This story by Caleigh Cross was published by the Stowe Reporter on July 19.
[S]TOWE — Von Trapp Brewing and Bierhall won’t have to refund investors who didn’t get their green cards through Vermont’s EB-5 Regional Center, which was shut down this month by federal authorities, brewery officials say.
Sam von Trapp, whose company is stuck in the middle of the EB-5 muddle, hopes it won’t have to find another EB-5 center to work with.
In a blistering report, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services notified state officials July 3 that the program must be shut down immediately as a result of the state’s failure to stop the largest fraud in the history of the national EB-5 program, which was perpetrated by the developers of Jay Peak Resort.
The EB-5 program, established in 1990 by Congress, allows immigrant investors who invest at least $500,000 to obtain permanent resident cards if their investments in U.S. projects result in the creation or preservation of at least 10 full-time jobs.
Von Trapp Brewing and Bierhall used investments from 40 immigrant investors.
Von Trapp wouldn’t say how much funding was used from those immigrant investors, though a 2013 Wall Street Journal article states Johannes von Trapp had a goal to raise $22 million from 44 investors by June of that year.
By March 2013, the brewery had raised $2.5 million from five immigrant investors, according to the Journal.
More than 50 jobs were created during construction and operation of the brewery and the Bierhall, Sam von Trapp said, although only brewery jobs count toward the green-card program.
Von Trapp said he’s seen no indication that his company will need to refund any investors.
He doesn’t know how many of those investors have received their permanent resident status, but says most of them have achieved “early levels of approval.”
“We’ve had an effective project, and our people are not at risk, but it is going to be a distraction and an annoyance if we indeed have to move to a different regional center,” von Trapp said.
Von Trapp supports the state’s appeal of the federal decision to shut down the regional center.
“As the appeals by the regional center will take some time, Trapp will continue to administer its program as planned,” said Walter Frame, executive vice president of Trapp Family Lodge, this week.
