[A]ttorneys for Jay Peak developer Ariel Quiros will be getting $100,000 to cover their latest fees and costs in a massive alleged investor fraud case in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
Melissa Visconti, a Miami-based lawyer representing Quiros, submitted a recent filing seeking approval for the release of $100,000 from a nearly $1 million Internal Revenue Service refund her client received to cover fees and costs of his defense team.
A judge approved that request Wednesday.
Quiros, a Miami businessman, had his assets frozen when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in April 2016 leveled civil allegations of investor fraud involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
The SEC case against Quiros has been stayed since earlier this month when the parties reached a proposed settlement over the damages and penalties Quiros will pay. Though the two sides say they have reached agreement on that figure, it has not yet been made public pending approval of the members of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Quiros earlier this summer had agreed not to contest the allegations against him in the SEC filing, neither admitting or denying them.
Neither Visconti or SEC attorney Robert Levenson could be reached Wednesday for comment.
Visconti in her latest motion asked the judge to modify the asset freeze to cover not only the $100,000 in fees and defense costs, but also to continue the $15,000 a monthly living allowance for her client in January.
She requested that $15,000 also come from Quiros’ IRS refund check, which is currently held in a trust account. Quiros had been approved by the judge for that monthly living allowance for nearly the entire time the case has been against him.
Visconti also wrote in her filing that neither the SEC attorneys nor Michael Goldberg, the court-appointed receiver in the case over the assets, opposed the motion.
Earlier this year Visconti submitted similar requests to modify the assets freeze in the case to permit payments of defense attorneys fees and costs. Those previous requests approved by the judge totaled $275,000.
Visconti became Quiros’ counsel in March, after he fired his initial legal team. Those lawyers alleged that Quiros left them with a $3 million in unpaid bills for fees and costs for representing him from early 2016 until their firing in March.
In September, the judge granted a motion to modify the asset freeze by the former legal team for Quiros. That move allows those attorneys access to as much as $1 million from Quiros’ insurance company, Ironshore Indemnity, to cover at least a share of their fees.
Quiros and his past business partner, Bill Stenger, former CEO and president of Jay Peak, allegedly misused $200 million of more than $350 million they raised through the federal EB-5 visa program to fund development projects. Those projects include massive upgrades at Jay Peak, a new hotel at Burke ski resort and two other failed efforts in Newport.
Attorneys for the SEC also say in their lawsuit that Quiros looted $50 million to pay for his own expenses, including a luxury condo in New York City.
Stenger has already settled his case with the SEC, agreeing to cooperate with SEC attorneys.
A case against the two men brought by state regulators in Vermont remains pending, as do several other lawsuits brought by investors.
A criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Burlington is pending.
