An eager reader goes hunting for information about Mike Rounds's now notorious EB-5 visa investment program and finds a press release on a Chinese forum, issued exactly four years ago today:
世贸通：美国南州电厂项目四大优势强力保证
2010年10月13日 07:14美通社【大 中 小】 【打印】 共有评论0条
北京2010年10月13日电 /美通社亚洲/ -- 继顺利发布美国投资移民“爱达荷州金矿项目”后，为庆祝世贸通荣获南达科他州区域中心中国首席代理资格，并在中国首发美国南州电厂项目，世贸通隆重推出优惠月活动，并将召开“世贸通南州电厂项目中国首发会”，敬请莅临！世贸通南州电厂项目中国首发会预定电话：010-5979 9665400-700-3979时间地点：
北京：2010年10月16日 下午2点半 国贸饭店一层B厅（国贸桥西北角），
深圳：2010年10月17日 下午2点半 圣廷苑酒店二楼多功能3厅（华强北路）。
演讲嘉宾：
Joop Bollen，南达科他州区域中心主席。
Maurice Berez，前美国移民局EB-5办公室主任、南达科他州区域中心首席顾问。
JaMEs Park，美国专业移民律师、南达科他州指定首席律师事务所。
Joe Jin，南达科他州区域中心亚太总裁。
项目简介：建设位于美国南达科他州布法罗岭的风力发电厂项目。
享受福利：全家绿卡，父母享美国福利，子女就读世界名校。
美国南达科他州电厂项目
美国南州西班牙电厂项目用以建设和经营位于美国南达科他州的布法罗岭风力发电项目，以满足美国对可再生能源不断增长的需求。2009年，奥巴马总统在爱荷华州牛顿市演讲时表示，至2030年，风力发电将占美国电力产量的20%，这对于环境和经济，都有巨大好处。美国政府将采取激励措施，3年内使美国的可再生能源产量翻一番。在此背景下，为了满足其成员负载增长的需求，并且满足国家可再生能源投资组合标准（RPS）的要求，必须增加可再生能源的发电产能。
项目四大优势强力保证
优势一：政府优势
南达科他州区域中心是属于政府机构，而非私人机构，隶属于南达科他州政府，由州经济发展部直接管理。依托政府优势，保障项目的正常运行。
优势二：就业优势
布法罗岭电力项目采用第三代就业方式，无需考虑直接就业人数，美国移民局批准南达科他州区域中心采用RIMS-Ⅱ就业计算模式，依据投资额来计算EB-5就业人数，每100万美元投资额可创造5.4309个间接就业机会，则该项目可创造2199个就业机会，但该项仅招募200人，2年后条件有保障。
优势三：投资优势
该项目直接贷款给具有107年历史，世界最大的再生能源的跨国集团，该集团是拥有1100亿美元资产的伦敦上市公司，这是美国EB-5法案立法以来，最具还款实力的项目，保障投资款五年后全返。
优势四：审批优势
南达科他州电厂项目是一个成熟的项目，审批速度快。2009年世贸通与南达科他州区域中心联合推出的北新电厂项目招募的219个申请人，全部审批通过，该洲超过600个以上成功的I-526（投资移民）申请，没有一个被驳回，成功率高达100%。负责布法罗岭电力项目的南州区域中心首席顾问Maurice是美国移民局EB-5办公室前主任，该项目将由Maurice亲自为客户审批申请资料，确保申请100%通过。
美移民史上还款能力最强的项目
由评级为 A 级的母公司，即西班牙伊维尔德罗拉集团出具的本票作为五年还款担保。担保形式为企业本票。西班牙伊维尔德罗拉集团的总资产达到1100亿美元，是伦敦证券交易所上市公司，交易代码为 ORD-SHS。伊维尔德罗拉集团的经营状况良好，国际三大信贷评级机构都给予了极高的信用评级，证明了该公司良好的经营状况和还款能力。
Don't get excited: "ORD-SHS" was the Iberdrola Group's symbol on the London Stock Exchange.
According to Google Translate and a reader-vouched Chinese speaker, the press release comes from a Chinese company calling itself World Trade Tong (tong here means expert). WTT announces two conferences being held by South Dakota Regional Center representatives Joop Bollen, Maurice Berez, and James Park to seek investors for Iberdrola's Buffalo Ridge II wind farm. Iberdrola completed that project in December 2010, but the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service put the kabosh on EB-5 investment in the project because the $100 million Bollen and friends raised would only have paid off money Iberdrola had already spent, thus not directly creating any jobs.
The paragraph I find interesting is the first of four "advantage" paragraphs, bolded above. Here's the sloppy Google Translate version:
One advantage: Government advantages
South Dakota Regional Center is a government agency, rather than the private sector, under the South Dakota state government, directly managed by the Ministry of Economic Development states. Relying on the advantages of the government to ensure the normal operation of the project.
And here's a human translation:
Advantage Number 1: Government
SDRC is a government agency, not a private business. It is part of the South Dakota State Government, under the Department of Business Development. The advantage of this is that the program’s operation is “protected” (under a government authority).
