Tuesday, April 26, 2016
They heard from dozens of prominent businesspeople, architects, construction executives and even a few inveterate environmental activists, who exhorted them to go ahead and sign what’s called a pre-development agreement, spelling out the public and private responsibilities for the project.
Tags: Burlington Town Center , Don Sinex , Burlington city council , Miro Weinberger , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 25, 2016
But there’s one top pol who has little walking-back to do.
Doug Hoffer, the Democratic and Progressive state auditor, has long been critical of the federal EB-5 investor visa program, which the developers used to attract more than $350 million in foreign financing. Under EB-5, those who invest $500,000 in certain economic development projects are eligible for a green card; if they can later show the investment generated 10 jobs, they and their families can become permanent residents of the U.S.
In a March 2012 interview with Seven Days, most of which was never published, Hoffer questioned the program’s moral underpinnings, its economic utility and its oversight structure. At the time, he called EB-5 “offensive on some levels” because it allows those with means to bypass the nation’s restrictive immigration procedures.
“It’s a policy that rewards wealth with citizenship,” he said. “They don’t need to wait in line like everybody else.”
Tags: Doug Hoffer , EB-5 , Jay Peak , Northeast Kingdom , Image , Web Only
Thursday, April 21, 2016
The Vermont House is scheduled to debate a resolution Friday calling on Gov. Peter Shumlin to release a batch of emails his legal counsel sought to delete earlier this month. The governor's critics have suggested the request was prompted by a looming crackdown on two Northeast Kingdom developers with close ties to Shumlin — a charge his administration has adamantly denied.
Rep. Chris Pearson (P-Burlington), who heads the House Progressive caucus, says there's an easy way to put to rest any lingering questions.
"I agree with a whole lot of Vermonters that something seems very fishy here," he said. "But I'm not asserting anything. I'm saying: Show us the emails and prove it to us."
Tags: Chris Pearson , Peter Shumlin , Scott Coriell , Shap Smith , Alex MacLean , Bill Stenger , Ariel Quiros , EB-5 , Jay Peak , Q Burke , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
One of them is his wife.
Soon after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Attorney General Bill Sorrell announced civil charges last week against developers Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger, U.S. Attorney Eric Miller said his office would explore potential criminal charges.
"We have been aware of the state and SEC civil enforcement efforts made public today," Miller said in a written statement last Thursday. "My office has been conducting, and continues to conduct, an investigation designed to determine whether or not there have been violations of federal criminal law in connection with EB-5 projects in the Northeast Kingdom."
Federal and state officials have said that Quiros and Stenger defrauded foreign investors of $200 million in what they call a "Ponzi-like" scheme. The two men used the federal EB-5 investor visa program to raise more than $350 million for a series of development projects at Jay Peak Resort, Q Burke Mountain Resort and elsewhere in the Kingdom.
Tags: EB-5 , Jay Peak , Q Burke , Peter Shumlin , Patrick Leahy , Eric Miller , Liz Miller , Elizabeth Miller , Image , Web Only
They still need City Council approval, which they hope to get by May 2. City Council President Jane Knodell, who was in the audience at Wednesday's press conference, suggested the council may need more time before weighing in.
Sinex, who bought the downtown mall in 2013, plans to spend $200 million to turn it into a mix of offices, retail stores, restaurants and up to 274 housing units. He announced Wednesday that he has a letter of intent from Champlain College to lease up to 110 of those units to its students.
Under the agreement, the city would spend up to $21.9 million in public infrastructure improvements, funded through tax increment financing. As part of that work, two streets currently segmented by the mall — St. Paul and Pine — would be restored. Sidewalks, streetlights and below-ground utilities would also be added.
Tags: Burlington Town Center , Miro Weinberger , Burlington city council , Don Sinex , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Developers are supposed to pay the fees themselves, Moulton said. “We were afraid the money was coming from investors,” she said.
The decision was made about nine to 12 months ago as state officials’ suspicions about the projects were escalating, Moulton told the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.
Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against Stenger and Quiros in federal court, claiming they had misused millions of dollars raised from foreign investors through the federal EB-5 investor visa program. The program provides green cards to foreign nationals who invest at least $500,000 in approved economic development projects.
Tags: EB-5 , Pat Moulton , Bill Stenger , Ariel Quiros , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 18, 2016
"To conflate them is absolutely incorrect and inaccurate," Shumlin chief of staff Darren Springer told reporters in a conference room on the fifth floor of Montpelier's Pavilion State Office Building.
As Seven Days reported earlier Monday, the administration has been on the defensive since late last week, when VTDigger.org revealed that Shumlin legal counsel Sarah London had requested the deletion of email accounts belonging to five former staffers. Among them was former deputy chief of staff Alex MacLean, who subsequently worked as a contract project manager for Jay Peak Resort. The resort's owners, Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger, were accused last Thursday by federal and state authorities of perpetrating a $200 million fraud in the Northeast Kingdom.
At Monday's briefing, Springer and his colleagues reiterated that any emails related to Quiros, Stenger and their various endeavors would have been protected from deletion had London's request been granted. That's because Attorney General Bill Sorrell ordered relevant agencies last October to protect all documents related to the state's investigation of the men.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Galbraith launched a stinging attack against the leader of his own party Monday, questioning the role Gov. Peter Shumlin played in an economic development initiative that federal prosecutors say was riddled with fraud.
During a noon press conference in front of the Statehouse, the former state senator and ambassador called for the creation of an independent commission to investigate the state's oversight and promotion of the Northeast Kingdom projects. He questioned the veracity of Shumlin's public statements on the matter and said Vermonters wanted to know the extent of his involvement.
“In short, what did the governor know? When did he know it? And what did he do about it?” Galbraith said, paraphrasing the late U.S. senator Howard Baker at the height of the Watergate hearings.
The candidate's comments came four days after the Securities and Exchange Commission and Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell unveiled civil charges against Northeast Kingdom developers Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger. Authorities say the pair misappropriated more than $200 million in foreign investment intended for construction projects at Jay Peak, in downtown Newport and elsewhere in the region.
Tags: Peter Galbraith , Peter Shumlin , Jay Peak , EB-5 , Bill Stenger , Ariel Quiros , Image , Web Only
VTDigger.org's Anne Galloway reported late Friday that Shumlin's legal counsel, Sarah London, asked an information technology employee on April 8 to purge the state's servers of emails belonging to five former staffers. One of the ex-employees was former deputy chief of staff Alex MacLean, who left the governor's office in January 2013 to work as a contract project manager for Jay Peak Resort.
Tags: Peter Shumlin , Jim Condos , Tanya Marshall , Bill Stenger , Ariel Quiros , EB-5 , Jay Peak , emails , records , Vermont state archives , Image , Web Only
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger, who allegedly misappropriated $200 million worth of foreign investment, donated tens of thousands of dollars to political players in Vermont over the past five years, according to early and likely incomplete estimates. Several of those recipients appeared at investor-recruitment events staged by the developers outside the country and advocated for the EB-5 investor visa program, through which Quiros and Stenger funded their development projects.
Tags: Bill Stenger , Ariel Quiros , political donations , campaign finance , Peter Shumlin , Patrick Leahy , Peter Welch , Bruce Lisman , Peter Galbraith , Image , Web Only