Press "Enter" to skip to content

State Gave Up Millions in EB-5 Fees; Most Logical Explantion—Private Greed

EB-5 czar Joop Bollen's response to the Government Operations and Audit Committee's inquiry into his activities on behalf of the State of South Dakota is rich with innuendo, insult, and absurdity. The greatest absurdity packed into his literary fabrication is the suggestion that he intended his private corporation to be a revenue stream for the state and that the state willingly let that revenue stream go.

Recall that Rep. Kathy Tyler (D-4/Big Stone City) charged in September that when Bollen used his state authority to sign a contract with his own newly formed private company, SDRC Inc., in January 2008, he laid the ground work to divert EB-5 administrative fees into his own pocket. Rep. Tyler said that scheme ultimately defrauded the state of $140 million. Other estimates have placed the fraud figure at $120 million.

Amidst all the defenses of EB-5 offered by Mike Rounds and the South Dakota Republican Party during this year's Senate campaign, none of Bollen's protectors ever pushed back on that charge. Now Bollen himself, in a well-thought-out and long-delayed explanation, confirms the mechanism that Rep. Tyler outlines: the state, through its SDIBI office at Northern State University, could have kept control of SDRC Inc. and put more money in state coffers; privatization sent that money into Bollen's hands. Says Bollen in his November 10, 2014, letter to GOAC:

Also like NPII [Northern Plains International Incorporated], SDRC Inc. would create a fund of monies for NSU to use [p. 5].

...my initial intention for SDRC, Inc. was to create and income stream for SDIBI... [p. 8].

...taking SDRC, Inc. private was never my intention but rather it was supposed to create an income stream from FDI [foreign direct investment] activities for SDIBI just like NPII did in regard to export promotion [p. 9].

Bollen confirms Tyler's statement that recruiting and managing EB-5 visa investment activities could have provided the state with direct revenue—not just increased sales and property tax revenue down the road from businesses boosted by EB-5 money, but up-front fees from investors paid directly to Pierre.

That claim (and if Kathy Tyler and Joop Bollen both make the claim, are we ready to call it fact?) leads us to the 140-Million-Dollar Question:

What would motivate the State of South Dakota to give up a multi-million-dollar revenue stream?

Bollen says legal liability motivated that self-denial. Run SDRC Inc. honestly, write clear contracts with everyone you deal with (unlike Bollen, who's off-book operations brought us the Darley litigation), and there's no more liability to running EB-5 than there is to running public universities with dangerous chemistry labs and dormitories with slippery shower floors. The Darley litigation cost the state $510,000 over five years; keep SDRC Inc.'s functions under state control, and EB-5 pays its own lawyer bills and leaves millions for ongoing teacher pay raises (oh! Ha ha ha! Hee hee hee!) or road work or rebates for South Dakota taxpayers.

Politics could motivate South Dakota to turn down real money. Governor Dennis Daugaard rejects $250 million a year from Medicaid expansion because he doesn't want to help President Obama and those darn poor people who need to stitch some bootstraps to their bare ankles. But in 2009, EB-5 has no political component. Governor Rounds believes his EB-5 idea and his man Bollen are great for South Dakota. EB-5 boosts the budget without taking a dime from any South Dakota taxpayer.

We're running out of rational options.

Board of Regents executive Jack Warner told GOAC yesterday that they didn't fire Bollen because they needed Bollen's testimony to fight the Darley lawsuit. Perhaps privatizing EB-5 to SDRC Inc. was just a big carrot to keep Bollen cooperating. But why couldn't we use the stick? Pull Bollen out of his NSU office on February 1, 2009, hand Bollen his pink slip and a subpoena, declare SDRC Inc.'s agreement with the state null and void based on Bollen's lack of authority to sign that contract, and run EB-5 as the state revenue stream Bollen said it was supposed to be. By 2009, the state should see Bollen (and I think new NSU President James Smith saw Bollen) as an arrogant ass who is throwing around state weight that's not his to throw. If I'm in charge of South Dakota, I shut Bollen down. We don't need Bollen!

