Remember how House Majority Leader Rep. Brian Gosch (R-32/Rapid City) said this week that South Dakota doesn’t need an ethics commission because the Legislature had thoroughly investigated the EB-5 visa investment scandal? Remember how Senator Deb Peters (R-9/Hartford) said this week that we shouldn’t spend money on anti-corruption measures because South Dakota just doesn’t have scandals like other states?
You want to talk money, scandal, and cost to the state? South Dakota’s failure to curtail the corruption wrought by Joop Bollen, Richard Benda, and Mike Rounds in the EB-5 program has caused U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to decide to terminate our state’s access to this lucrative economic development tool.
So reports Bob Mercer, who says USCIS has found “bigger and stranger” problems in South Dakota’s EB-5 program:
- Three payments totaling $1.7 million inexplicably went to a holding company in Cyprus that owns Russian railway companies.
- More than $5.1 million was used to purchase a Hong Kong-based lender.
- That lender had previously provided $2.85 million as bridge financing at 29 percent interest for Northern Beef Packers in Aberdeen. The loan cost nearly $7.5 million before the purchase of the lender.
Some $5 million can’t be found.- Approximately $3.3 million was improperly spent on expenses.
- Money was loaned between projects.
- Incomplete and inaccurate reports were filed for five consecutive years to the federal agency, including after state government took back control of South Dakota’s program on Sept. 24, 2013;
- The outside contractor who previously managed the program for state government has continued to run a website identified as South Dakota Regional Center Inc.
- Investor agreements sometimes appeared to have been altered.
- Investors sometimes complained they couldn’t get their money back after their visa applications were refused.
- Four South Dakota dairies involved with the program filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- The federal government received 1,002 immigrant petitions by foreign entrepreneurs associated with 32 projects in South Dakota, with 705 approved to date [Bob Mercer, “Feds to Kick SD from EB-5 Program,” Aberdeen American News, 2015.10.18].
The final item isn’t necessarily a problem, just an indication of the scope of what Bollen and Benda were up to. 705 approved EB-5 investments: that’s 705 foreigners each buying their green cards for $500,000 pumped into South Dakota business projects, plus an additional $50,000 in fees into the pockets of Bollen and his associates in the crazy corporate scam he constructed to keep money out of the state’s hands. That’s $352,500,000 in economic development (some of it, like Northern Beef Packers and Dakota Provisions, controlled by friends of Bollen and Rounds), plus possibly $35,250,000 in fees going to Bollen and his insiders for pushing papers.
In January 2014, then-Senate candidate Mike Rounds said South Dakota is too poor to do without EB-5 visa investment. According to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the South Dakota Future Fund has pumped $80.4 million into economic development projects over the last four years. To lose access to a federal program that provided $352 million for similar purposes seems a radical loss for the state. To incur that loss by rank corruption and willful blindness thereto should cause heads to roll in Pierre.
Mercer reports that the feds sent notice to South Dakota of its intent to terminate our access to EB-5 on September 28. Funny we got no press release on that matter.
Mercer also notes that the state filed a lawsuit on Friday that “seeks financial records and money from Joop Bollen of Aberdeen.” Remember, this is the same Joop Bollen whose work then-Senate candidate Mike Rounds defended, who Rounds’s brother Dennis somehow didn’t notice was illegally playing lawyer on behalf of the state to hide a lawsuit his EB-5 wheeling and dealing had incurred, who Rounds’s appointed Attorney General Marty Jackley never interrogated during his investigation of the EB-5 scandal, who Rounds’s friends in the Legislature refused to subpoena, despite copious evidence that Bollen had evaded bank franchise tax, stolen state documents, and signed a contract with himself in violation of state conflict-of-interest law.
When the FBI closed its investigation of South Dakota’s EB-5 program last June and the U.S. Attorney announced no charges, it looked like South Dakota’s EB-5 scammers may have slipped the noose. USCIS may be bringing that noose back.
* * *
Then again, who wants a flawed immigration program that lets rich foreigners buy their way onto the country?
