Members of the Government Operations and Audit Committee have brought forward two bills that appear to target the gross conflicts of interest in South Dakota's EB-5 visa investment program. GOAC only glancingly acknowledged these violations of state law and policy…
Posts tagged as “Joop Bollen”
Mr. Mercer notes that Speaker Wink's constitutional conflict-of-interest excuse for firing Democratic House caucus secretary Kathy Tyler lies in the same topic bubble as House Bill 1023, which may be the only action the South Dakota Legislature takes in response…
In the "No News Is Bad News" Department, I was wondering if the South Dakota Banking Commission had ever ruled on whether SDRC Inc., the controversial Aberdeen company into which Joop Bollen privatized his state duties as EB-5 visa investment…
In my Top 30 Stories of 2014 post this morning, I noted that I wrote 172 blog posts about EB-5 this year. Here comes #173. I would never have devoted 11% of my 2014 blog output to the EB-5 visa…
The South Dakota Banking Commission has yet to take any public action on Brown County's request that it investigate EB-5 czar Joop Bollen's SDRC Inc. for possible evasion of bank franchise tax. Director of Banking Bret Afdahl sent SDRC Inc.…
Senator Larry Tidemann, Chair Senator Phyllis Heineman Senator Jean Hunhoff Senator Blake Curd Senator Larry Lucas Representative Dan Dryden, Vice Chair Representative Melissa Magstadt Representative Justin Cronin Representative Mark Mickelson Representative Susan Wismer These ten South Dakota legislators, the current…
Pat Powers notices that Mike Rounds got campaign money from TURPAC, the National Turkey Federation PAC. $5,000, according to Open Secrets, the fourth-highest amount TURPAC gave to any of its favored seventeen Senate candidates. Rep. Kristi Noem got $2,500 in…
Four weeks ago, Denise Ross posted a stunning article in the Mitchell Daily Republic that put then-Governor Mike Rounds in the room in 2009 with key players in the EB-5/Northern Beef Packers/Epoch Star financing scheme. That statement called into question…