Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Cate argues that bilked foreign investors suing the state should not have access to documents provided to attorneys in a criminal case, calling a move by the lawyer seeking them an “end-run.”
Attorney Russell Barr is asking Judge Geoffrey Crawford to reconsider a decision to keep under wraps documents, including grand jury testimony and witness statements, that could reveal more about the Shumlin administration’s role in the largest fraud in the state’s history.
Prosecutors asked and a federal judge agreed to block the release of documents, including grand jury testimony, in their criminal case against Bill Stenger, Jay Peak’s former CEO, and sought by subpoena from an attorney for the bilked foreign investors.
No one’s been named yet, but draft purchase agreements have been submitted for the northern Vermont ski resort, according to the court-appointed receiver overseeing Jay Peak.
Bill Stenger, Jay Peak’s former CEO and president, has reached an agreement with prosecutors on evidence for his sentencing. The deal nixes a hearing where current and past state leaders were to take the stand to face questions about their role in the massive fraud.
Bill Stenger, Jay Peak’s former CEO and president, is trying to avoid going to prison. His past business partners are ready to take the stand against him as prosecutors seek to show that he was more than a “bystander” in a scheme that bilked hundreds of foreign investors.
VTDigger founder and editor Anne Galloway discusses the latest revelations in the unfolding saga, including court records that show how the state feared its own culpability in the fraud.
Roughly 600 pages of records unsealed in federal court last week provide new details about the lengths to which Vermont state officials went in concealing the Northeast Kingdom fraud from investors, the public and the press.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicole Cate and Paul Van de Graaf alleged in a court filing Tuesday that the former Jay Peak president and CEO was “not just a bystander to the fraud that occurred, but an integral part of the sweeping fraud scheme.”
“These documents appear to shine a light on the critical question of when the State became aware of the largest financial fraud in Vermont’s history,” according to the amicus brief, which the news organization filed Wednesday.
State regulators and the Vermont Attorney General’s Office hid the fraud from investors and the public for 13 months before the SEC shut down the Jay Peak projects, according to a suit filed in federal court this week.
Bill Stenger admitted Friday to a charge of submitting a false document to the government in connection with the failed AnC Bio Vermont project in Newport. He faces up to five years in prison at a later sentencing hearing.
Bill Stenger, former CEO and president of the Jay Peak ski resort in northern Vermont, is expected to enter his guilty plea Friday. Prosecutors can ask for a prison sentence of up to five years for Stenger, the maximum for the charge. His attorneys can argue for a lesser sentence.
Michael Goldberg, who for the past five years has been the court-appointed receiver for two northern Vermont ski areas, has been appointed by a judge in Florida to take over financial decision-making for the Champlain Towers South condo association.