Scott Waltman gets hold of a deposition of Dennis Hellwig, the original developer and owner of Northern Beef Packers, South Dakota's most spectacular EB-5 vias investment failure. Among the interesting comments are Hellwig's hints about economic development chief Richard Benda's role in forcing the project into EB-5 funding and shielding Governor Mike Rounds from knowledge about it.
In his February 2013 deposition, Hellwig says the state originally promoted the plan, then seemed to make it hard to get financing:
“It was harder and harder to get financing,” Hellwig testified. “We had a pretty good plan starting out, but it got harder and harder. And the state, they were the ones behind this program from the very start, and they turned out not to be behind it, and I don’t know why. And the one guy that was handling it was Mr. Benda” [Scott Waltman, "Beef Plant Deals Fired Up, Froze," Aberdeen American News, 2014.04.20].
Hellwig further testifies to Benda getting testy when Hellwig would suggest better cooperation or, heavens forfend, try to talk to the Governor himself about Northern Beef Packers:
“And I said, you know, if we all work together right now, the state and everybody, just come together and work, I can get this project going forward and move it. And (Benda) just said, ‘Don’t you ever say that again to me.’ ”
“And I was — everybody’s face got white and red. And things turned bad for some reason, and I don’t know what it was. But somebody probably, we always thought there was probably somebody saying something someplace because that didn’t sound right,” Hellwig said.
He also testified in the deposition that he once tried to call Rounds’ office to discuss the plant and left a message for the governor. A couple of minutes later, Hellwig said, Benda called him back and said, “You go through me to get to the governor [Waltman, 2014.04.20].
Now why wouldn't you want one of your prime business partners to talk to the Governor about one of the Governor's own economic development priorities? Why wouldn't you want the Governor to hear that there might be some obstacles he could clear away to realizing that priority?
As Mr. Tsitrian says this Easter morning, raising the dead would be terrible for the representatives of the political status quo, for we would hear stories they may not want told.
Sure would like a chance to raise Benda for one hour to get testimony on EB-5 (and I don't think it was suicide). As more and more comes out, republicans and right leaning MSM work harder and harder to keep it away from voters. It is a shame most voters will not do the little bit of digging it takes to get the truth before going to the polls.
This latest bit places much of the shenanigans on Blenda. However, for the first version of the beef plant in Huron, the funding stopped suddenly, as did information about why. The rumor was that Gov. Rounds became peeved at the original instigator, Ridgefield Farms, and withdrew state support. No one ever came forth with an explanation, and the scheme moved to Flandreau, where it fleeced the town economic development association and the Farmers Union.
Sounds to me like Mr. Benda was going rogue and hiding things from the Governor.
Or intentionally distancing the Gov so as not to make him provably culpable...
Presumably, this deposition was taken as part of the court actions to foreclose on the mechanic's lien. Note that February 2013 was just after NBP announced that its financing was in order and it was preparing for the plant to go into production. At the same time, legal wrangling was taking place over the EB-5 investments. A major part of this story is the absence of comprehensive reporting on NBP in the press. And a major factor in the failure of the press is the control of information by the various levels of government which constantly keep a cover on busin
(damned unstable laptop) business relationships. This is a situation that can be corrected only by a massive revision of the legal code and a press that understands its role as the Fourth Estate.
Nah grudz, You wrote, "Sounds to me like Mr. Benda was going rogue and hiding things from the Governor."
You missed the question that Cory didn't ask. He wrote, "Now why wouldn't you want one of your prime business partners to talk to the Governor about one of the Governor's own economic development priorities?'
The next question should have been, why wouldn't the Governor want to talk to one of his prime business partners, but instead call Benda back and say, hey, I just got a call from Hellwig, why is he bothering me or some such question. Or how would Benda have known that Hellwig had called the Governor?
Lanny hits it on the head! Only way Benda knew anyone called Rounds is if Roubds passed that information on.
Nothing happens in the Capitol without the gov's office knowing about it.
That is exactly correct DD, that's why I don't think Daugaard is totally clean on this either, he may have not been in on it when Lt Gov but you can bet your ass he was filled in as soon as he won the election.
