I have contended that in allowing Joop Bollen to privatize South Dakota's EB-5 program, Mike Rounds sacrificed a key competitive advantage that we had over other private EB-5 regional centers. Robert Stratmore, head of EB-5 recruiter Darley International, agrees. In…
Posts tagged as “economic development”
In responses to reporter Bob Mercer's questions about South Dakota's EB-5 program, Mike Rounds downplayed his involvement in the EB-5-promoting South Dakota International Business Institute and his interaction with SDIBI director Joop Bollen: [Mercer]: EB-5 began for dairy development in…
One of the main responses Mike Rounds has offered to revelations of misconduct in the state's EB-5 visa investment program is that he didn't run EB-5; the Board of Regents did. "Mr. Bollen was an employee of the Board of…
Mike Rounds desperately needs you to believe that his office had little to do with the EB-5 program that has endangered his gubernatorial legacy and his Senatorial aspirations. "...[T]he program and the personnel were responsible to the South Dakota Board…
District 28 Senate candidate Rep. Betty Olson (R-Prairie City) earned herself some media attention this week. It seems only fair that we give her opponent in the Senate race, Parade Democrat Oren Lesmeister, a little air time. Lesmeister runs Fox…
Friend of the blog Lanny Stricherz offers this guest column to explain that GOP Senate candidate Mike Rounds and Governor Dennis Daugaard own a record of economic development failure and corruption much larger than the EB-5 scandal. * * *…
Mike Rounds gave an interview to the Rapid City Journal this week that reinforces the GOP narrative of using the departed Richard Benda as fall guy for any further corruption we may uncover in the Governor's Office of Economic Development…
In the brush-off to the Legislature's Government Operations and Audit Committee that he pens for former state employee and EB-5 profiteer Joop Bollen, lawyer Jeffrey T. Sveen makes this claim about Bollen's EB-5 management company: SDRC, Inc. has previously provided…