Or do we?

Or, more to the point, does somebody need Bollen to bring in the EB-5 money privately and use it for something more appealing than propping up the state general fund?

Let's just say it: privatizing EB-5 and denying the State of South Dakota millions of dollars is a bad idea. The most rational reason I can think of to let Joop Bollen deny the state millions of dollars is that I might get a cut of that money.

I invite alternative explanations. But when I add Joop Bollen's statements to all the stories we've been told about EB-5, I come to the conclusion that the most logical explanation on the table is that someone was on the take.

58 Comments

  1. Nick Nemec 2014.11.14

    Or possibly the Republicans who run state government really are just as incompetent as Chance, the gardener.

  2. Disgusted Dakotan 2014.11.14

    Probably one of the worst mistakes made this election cycle, was the easing off of the EB5 corruption by the Democrats. It appeared to many that they eased off of the issue during the legislature, after pressing for immediate full legislative hearings before the legislative session. Some felt they eased off the gas on the issue to save it for the general election. Aside from some great reporting by Cory, the rest of the media continued to spoon feed the public at a very measured pace. looking back, it appears to have been a mistake for Democrats not hammering this issue full speed, and non-stop, from the time Rep Tyler floated the request for hearings before the regular legislative session.

    The issue never got fully flamed to the bonfire it should be.

  3. 96Tears 2014.11.14

    MFI - thanks for the article! It fills in a piece of information that I heard through the legal grapevine, but I had not seen in print about the whole Tapken, Meierhenry, McMahon to Jackley appointments to U.S. Attorney. I don't think the article says W appointed Jackley to the state AG position, just the federal position.

    The article does connect how the Pierre political junta interacts and why it's important to cover your criminal activities by putting stooges into the S.D. Attorney General's Office. As previously explained on Madville, Larry Long seemingly performed a similar service to deflect, delay and dodge his job of catching criminals because of their political ties to favored Senate candidates.

    That gem should be hauled back out for the 2016 election to knock out Thune.

  4. 96Tears 2014.11.14

    DD - The urgency to beat the clock and prove what a crook Mike Rounds is to the voting public has gone. The urgency to keep prodding and documenting evidence of fraud has not disappeared. The voters who showed up to vote in South Dakota elected a con artist and there was plenty of evidence out there to help voters understand Mike Rounds is unfit to serve in any elected office.

    The cause of bringing justice to prevail, despite the roadblocks thrown up by Jackley, Daugaard, the Board of Regents, Sen. Tidemann and the Republican hierarchy in South Dakota, has not subsided because of, as you say, the admirable efforts of Mr. Heidelberger, Bob Mercer and some professional news reporters who are not bought off or run chicken.

    The creeps in Pierre have had a strangle hold on our freedoms as citizens longer than the Berlin Wall was torn down, ending one-party rule by the communists. It's going to take more than a few elections to end one-party despotism in South Dakota.

  5. jerry 2014.11.14

    Agreed DD that Cory and this blog have done a stellar job in keeping all informed about the continuing sordid details of the scam. By holding back the outside resources to continue the hammering of this was a mistake on Weiland's part although I do see his reasoning.

    I think that because of the way the ag economy is presently, they voted to protect their interests of course. So, no matter what was thrown into the cycle regarding EB-5 probably would not have moved the needle very much if any.

  6. Donald Pay 2014.11.14

    Cory said, "But when I add Joop Bollen's statements to all the stories we've been told about EB-5, I come to the conclusion that the most logical explanation on the table is that someone was on the take."

    Of course someone was on the take, probably a number of folks who have the ability to control a political party were "on the take." Maybe more accurately, "paid not to worry about stuff." This is not unlike every other scam that pops up from time to time in South Dakota. No one gets super rich off the corruption, since the money is spread around. When corruption looks like "the way we do business in South Dakota," you know it will keep repeating itself every few years. And when the political party in power gets donations from those who do business "the way we do business in South Dakota," that's when you know it's gone from petty corruption to organized crime.

