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Posts tagged as “economic development”

EB-5 Recruiter: State Status Gave South Dakota EB-5 Program Competitive Edge

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…

Rounds Owns EB-5: Came Up with Idea, Interviewed Bollen, Says NSU Counsel

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…

Bollen Deposition: Rounds Administration Gave Business Leads to SDIBI

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…

Interview: Oren Lesmeister, Democrat for District 28 Senate

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…

Guest Column: EB-5 Just Part of Rounds–Daugaard Failure

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. * * *…

Bollen Brush-Off Less Than Truthful: State Audit Did Not Clear SDRC Inc.

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…