the stamp of approval on the deal from those who oversee the commission.
Levenson wrote that, “as a result of mediation and ensuing discussions,” the commission and Quiros had agreed on “a proposed settlement of the remaining issues in this action that requires approval by the SEC Commissioners.”
“If the Commissioners approve Quiros’ signed settlement agreement, it will end the litigation against Quiros,” Levenson wrote.
Attorneys for the parties took part in a mediation session in late October.
Neither SEC lawyers nor attorneys for Quiros have disclosed how much they believe he should pay to bring the federal case against him to resolution. In May 2016 attorneys for the SEC said that figure should be as high as $191.8 million. His attorney, however, has said it should be lower, without specifying a dollar amount.
SEC attorneys in this week’s filing have asked federal Judge Darrin P. Gayles for 90 days to take the settlement proposal to the commission for its review.
“If the Commissioners approve the settlement, we will promptly file the appropriate settlement paperwork requesting the Court to enter a Final Judgment against Quiros that would fully resolve the matter against him,” the filing states.
Levenson couldn’t be reached Thursday for comment.
Melissa Visconti, Quiros’ attorney, said Thursday she couldn’t discuss the details of the proposed settlement.
“The terms are all still confidential,” she said, pending approval.
The parties were close to an agreement after that late October mediation session, Visconti said. “We really had to go back and forth on some of the details, but the heart of it came out of the mediation.”
The attorney said she was hopeful the commission would endorse the deal.
“It’s really a good deal all around. I see no reason why they wouldn’t,” Visconti said.
The SEC sued Quiros and Bill Stenger, Jay Peak’s former CEO and president, in April 2016. That filing, along with a separate case brought by state regulators at nearly the same time, accused the two men of misusing $200 million of the more than $350 million they raised through the federal EB-5 program for immigrant investors.
The SEC lawsuit against Quiros also accuses him of looting $50 million for personal expenses, such as property taxes and the purchase of a luxury condo in New York City.
The money the developers raised through the EB-5 visa program was meant to fund a series of upgrades at Jay Peak, build a hotel at Burke Mountain, and pay for two projects that never got off the ground in Newport.
This summer, Quiros reached a partial settlement in the SEC case, agreeing not to contest the allegations against him as contained in the 52-count filing. He is not admitting or denying wrongdoing.
That left only the question of how much Quiros would pay in penalties and damages from “ill-gotten” gains.
Even if the SEC case resolves, it wouldn’t mean the end of the litigation for Quiros. The state lawsuit remains pending, as does civil action brought by investors that includes a proposed class-action case in federal court in Vermont.
Stenger settled with the SEC in September 2015, also neither admitting nor denying the allegations. As part of that deal, he still faces the possibility of a monetary penalty, to be determined based on his level of cooperation and ability to pay.