  7. 96Tears 2014.11.14

    Don, we just call it "South Dakota common sense."

  8. Bill Dithmer 2014.11.14

    Damned if I'm not swingin Joops way on this. From everything I've read it looks like total incompetence from the state of SD, and a smart business decision from Bollen.

    He might not be ethical, and barely legal in his business dealings, but he saw the oppertunity to make over $100,000,000 because of the states incompetency.

    If the state just let him do it without bitching much, and they did. Then armed with an agreement that kept the AGs hands off him and his records and who could blame the guy for roping the rainbow?

    It sure looks right now that the only recourse the state has is to admit stupidity in a national add.

    The add begins with three men setting around a camfire talking. Then they all stop for a moment to look at the camera.

    "Hello, my name is Dennis Daugaard, I'm the governor of the great state of South Dakota. The gentlemen setting next to me are our AG Marty Jackley, and our newly elected senator Mike Rounds."

    The camera zooms out to show that the three all have guns in their hands. "We're here to talk to the rest of the country about a small problem we are having in South Dakote right now. We have all be emplacated in the mishandling of a business matter for the state. First lets talk to our new senator. Mike, what was your involvement in the EB5 thing?"

    "I really dont know why I'm here. I didnt do anything wrong. EB5 was a great business success for the state. There were thousands of jobs created and our economy was boosted by millions. But I never had any direct knowledge of the program, except that it was my idea."

    "Where are those jobs at Mike?"

    "Damnit Dennis you know that question is off topic. Who the hell do you think your talking to Kristi Noem? You better get your shit in a group Governor before the rest of the hicks in South Dakota find out how stupid the man they elected is."

    "Look whos talking, you brought a 44 mag handgun to hunt pheasants."

    "At least I know how to load my gun, youve been trying to put 410 shells in a twenty guage, what the hell would the NRA say?"

    "The point is Mike, my hands are clean in this matter. Right after I took office I saw that there had been some funny business in the previous administration. Let me make this perfectly clear. Even though I was second in command, I knew nothing about the day to day operations of the state. My wife and I would have still been busy hand building our home, paying as we went, because I didnt make much money in my former job doing something or other for some kids. I dont know what we did but it involved moving those brats around to different places."

    "Oh Mike, I was up in the attic of the Governors Mansion the other night hammering and screwing some things. Theres a box of papers up there with documents that have your name on them. Could you come over when we get back and get em?"

    "Bite me"

    " Marty, would you like to say something?"

    "Yes I would, and thank you Governor. As everyone knows I've been in on, no thats not right. Involved in, shit thats not the right words either. Was on top of the EB5 from the very first, except for when I wasnt supposed to know anything about it. I personally handled the entire investigation except cases where plausible deniability was important." By the way, that Benda thing, it had to be an accident, see how bad these two are with guns? How in the world did you survive childhood?"

    "Nobody has done anything unlawful in either this or the previous administration. They were just stupid. Did I say it right that time? Stop that Governor the Senator told you those shells wont work in that gun. Its hard to believe you got elected, twice."

    The camera zooms in for a closeup of Martys face. "While we are here, I'd like to announce my run for governor of our great state in 2016. As governor I would continue down the road that Janklow built. The continued prosperity of the state demands that we have a "man" with a steady hand on the tiller. He must be kind, he must be true, he must be brave. I might have heard that before somewhere but it sounds great."

    Then before the audio fades out we hear. "Shouldn't we be gettin back, Joop has shit for us to do, and you know how he gets if we dont put in the hours at the house we agreed on."

