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Northern Beef Packers Dealt with Russian Rail Offshore Subsidiary in 2007-2008

Last updated on 2018.07.23

Amidst the mind-boggling complexities of the Governor's Office of Economic Development/EB-5 visa/Northern Beef Packers/Richard Benda/Mike Rounds scandal, I find this small kettle of stinky fish.

During the first year of construction, Northern Beef Packers made at least three wire transfers to an offshore account held by Ultracare Holdings Inc. at P.O. Box 957, Offshore Incorporations Centre Road, Tortole, British Virgin Islands. NBP bank statements list what looks like a $504,350 wire transfer to Ultracare in December, 2007; $308,500 on January 4, 2008; and $687,225* on April 21, 2008.

You can view annotated snippets from the three relevant bank statements here.

Ultracare Holdings Limited is based in Cyprus. It is a subsidiary of Globaltrans Investment Inc., a freight rail company in Russia.

Northern Beef Packers had other offshore dealings, specifically the convoluted financing deal in which it got the state banking commission to approve a $30 million loan from secret investors calling themselves Epoch Star Limited in the British Virgin Islands, took only $3 million, then used $35 million in EB-5 visa investor money to buy Epoch Star Limited and apparently make that loan disappear. A key part of winning state approval of that loan was convincing the state that Epoch Star was a one-time outfit with no prior or future dealings with Northern Beef Packers.

Maybe this offshore loan was a one-time deal with one-time investors. These bank statements, however, show that NBP already had $1.5 million in dealings with someone in the British Virgin Islands.

I invite any local beef packing and financing experts to explain how a beef packing plant in South Dakota ends up sending $1.5 million to and offshore account connected with the Russians.

Update 2013.11.17 08:45 CST: I originally published this figure as $887,225. A source puts his magnifying glass to the bank statements and says the first digit is a 6.

10 Comments

  1. Mark 2013.11.14

    Starting to read like a Robert Ludlum plot...

  2. Jerry 2013.11.14

    LOL it really does have that look to it. Powerful Aberdeen lawyers associated with other nefarious characters, international intrigue. More Ludlum and Clancy all rolled into one non-fiction book.

  3. Roger Cornelius 2013.11.14

    This stuff is truly amazing, there seems to be no ending this scandal.

    It is incredible that the national press is not chewing this up with all the intrigue and daily developments that Cory provides. T

    Thanks Cory for doing the work of all South Dakota journalist.

  4. Lanny V Stricherz 2013.11.14

    Does this whole saga feel like a Pulitzer Prize?

  5. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.11.14

    The Pulitzer goes to the first reporter to land the tell-all interview with Joop Bollen... or who figures out who killed Richard Benda.

  6. grudznick 2013.11.14

    KDLT News at 10. Interviews with lottery ticket buyers, with some other special items. Could be Joop.

  7. David Newquist 2013.11.14

    Organized crime and foreign entities that covet American wealth are the subject of laws that can reveal and unravel money laundering. Not so, corporations. Particularly limited partnerships which have only one partner, namely Northern Beef Packers Management, a limited liability company which automatically has a wall of secrecy built around it so that it has no obligations to anyone, including investors. That is the main reason that NBP has no American investors. Who would invest in an entity where one has no voice in management or managers? But that limited partnership and LLC status of the limited partner presumes only one person has the knowledge of the financial dealings and the authority to engage in them: Oshik Song of Eden Prairie, MN.

    South Dakota has no freedom of information statute that requires state agencies to reveal their part in transactions. And its corporate business act has no requirements for companies to list participants other than registered agents and the person listed as principle organizer. So, there is no information to be had if a freedom of information act did exist. Enterprising reporters can find other ways to gain information, but the South Dakota press has never done otherwise than defer to authority.

    The US Bank statements Cory has included raise questions about the secret entities that NBP was involved with for capital. Until a chronology of all income and dispersements can be put together, the mystery is impenetrable. One wonders about the Chinese and Korean millionaires, and then the Russians, many of whom garnered their money through crime cartels that appropriated energy and utility companies when the old Soviet Union broke up.

    The source of information that will reveal the story will be the federal government. It has freedom of information laws that require full disclosure of the results of any investigations it has conducted. But it might have the legal means to trace money coming from Iran, but not from the Virgin Islands or Cyprus. Our wonderful American corporations, who are allowed to write our business legislation, would not allow that kind of information to handicap their entrepreneurial ventures in our behalf.

    If any journalists prosecute the FOI law regarding Northern Beef Packers, you can bet they won't be from South Dakota.

  8. Amy 2013.11.14

    No one ever names Palmer, or his under-the-table local buddies, which I find interesting. Key players in this. It will all come out, along with a bigger circle of names than I think people expect. Come on, karma, do your thing.

  9. Roger Elgersma 2013.11.17

    So if South Dakota has such a wonderful business climate, why have we not generated enough capital to finance our own investment ventures.

  10. lesliengland 2014.10.18

    wow david! how do you feel after disclosures from cory, dennise ross, and david montgomery today?

    we are truly eaglets, waiting for the next juicy morsel, as the clock marches on toward nov. 4., at the mercy of a vast right-wing SD cover-up!!

    what about this eden prairie guy??

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