One of the things that stuck out to me in the Auditor General's review of the Governor's Office of Economic Development was Finding #3, which said that GOED chief Richard Benda had received reimbursement for $14,700 for "translation services" in…
Posts tagged as “Richard Benda”
In reviewing a big pile of vouchers, receipts, and other documents from the Governor's Office of Economic Development from 2009 to 2013, South Dakota's auditor general found that Governor Mike Rounds let slide some sloppy financial oversight. I find a…
During and after his tenure as South Dakota's economic development chief under Governor Mike Rounds, Richard Benda was involved in some questionable financial deals. The Department of Legislative Audit's report issued last week found that Benda arranged a lucrative private…
"The plot has become much thicker," writes journalist Bob Mercer on reading the audit report on the Governor's Office of Economic Development. Indeed, the Department of Legislative Audit finds significantly more GOED/EB-5 mischief conducted under the Rounds administration (and carried…
In December, I speculated that Richard Benda and Joop Bollen had their eyes on Hyperion's proposed refinery in Elk Point as one of South Dakota's next great EB-5 visa investment projects. A document from the Governor's Office of Economic Development…
I know how you folks hate speculation about Richard Benda's death. So what say you of Governor Dennis Daugaard's diagnosis of the former economic development chief's purported suicide? Daugaard stopped short of accusing Benda of any wrongdoing, but did speculate…
Governor Dennis Daugaard spoke about South Dakota's troubled EB-5 visa investment program, the failed Northern Beef Packers slaughterhouse, and the federal investigations thereof in an interview with SDPB's Karl Gehrke yesterday. Gehrke opens the topic of Northern Beef Packers around…
Attorney General Marty Jackley announced yesterday that he had obtained a court order allowing him to release documents from his investigation of Richard Benda to state Auditor General Marty Guindon. Let's be clear: this release is not a step toward…