    The Blindman

  9. David Newquist 2014.11.14

    From its inception, the SDIBI was a matter of puzzlement and concern throughout the state higher education system. Its purpose seemed to be to offer students a high-powered academic experience in how international business works and is conducted. Some early efforts did make contacts with foreign universities, but they never seemed to produce for students to study, research, and gain knowledge and understanding of how to engage in international business. A clue might be in the fact that the only students in the international business program to be multi-lingual were the foreign students, and their academic experience at NSU did not seem to give them much in the way of an entrance into international business. From the outset, the SDIBI under Bollen tended toward an obsession with making contacts for wheeling and dealing in finances. And that raises the questions about Bollen and the SDIBI that hav never been answered:
    • When you have provisions in state law that create economic development agencies, why did the Regents get involved in these financing schemes in the first place?
    • What role did the raising of EB-5 funds play in providing research and teaching opportunities for professors and study experiences for students?
    • When professors and administrators are closely monitored to insure that their work advances the stated mission of the colleges, why was Bollen exempted from the established practices of accountability?
    • Who in the Regental system was Bollen’s sponsor so that he was exempted from reporting to the department chair, the dean, and the university president.

    It was known throughout the community, that Northern Beef Packers was plagued with bad management and did not establish the most basic measures for accounting and setting priorities. If the SDIBI was part of the university as it got involved with NBP, why wasn’t the expertise of faculty in accounting and management consulted regarding the management of the investments in the plant? Bollen complains that no one at the university or in the Regents office wanted to carry the EB-5 program forward. But there is nothing in the mission of the university or the Board that authorizes higher education to act as an investment procurer or broker. So, how did Bollen get so entrenched that he was exempted from all disciplinary measures so that he could help with a law suit which cost the Regents over a half million in legal fees even though they weren’t held liable?

    When the current university president examined the relationship of the SDIBI to the university, he saw the huge discrepancy between what the SDIBI was and what a university program must be to be part of a higher education enterprise. Bollen was totally wrong-headed about the SDIBI and its function as part of a unibersity.

    Under shoes auspices was he allowed to operate in the way that he did? That question underlies all

  10. leslie 2014.11.14

    excellent questions. Cory showed us a document or contract here signed between the SDIBI director ___________ and joop bollen, SDRC, Inc. i believe while he was still a university (NSU) empoyee.

  11. mike from iowa 2014.11.14

    Blindman,that is picture perfect and I hope the three stooges use those very words in their defense.

  12. Roger Cornelius 2014.11.14

    What were Bollen's qualifications for working at NSU? A Phd. Masters degree?

    A university is an excellent place to shield a con artist and his operatives, they can hide in the integrity of an educational institution.

  13. Jane 2014.11.15

    Bollen got his MBA from thunderbird - an online mba. NSU hired a guy, who purchased his green card by marrying a woman, who was willing to marry for cash. Prior to this, He spent some time as a liquor store clerk in Griffen GA, while he dodged immigration officials, because he was squatting without a visa.

  14. Jane 2014.11.15

    NSU Regents may not want to admit incompetence - they got duped big time here, Bollen did run SDIBI out of there. While they may have given him a get out of jail card for the double dealing swithcharoo, they should investigate his taking kickbacks from James Park way before 2000.

  15. Nick Nemec 2014.11.15

    Mr. Newquiset gets as close to a question I've had, without actually asking it, as anyone. Why was Bollen, with his alphabet soup collection of public, quasi-public, and private agencies, whose mission was recruiting investors for private businesses, placed under the Board of Regents and headquartered at NSU? What possible nexus could there be between providing a college education to our state's citizens and providing funding for various private businesses? Which genius in State government thought this was the best organizational structure? Why? On its face it seem as though it's an attempt to cloud and confuse. If enough layers are placed between the Governor's Office of Economic Development and the corrupt operation Bollen ran then the guys at the top have plausible deniability. It's an organizational chart that makes no sense, confuses the mission and tarnishes the reputation of one of our state's fine educational institutions.

  16. mike from iowa 2014.11.15

    Read somewhere yesterday that this whole EB-5 baloney started out as an international business class at NSU,but then students were basically ignored in the quest to make money from the program.