“We have a broken immigration system,” [Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa] continued, citing EB-5 as an example. “This law was supposed to allow foreign entrepreneurs to come into areas of high unemployment and rural areas to help fight unemployment. But now, 65 percent of EB-5 immigrants go to Manhattan. We should allow engineers to immigrate because there is a shortage in the workforce,” he added [Chip Hubert, “Senator Grassley Talks Immigration, Iran Nukes,” Storm Lake Pilot Tribune, 2015.10.13].
EB-5 is supposed to pump money into rural areas and poor neighborhoods that struggle to draw investment, but a New York developer is using EB-5 dollars to build a 900-foot-tall, 1.7-billion-dollar tower overlooking Central Park where condos would sell for $13,000 per square foot.
Wish I was there to support the ethics commission bill. The governor should beat Peggy to the punch and commission one on his own. Bringing our state out of deficit spending is a good legacy. Bringing our state up out of corruption in the majority party is the thing of real leadership. Palin challenged her party and big oil corruption in her state and had approval ratings in the upper eighties. Need someone like her. There, in the course of a few sentences I managed to stir up the dander of both sides. Happy Sunday.
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Wow. This appears that when the Republicans were telling us to “move along, nothing to see here,” that they were perhaps not telling us the truth?
Inconceivable.
I’ll ask MC once again,what makes you think corruption in South Dakota is limited? Hickey,the goobernor has no business appointing cronies to not investigate their benefactor. This cess pool of wingnut corruption needs completely independent,outside criminal investigayors with full subpoena and police powers. Any wingnut that refuses to cooperate goes immediately to jail.
The Grifter Queen of the Arctic’s revenue plan was enlarged and backed by the Democrats in Alaska because Snookie’s own party mates wanted nothing to do with making Big Oil pay their fair share.
Who is MC, Mike?
It is just pathetic and pitiful that S Dakotans don’t even get so much as a press release from Gov Daugaard on the Feds decision to stop EB-5 in SD. I mean come on, it’s not an election year, do the boys still have to be so secretive about it? This is big news.
Where did Mercer get this information, Cory? I don’t have a paid subscription to Aberdeen American News.
Shame on SDPR and all the other news media for not being a watchdog on SD politics. Take a lesson or two from Cory and Mercer – they know how to do it.
So millions of SD EB-5 money end up in Cyprus and Hong Kong, and nobody, not a soul in Pierre knew anything about this? Come on, people.
Jenny, Michael Clark is an earth hater living in the Sioux Falls area trying to be insane enough to be appointed to the seat Steve Hickey has fled.
The article is full of opinion not evidance. Looks like more than just South Dakota is having an issue with how EB-5 is adminstred. It appears the entire nation is having problems with EB-5. Looks to me like not enough Oversight from the Obama Adminstration that allows this to happen. Federal Dollars should require Federal oversight. The one thing that’s accurate in this story is Senator Grassley’s comments. We also have a failed federal immigration problem.
Jenny – The Mitchell Daily Republic isn’t the pack of Scrooges as they are at the American News. Here’s the link to today’s excellent story by Bob Mercer:
http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/state/3863619-feds-aim-kick-sd-out-eb-5-program-state-sues-bollens-records
Cory – This is very upsetting but not unexpected. Jackley/Daugaard/Rounds did everything they could to obstruct justice and transparency every step of the way, and Bob’s story clearly sets out the timeline and details showing that’s exactly what they did to prevent this from damaging Rounds’ Senate bid and Daugaard’s re-election. The chickens are finally home to roost and it appears it’s a matter of time for Bollen to be indicted.
Now if Angela Kennecke wants to channel her energy and drive into a far, far bigger criminal scandal, here it is! I still think this is a classic RICO case in waiting. Rounds’ Racketeers should be thinking about their exit strategies.
Check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket_(crime)
Why is it you are taking so long to moderate my comments to this thread. Are you afraid of a dissenting opinion and only yours matters. If you truly are attempting to Represent all of South Dakota, then all opinions matter. Now doesn’t it.
Any guesses on who Gov. Daugaard will appoint to take Mike Rounds’ senate seat when Mike resigns because of this scandal?
Just a bit more to the point, Jenny, occasional DWC blogger Michael Clark is hoping to become Hickey’s District 9 replacement and has said he prefers an ethics commission attached to the AG’s office.
