VTDigger exposed the fraud at Jay Peak Resort five years ago. But for our reporting, the developers likely would have continued looting foreign investors for years.
In May, indictments were handed down in a dramatic hearing in U.S. Federal Court.
Federal prosecutors charged developers Ariel Quiros, Bill Stenger and two other men with money laundering in the biggest investor fraud in the state’s history. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused Quiros and Stenger of misusing $200 million in EB-5 monies.
The fraud was perpetrated under the noses of state officials. In September, the federal government permanently shut down the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center partly in response to VTDigger’s reporting on the state’s cozy relationship with the developers.
In an ongoing, two year battle over records in the case, we sued (again) for documents in January and after months of legal wrangling we were told by the Vermont Attorney General’s office that the communications of a former director of the center had been destroyed.
Thousands of pages of records in the EB-5 scandal have yet to be released and a half dozen lawsuits remain in play. It could be years before the full story comes out.
VTDigger has been on the case since 2014, and we stay on it because of you.
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With gratitude,
Anne Galloway
Executive Director and Editor of VTDigger
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