  17. JeniW 2014.11.15

    From the April 10, 2014 edition of the Aberdeen paper:

    "On May 31, 2003, the newly created state Department of Tourism and State Development formally applied to the federal Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

    Joop Bollen, director of the South Dakota International Business Institute at Northern State University, prepared the application for the department. The application sought designation of regional center status to the institute to be responsible for all export and foreign direct investment for the state government of South Dakota.

    The Davisco cheese plant at Lake Norden was under construction. Recruited to South Dakota by previous Gov. Bill Janklow, the plant would require 65,000 more dairy cows.

    Bollen told the federal agency he had been recruiting dairy investors and operators in the Netherlands since 2000 and in the United Kingdom since 2002."

  18. John Tsitrian 2014.11.15

    Mr. Newquist, I'd like to c & p your comment above, starting with "from its inception" and publish it in full, by-lined by you, as a guest post on the Constant Commoner. Permission?

  19. mike from iowa 2014.11.15

    Here's another ?. If Jackley deferred a state investigation to the Feds last year,why did he announce in June of this year he had drawn up an idictment and empanneled a grand jury last year when the Feds already had a grand jury? He can't seem to keep his story straight,unless that is by design.

  20. David Newquiset 2014.11.15

    John Tsitrian,

    Feel free, but I would appreciate correcting the "shoes" in the last sentence to "whose." This Dell laptop is schizophrenic. I can't explain some of the typos it creates.

  21. John Tsitrian 2014.11.15

    Thanks, Mr. Newquist. "Shoes" will become "whose." I know you're sharing my empathetic laugh. I'll have it up in a few minutes.

  22. Jenny 2014.11.15

    Would the FBI be keeping close watch on Joop? Has anybody from Aberdeen seen any men with black coats and dark sunglasses hanging around Aberdeen lately?

  23. leslie 2014.11.15

    i dont understand how a public employee gone private can walk off with files and leave the principal in the dark. that is theft. is NSU/Regents/SDIBI a battered spouse that wont file charges at the local (republican) states attorneys office?

  24. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.11.15

    Bob Mercer smells the same corruption I do; he takes time this morning to write another signpost summary of what we know so far and vows to keep digging.

  25. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.11.15

    Donald, how do we prove it? Where do we get the receipts? What documents can we ever find to support the logic?

  26. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.11.15

    Blindman, I don't think I can dismiss the state's involvement as sheer stupidity. But I think Joop views himself as the supreme operator you portray him as. His response to GOAC hints at that attitude. Look at all the passive-aggressiveness: he tells us he never intended to own SDRC Inc. He tells us he kept asking the state if that's what they really wanted. He paints a picture of inevitability and decisions by others that left him with no choice. Whether that's actually how things went down in 2008 and 2009 or whether that's simply the after-the-fact revisionist history that Bollen and Sveen have composed to keep his fat out of the fire, I can't tell. But either way, it shows how Bollen's mind works, and it paints a picture of manipulation.

  27. leslie 2014.11.15

    sue joop for $510,000 legal fees, some of which were necessary for his ultra vires, secret defense of the state, and he will tell all he knows about rounds and daugaard and a host of other SDGOP swingers in his defense, if sveen will represent him.

    one party rule, no checks and balances, good ole' boyz, not good plan, South Dakota. to counteract repubs, every voter needs to understand MERCER'S 11.15.14 post. like we have time to clean up yet another repub mess??!!

  28. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.11.15

    Jane, do you have documentation on that green card action?

    Bollen summarizes his own quals thus on the still-active SDRC Inc. website:

    Joop Bollen is a native of Eindhoven, Netherlands. He came to the United States as a high school exchange student. Bollen then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics and business with a specialization in computer science from the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned his master’s degree, with honors, in international management from American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in Glendale, Arizona.