96, thank you for the Mitchell link! I’ve found that sometimes the Mitchell links go dead after a while. But that’s still better than the AAN’s absolute and immediate paywall.
Paul, how about Larry Pressler?
Cory,
I could live with Larry Pressler. A mental giant compared with what South Dakota has now.
Fifty-minute wait? As a first-time commenter, Michael Boswell, you’re a bit quick to jump to a conclusion, don’t you think?
And do you really think that turning this into an Obama story changes the fact that South Dakota used the EB-5 program for all sorts of homegrown corruption? Go ahead, identify and fix flaws in federal policy. But South Dakota conservatives have a bad habit of being so fixated on errors, corruption, and “tyranny” in Washington that they fail to recognize the very same and arguably worse evils taking place in their own state government, evils that they can fix much more easily with attention and votes.
Now click the links, Michael—you know, those little blue lines in the article that take you to other reading—and tell me how this article has no evidence. Go ahead, read them all, and take your time. I won’t assume you cede the point or can’t stand opposing views just because it takes you longer than 50 minutes to respond. We can wait.
I had to smile when I read this. What a great way to start my day! Thank you. Maybe, just maybe, there will be some sort of justice. I understand the state has 30 days to respond. Will their response be worthy of a press release?
Oh Michael, I just read your post. You have no idea…..do a little research, especially during 2014.
Perfect,the state of South Denial waited until their US Gubmint gravy train was cancelled before finally deciding to try to get answers and monies from the main perpetrator Bollen. Bollen has had mucho time to rid his perfect little life of evidence in the form of reams of papers that belonged to the state that Bollen absconded with when he set himself up as his own fiefdumb under the closed eye scrutiny of wingnuts.
By the way, Mr. Boswell, “Looks to me like not enough Oversight from the Obama Adminstration that allows this to happen” seems to be nothing but opinion. I have provided more evidence on that score than you have. I’ve written about Harry Reid’s connection to EB-5 corruption. But I also reported in November 2013 that the Obama Administration itself recognized that EB-5 is broken, an admission much more forthright than anything candidate or Senator Rounds has ever offered.
I look forward to your demonstration that you are as committed to evidence-based discussion as the rest of us on this blog. Fire away. (But again, take your time—we don’t impose time limits or demand immediate responses here.)
This post cites 11 findings against the EB-5 program in South Dakota from Bob Mercer’s report, and some, er, ah, brainy soul says it is full of opinion not evidence.” An ethics commission in South Dakota would have to confront the fact that the prevailing mentality in the majority party thinks the height of intellect and cleverness is to find nefarious ways to juggle money around. Illinois is corrupt, but the people and officials recognize corruption and put the connivers in jail. In South Dakota, they heroize them.
There is no one that the crooked Daugaard could appoint that is not tarnished, unless it would be Paula Hawks or someone like her. If anyone still thinks that Benda’s death was done by himself, I have a couple of deals I would like to get them involved in..cash only.
No wonder we cannot get Medicaid Expansion, this is not about political choices, this is because we are so corrupt here. What a reputation. Now we have another Benda that is being swept under the rug, pretty quiet on that deal after the same rush to judgement.
Mary, I’ve got you covered! Roll your mouse over the “More” button, next to the e-mail, FB, and Twitter buttons at the bottom of the post. A string of additional share buttons should appear; the sixth one, little blue guy with “in” on it, should let you share the article to LinkedIn. Let me know if that works and if you get any response to it on your LinkedIn page!
No kidding, Kathy!
Now let’s make Michael Boswell smile by providing him more of the evidence he says he craves. Readers, submit links and/or quotes from the articles you find most instructive on the EB-5/GOED/Benda/Bollen scandal in South Dakota. I’ll start with a link to my September 8, 2014, story on Rep. Kathy Tyler’s press conference presenting evidence that Bollen used EB-5 to defraud the state out of millions of dollars:
http://madvilletimes.com/2014/09/rep-tyler-bollen-defrauded-regents-rounds-set-up-state-to-lose-140-million/
Speaking of waiting, the GOP spin blog is waiting for orders from his sponsors on how to cover this big breaking Sunday headline. Coming up on lunchtime, nine hours after the headline popped up on the Aberdeen news site, two hours after it hit the Mitchell news site, Dakota War College has yet to offer an opinion. Michael Boswell, given your commitment to promptness, maybe you should fill in for DWC!