Hmm... both machine and human say that the press release mischaracterized the nature of South Dakota's EB-5 program in 2010. The South Dakota Regional Center was technically assigned to the South Dakota International Business Institute, an entity running at that time under the Board of Regents without an executive director. However, from January 2008 to December 2009, the program's director, Joop Bollen, privatized his EB-5 operations into his own corporation, SDRC Inc. By 2010, the program was operating fully as a private business, under contract with the Department of Tourism and State Development.
This all gets confusing, since SDRC and SDRC Inc. are indeed two very different entities. But one can understand how Chinese investors could have been confused by the claim that SDRC was a state agency even though the wheeler-dealers making the pitch in October 2010 were private profiteers.
01.08. to 12.09 privatizing?? how so? by 01.10 fully privatized?? what happened then. Sveen filed w/ SOS? cory, i have forgotten those details. can you give a little more info.?
Cory, there is more to come I am thinking. So what will the AG do now?
Related. http://www.argusleader.com/story/davidmontgomery/2014/10/12/dscc-ad-attacking-rounds/17174315/
Bill-any idea what Rounds does consider a big deal? A one-time 35 million dollar,high interest loan from an off-shore outfit no one ever heard of,not a big deal? That's a head scratcher to be sure.
Rancid Rounds ads even lie about "lies". If Rounds is for XL pipeline, that should be reason enough for everybody in SD with the possible exception of contractors who never drink water to oppose Rounds. If Rounds wants to kill "Obamacare", that too is reason for anybody who thinks they might ever get sick or injured to vote against Rounds. Rounds ads are all good reasons for nearly everybody in South Dakota to vote against the smirking jerk.
I wonder how many private USA investors were ignored and told these projects didn't need money. WHY? because the crew running EB-5 could not profit at all from American investors. Did they even look for American investors? Me thinks no.
Something rilly must have gotten lost in translation. Doncha know how them godless,heathen Chinee lie?
Wal, that's a very good point. Team Rounds/Bollen likes to claim that investment capital dried up in the recession. But South Dakota wasn't hit that hard by the recession. Our incomes kept growing. We have rich folks who could have invested. But there's not profit for Joop and Jeff and friends in traditional investment.
7 days to the first anniversary of Richard Benda's violent, mysterious death in a Charles Mix County shelterbelt. Mike Rounds hired this man to run economic development in his cabinet. Rounds didn't attend the funeral. And Mike Rounds' inner circle threw the man under the bus because their racketeering scam was oozing out a year before the Senate election and dead men tell no tales.
I don't care what Grampa Don thinks. There are a lot of bums in Pierre and around the state who belong in court and in prison.
96 I do find it ironic that Jackley, Rounds and the Republican establishment are willing to completely throw a deceased man under the bus yet out of respect for his family we and reporters like Mercer can't get anymore information in regards to his death investigation. If I were his family I'd be ticked and want to know to bring closure.
Domestic investors would be too informed to pay the exorbitant fees which were hidden and pocketed in the shadows. The notion of "government back program" would be a hard sell here.
Good point, Lynn. Marty Jackley failed to tell any of us that he was going to charge Mr. Benda with three felony counts and had arranged a grand jury to expedite the wheels of justice back in early September 2013. Or rather, he failed to tell us until late August 2014 when his employer Mike Rounds had won the GOP primary.
I compare his allegations against the unfortunate Mr. Benda with the allegations against the still living Mr. Bollen. Mr. Benda was being pursued for $550,000 of money that didn't belong to him. Yet Mr. Jackley has long held the same information that recently came to light to the rest of us implicating Mr. Bollen of possessing $140 million of money that does not belong to him. We are also told Mr. Bollen walked away with the records of his activities, and I believe that is also grounds for felony charges if something untoward happened to all of those records.
Mr. Bollen is not on the ballot, so election interference can't be a reason for Mr. Jackley's total inaction. So why was there no announcement of charges against Mr. Bollen last August?
Mr. Benda is not able to testify. Yet, Mr. Bollen is able to testify. What seems to be slowing Mr. Jackley's feet?
Lynn, I find a lot of this frustrating because the Republicans talk to us about their values, patriotism and strict adherence to our laws. Maybe they don't mean to apply those standards to themselves because they have somehow risen above them. Maybe that's what Mike Rounds and his pals mean by South Dakota Common Sense.
EB5 was an irresistible gravy train. No oversight. Temptation. Rounds, Daugaard, Jackley, Tidemann, Regents, $500k plus legal defense cost on just one tiny portion of scandal, Joop, Sveen, Benda, lost-destroyed email files, "auction!!! or we'll sue!!! It's a federal matter!!!
NC senate race-$49 mill.
SD senate race-$12 plus mill.
AK senate race-$___; Kochs v. Unions.
KY senate race-$___; 500,000 ACA insured; Mitch McConnell.
to be continued, updated
Lesliengland-according to this from the NYT over 20 millin bucks in advertising has been reserved to reach 490k voters in Alaska for the Senate race.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/us/politics/outside-money-floods-alaska-in-senate-race.html?_r=0
Nearly all money raised by carpetbagger Sullivan has come from his home state of Ohio. His main residence is Bethesda,Maryland.