Tag Archives: Vermont DFR

Could Vermont’s EB-5 Regional Center wither away?

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Of course it’s hard to match the impact of the original headlines from Stenger & Quiros’ Jay Peak EB-5 scandal — but two resulting events, largely unnoticed by comparison, will soon impact Vermont’s EB-5 Regional Center.

buriedEB5 3The first change was set underway when, to prevent future “Ponzi-style” EB-5 scandals, Vermont shifted financial oversight responsibility from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD)  to the Department of Financial Regulation (DFR). The focus jumped from wooing overseas investors with almost full-time EB-5 boosterism to tightening up financial oversight.

Along with this shift came legislative adjustments allowing the DFR to control charges and enact new fees for those participants in the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center. Additionally the DFR was given authority to invoice EB-5 developers for its oversight and regulation. Moves were also made to rein in the ACCD’s taxpayer support for advertising, out-of-state  travel, and other promotional work through the Regional Center on behalf of EB-5 developers.

And recently Peak Resorts /Mt. Snow surprised top state officials  by announcing the formation of their own independent EB-5 center. The resort had to struggle with waiting on a payment for an ongoing project from their EB-5 investor funds held in escrow by the state as a guarantee.

By setting up their own EB-5 program, the out-of-state resort owners can happily gather-up their foreign funds through the investment-for-visa immigration program, independent of the Vermont-run EB-5 Regional Center with whom they formerly were partnered.

In fact, Mt. Snow Resorts probably has an inside track on this approach, should it become a trend for other EB-5 developers here in Vermont. In 2015 they hired the director of the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center — grabbing Brent Raymond directly out of the revolving door. As director, Raymond’s duties for the state included both promotional activities and monitoring EB-5 program compliance under state and federal financial regulations. Quite the catch.

So, the Jay Peak financial scandal has forced Vermont’s Regional Center EB-5 Program to change their regulatory responsibilities and funding — and perhaps most importantly, the state-run monopoly on EB-5 regulation and oversight is now threatened. It might even spell extinction rather than evolution for the Vermont ACCD’s Regional Center.

However, here and nationally, independent EB-5 foreign investment-for-visa programs are bound to stick around. Even in the midst of the new President’s immigration crackdowns, access to large chunks of quickly attainable legal foreign investment money is tough for any developer to deny themselves. You could even say it is almost impossible to resist — one New York finance broker said the EB-5 immigrant money racket was so good “[It] sounds like legalized crack cocaine.”

After all, even Donald Trump is tapping EB-5 funds for one or more of his gang’s projects. If it’s good for the President, it must be good for the country, right? … Right? … Amiright?

EB-5 “ponzi” brokerage Raymond James: Flashing blue lights in the rear view mirror

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The Vermont Commissioner of the Department Financial Regulation, Susan Donegan, has announced a $5.95 million agreement with Raymond James Associates, a Florida-based securities broker-dealer. brokerwhacking

This is the brokerage firm implicated in the massive Jay Peak EB-5 ponzi scheme allegedly perpetrated by partners Bill Stenger and Ariel Quiros. The pair face a variety of federal and state lawsuits and are accused of misappropriating $200 million EB-5 immigrant investor economic development funds.

Federal and State lawsuits allege the brokerage house broke securities regulations by arranging illegal access to EB-5 immigrant investor funds.  Quiros’ ready access to these funds played a pivotal role in the complicated illegal eight-year scheme to flow money away from the mandated EB-5 targeted development at Jay Peak, Burke Mountain Resorts (formerly Q-Burke) and other NEK EB-5 job creating projects.

In a press release announcing the settlement Vermont DFR Commissioner Donegan explained: This agreement provides for the payment of $4.5 million to the appointed federal receiver in the case SEC v. Quiros for the purpose of reimbursing possible claims by investors. Additionally, $200,000 will be paid to DFR for the cost of the investigation and $1.25 million will be paid to Vermont’s general fund as an administrative penalty.

The broker agreed to the settlement terms but is not required to admit to or deny the department’s allegations. DFR’s Donegan has said the brokerage had “inadequate written supervisory procedures” for collateralization of margin loans. The Commissioner pointedly notes the firm ultimately profited from the Jay Peak EB-5 fund transactions.

Well, the $5.95 million payout that Vermont DFR got may sound like tidy sum money, but look at it this way: it is less than what Raymond James pays their CEO Paul Reilly. His total pay package for 2015 is estimated to be $7.8 million (up 37.7%) and all four top executives at the firm made over three million each in 2015. Last year the company recorded an annual income of $502.1 million, up 7 percent, not exactly proportional to the boost its CEO got.

The firm also has a long trail of fines paid out over the years. Lax supervisory procedures, such as those mentioned by Commissioner Donegan, appear to be a feature — not an aberration — at the brokerage house Ariel Quiros chose to help build his complex web of alleged financial fraud.

In 2007 Raymond James was fined $2.75 million by the National Association of Securities Dealers for failing to maintain an adequate supervisory system to oversee the sales activities of over 1,000 producing branch managers working in offices throughout the United States.

And in May 2016 the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.(FINRA) fined them a record-setting $17 million for widespread compliance failures in the brokerage firm’s anti-money laundering programs.

(FINRA, the Wall Street funded industry watchdog, is the successor to the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. [NASD]. It is a non-governmental organization that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets.)

 Raymond James Associates reportedly is pleased that a guilt-free settlement was reached with Vermont DFR. No doubt they are happy to be clear of this latest little bit of unpleasantness — and it must seem a bargain price at only $5.95 million! moneygo1

The amount will likely not satisfy the EB-5 immigrant investors seeking green cards, and it won’t do a thing to put the NEK economy back together again.

The settlement is simply the cost of doing business for a brokerage firm like Raymond James — on the level of a speeding ticket for the rest of us. And there is no admission of “wrong doing,” so no points accumulated on their brokerage “driving licenses.”

Given the firm’s history, there’s no evidence that such a penalty will even make its managers wary enough to look in their rear-view mirrors for flashing blue lights.