    As the managing director of SDRC Inc. Bollen has developed a loan portfolio of over $150 million dollars funded through different EB-5 related partnerships.

    Prior to his current function, Bollen served as the director of the South Dakota International Business Institute Bollen which developed an export assistance center that promoted exports from the State of South Dakota. Bollen also has developed and implemented a foreign direct investment initiative that attracts international investments to the State of South Dakota. As part of this later initiative Bollen established the South Dakota Regional Center in 2004.

    Bollen has served on the board of the Red River Trade Corridor, board of National Association of Small Business International trade Educators and served as vice chair for the South Dakota District Export Council.

    Bollen is owner of a real estate business in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to joining SDIBI, Bollen worked for JP Morgan, New York, and Continental Grain Co., Chicago.

  29. Jenny 2014.11.15

    Similar to Enron in regards to shredding those important papers.

  30. leslie 2014.11.15

    good fiction might say high-level people were on the take from joop, but they cant be that stupid. you cant hide big chunks of money. i think joop made the money privatizing. he may even have excluded benda who then did something stupid.

    i think we will be shocked at how much joop made. get his tax returns!!

  31. John Tsitrian 2014.11.15

    OMG, Bollen and I share an alma mater, UCLA.

  32. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.11.15

    John, that coincidence raises the prospect of mining your alumni network for info. Get to it, scoop me!

  33. mike from iowa 2014.11.15

    96-I think you are right. I meant Bush appointed Jackley as the state;s US attorney,not AG. My humble apologies.

  34. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.11.15

    Dr. Newquist's explanation of a fundamental question—why were we running a key economic development program from NSU?—is very important. Thank you, David, for laying it out, and thank you, John, for promoting that question on your blog post.

  35. John Tsitrian 2014.11.15

    Cory, I also note that he worked for Continental Grain in Chicago. Given his background, we might also have similar experiences at the Chicago Board of Trade and the Merc.

  36. leslie 2014.11.15

    sdsm&t built and operated a 10-50k squ ft building for a state/regents(?) business incubation experiment which is now gone. obviously GOED types have been using substantial resources thru the state to fund such operations and Regents seems to be at the fore front. is this a governor leading a state or going along w/business wants (RESPEC, ect., (nuke waste dump idea/sdsm&t shale developement).

    i think u have to be close to the govs' vest to know details, oportunities, chamber, leadership rc/sd, country club ect. because press reports are missed ect. at least that nasty rep. tyler is no longer in the loop!!! traitors to the sdgop are hung!!!

  37. 96Tears 2014.11.15

    Bob Mercer did an excellent job this morning of staking out what we’ve learned since Oct. 20, 2013, and the big questions remaining to be answered, as have Dave Newquist, John Tsitrian and Cory in blog narratives and comment sections. Sadly, a complete bum won a U.S. Senate seat and that’s a shame that will hang around this state’s neck until the day he leaves office.

    When you review Mercer’s blog piece today, you may find it interesting how the target of intrigue and investigation flipped from Richard Benda to the guy in charge, Joop Bollen. Beyond that, the Board of Regents is implicated as are the closest aides to both recent governors. It’s also interesting that while we have learned only what we know in the newspapers and in this blog, all of the ringleaders in this scandal have known all of the intimate details since earlier in 2013 they learned of the federal investigation. And still they are holding back information until they are cornered and are compelled to talk.

    My instinct remains that all roads lead to Mike Rounds, the leader of all these ringleaders.

    It is abundantly clear that this worst, biggest, deepest political scandal in state history would have been swept under the rug had the public not been informed by Mercer, this blog and other tough, principled reporters who weren’t afraid to dig and get straight answers.

  38. jerry 2014.11.15

    I remember when David Lust wanted to sell the SD School of Mines. We all raised hell and he went back into his shell. I always wondered what the motive of that was and why it popped up when it did. There are so many shady dealings within our state it is the same as any third world country.