Apparently nobody in Dakota gubmint hears,sees or knows anything.
Channelling King Herod, perhaps; I see a lot of channeling Pontius Pilate's hand washing, along with a healthy dose of Hogan's Hero's Sergeant Schultz, "I zee nuthing, nuthing!" Daugaard is implicated for what he knew or should have known for it's not like he first dropped into the executive branch on election day.
Anybody know if Dennis Hellwig is related to the late Ultimate Warrior-James Brian Hellwig?
Rounds, Daugaard and Jackley are up to their areolae.
I knew they were up to something, Mr. kurtz. I just wasn't sure what it was.
Grudz are you still signed up and getting young Mr. Ravnsborg's minute by minute tweets with very inspirational quotes?
Mr. Powers posts them on his blog for all to see.
Pat is a dweeb, grud: going there will make hair grow on the palms of your hands.
You know I can only shave left-handed, larry. You've seen the tremors in my right. And now you know why my handshake is a bit furry.
Lanny's comment creates another item to be researched. If it can be substantiated that Hellwig indeed left a message for Rounds, then that is who used Benda as a go-between. Where would those records be kept?
Grudz those tweets were very annoying and besides lessening the importance of the actual quote with the high frequency being posted it made me wonder if this candidate actually knew what he was doing. Definitely a lack of experience was shown.
I still wonder why he is even running since it would be fairly easy to just come up with talking points targeted to those particular voters somewhat like Boz is doing. He would be better off running for a state legislative office.
Forgive me ladies, but I just have to post this. Grudz, if you went to Catholic schools, you know that going to PPs website is not the only thing that makes hair grow on the palm of your hand, right?
I can tell you first hand that the governor rounds and all his cronies were involved. He was calling the shots. That same year Dennis went to the golf outing in Dakota Dunes and did not even get close enough to say hi to the governor due to he was flanked by the Tyson boys. I think this was the end all to end all. In the public eye he put on the show, but in all reality he was not going to do anything to help and loose the financial wind fall from Tyson deep pockets on or off public records. Many do not know that the $55,000,000 that the turkey plant got was actually pegged for northern beef wgen Hellenic owned it to only have it yanked out wgen the turkey plant got in trouble n
This was only the beginning of many of the issues dennis talks about. Benda was just the messenger which in the end was how he found his demise. You know the saying "dont shoot the messenger". Well that's all they had to do for he was really the only loose end they all had. The states excuse for suicide is very poor at best. I do not think Rounds has a chance to get elected but one never knows. One thing is for sure, we already have too many of him in washington.
Oh, Deb, I think those kinds of communications are excluded from the open records law... yup! Check SDCL 1-27-1.5(12): "Correspondence, memoranda, calendars or logs of appointments, working papers, and records of telephone calls of public officials or employees" are not public records in South Dakota.
And why would anyone need to see the records of those communications anyway? We have been publicly assured that there certainly was nothing fishy about any of this.
Either Rounds was in on it or he's grossly incompetent or both. Looks like Benda was doing the governor's dirty work. You're naive to think that Rounds doesn't have a chance to get elected, Allan. South Dakotans are that dumb enough to vote Rounds in just because he's a republican.
At least Ellis from the Argus Leader had a follow up story on EB-5 in Sunday's edition. Millions of money disappeared while Rounds was governor and he's trying to smooth talk himself out of ANY RESPONSIBILITY for it. Plus, he is LYING to all you South Dakotans that NBP can be up and running again. Wake up, people!
Rounds is in on it, so is Daugaard, but coming up with enough proof to get the republican majority in this state to believe it is another story. The excuse the AG uses that Benda's family won't allow evidence in his suicide/murder to be released to save the family grief is just asinine. The republican establishment is more than willing to let this all go away.
This is really suspect, was Benda protecting Rounds or was Rounds protecting himself. Obviously at that point, Rounds could not let it be a matter record that he met or talked with Hellwig, that conversation would be interesting, it's not clear what Hellwig wanted to tell Rounds.
We are getting close to the point where we have to track every campaign contribution made to Mike Rounds, and I mean every penny. Somewhere along the line we are likely to find GOED/NBP names, corporations or organizations linked to the Rounds campaign.