  39. jerry 2014.11.15

    One of the worst hits took place with Kathy Tyler and how the republicans destroyed her campaign for public office. When this is allowed to happen to anyone, it shows the great depth of corruption this state has fallen into. I don't think that it is a matter of who is involved with the corruption, I am thinking who is not? The only way this scale of corruption works is when there is no fear of being outed because everyone is in on the fix.

    Washington lets other third world countries know that they must clean up their acts if they are to keep receiving aid checks. Maybe that would be the answer for this failed state. It is bad enough that my property taxes fuel this corruption, but now, even my federal income taxes are paying for their failure to govern honestly.

  40. Lynn 2014.11.15

    Jerry,

    Sell SD Tech?

  41. jerry 2014.11.15

    Yeah, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, South Dakota. That one. David Lust, the big wheel in Rapid City, and his brethren wanted to take it private, this was after taxpayers put a whole lot of money there for development . Rapid City has some interesting back door deals that have happened or nearly happened.

    Don't you think it is kind of interesting that Heather Wilson is the head dudette in charge there? She is an interesting goonie bird as well. Plenty of dirty laundry on her line that cannot be cleaned.

  42. Jaka 2014.11.15

    US Attorney Johnson: Keep perusing this website in your quest for TRUTH against corruption!!!

  43. leslie 2014.11.16

    repubs have had alotta time to cover tracks, USA Johnson's people are likely having a hard time getting the goods on these creeps.

  44. Jane 2014.11.16

    Cory,
    Anita Bollen, Pyush Patel, Joop Bollen hold the truth.
    While married, Joop Bollen maitained a relationship with now wife Charisse while she was in high school.
    If a forensic accountant were to look into Bollen's finances from 1990 it maybe a pretty interesting balance sheet.

  45. 90 schilling 2014.11.16

    mikefromiowa said: Here's another ?. If Jackley deferred a state investigation to the Feds last year,why did he announce in June of this year he had drawn up an idictment and empanneled a grand jury last year when the Feds already had a grand jury? He can't seem to keep his story straight,unless that is by design.>>>>> Jackley's involvement plays loud and clear. Judicial leaders in our state are using words not common in a courtroom to describe Marty Jackley and his actions and inactions.

  46. Jane 2014.11.16

    John T, Bollen and Park implemented this only in SD. He was a lowly commodity guy on a employment visa. Reason he squatted in the liquor store owned by his high school buddy Pyush Patel, is because he lost the employment visa.

  47. Jane 2014.11.16

    Joop Bollen seems to have lied on his application to NSU, his liquor store clerking days in Griffen GA.

  48. leslie 2014.11.22

    thats $500k from co-owners of SDRC (Inc?) paid for likely with proceeds from EB5 cash flow. just an idea of these guys' disposable cash. get their tax returns!!

  49. grudznick 2014.11.22

    E-B5 is over. Tomorrow is another day. E-B6 perhaps but I doubt it. I am for no more E-Bs

  50. leslie 2014.11.22

    thinking out loud-joop paid middlemen to find EB5 investors at $500k a pop, then as a bank-like institution, "he" (and benda?) SDRC (Inc) loaned that $500K less auction fees and expenses (troy can straighten us out on the "transactional details") to NBP. Then, based on some wisdom (insider knowledge or desire to encourage his community to join in investing in NBP by purchasing the 1st and 2nd Tax Increment Financing bonds) he and his "partner" co-owner of SDRC, Patel, joop buys a bond, patel buys a bond, and they earn interest under the TIF. Likely rounds and/or daugaard had something to do with the bonding process. Monkey business, grudz? Sveen certainly would have advised them?

  51. grudznick 2014.11.22

    Ms. leslie, I really have no cares about all the E-B business. All your fancy high-brow financing is beyond my ability to understand. I don't even write checks any more. And I didn't even know the governor could issue jail bonds like that. I suppose it makes sense.

  52. leslie 2014.11.22

    do you ever mispell yer name?:)

Comments are closed.