Michael go directly to EB5 website and check under South Dakota. You will find more opinions that regulation and oversight by the state was,shall we say,non-existent.
The bastages.
In addition to Paula Hawks to be appointed to fill Rounds seat, I would recommend Kathy Tyler. She knows how to present a case to its fullest. Showing full South Dakota republican vindictive politics, Kathy Tyler was shown how much she was appreciated with the public stoning with lies. Why do we even bother to pay tax to this den of vipers in Pierre?
well Corey I know about what you think about conservativism in South Dakota and that hardly makes you non partisan.
Mike from Iowa it also appears that the Fed has missed oversight as this article points out about New York.
Well see ya later DFPers, time to watch the boys, and hopefully they’re just as entertaining as SD politics.
Corey, It is what you can prove and who you can prove wrong doing not just specific items that suggest wrong doing. That’s what a real journalist can separate. What can you prove in a court of law. Otherwise it is opinion and heresay.
One thing I could not comprehend very well and still don’t. ….why the SD US Attorney’s office came out with a “no charges” decision after FBI investigation.
Not very often is there such a statement from them so quickly on a large complex situation like EB-5 .. smelled of the very chronic chrony cronyism that the money being passed around in Pierre reeks of.
So are all the facts that news report just not relevant? Just antedotal?
I personally have driven by the “meat packing plant” in Aberdeen many times….not a lot of activities there. Just an immigration office where you make your payments I guess.
I recall Rounds saying “leave EB-5 alone” because it’s ran in SD no different than anywhere else. I thought one of the foundations of the SD Republican party is ethics..
Larry, I had asked you if the Jeffs Mormons in pringle had infringed on the SD Republican party when the compound group took the name”United Order of South Dakota” I’m still hoping for a valued opine from you on that.
As Duffy said “follow the money”
I wonder if Rounds will comment on this?
One of the things that always has bothered me about the politics of South Dakota is that people are always fighting the last corruption, the last disgusting incident. Blame is fobbed off on a few individuals who went too far. By that time the political contributions have been pocketed, the political connections have been solidified and those people drift off into the sunset, or, sometimes are rehabilitated in the eyes of the elite political class after a few years.
Whatever happens, blame, let alone justice, never really reaches the political elite, so they are allowed to continue plotting and planning or just falling into the next corruptive idea or project. Maybe the Rounds folks were just a bit more corrupt than most, so the money pot is bigger, the stakes are higher, and people, including innocent children, are dying, whether from murder-suicide or just plain murder.
But while we discuss EB-5 and MCEC scandals, let’s not forget that there’s a lot of other stuff out there that needs to be addressed. The next scandal has already been launched.
There are lots of pots of money out there in other areas. EB-5 in South Dakota was at least partly a Board of Regents undertaking, where a lot of the political and economic elite end up directing how this money is spent. The Science and Technology Authority is another place to look. All there business is hidden behind executive sessions.
If South Dakota has submitted plans to host a test of the deep borehole disposal of defense-related high-level radioactive waste, there will be a lot of federal money channelled through state agencies, universities and politically connected consulting firms. You have to wonder why the federal government, knowing how corrupt the state is, would allow this state to have anything to do with this project. It has to be that corruption of state business, academic and political leadership is what the federal “consent” process is about. I don’t know if the state submitted any proposal because the federal Department of Energy refuses to release any information regard this. But my vote is that this may be the next big corruption scandal.
Missing money huh? Better check the piggy banks of Mike Rounds and at least one of his brothers.
As reported by Bob Mercer, “The federal agency on Sept. 28 sent notice of intent to terminate South Dakota’s regional center status to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. The 18-page notice contains many examples alleging improper conduct involving South Dakota’s EB-5 activities.”
When did top-echelon state gov’t MMO’s (Manure Machine Operators) first learn that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were conducting an investigation of all South Dakota EB5 operations and incidents?
When did top-echelon state gov’t MMO’s first learn that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would be providing them a formal notice identifying investigative findings and a final decision?
How long have top-echelon state gov’t MMO’s been withholding the above information from full disclosure and public scrutiny?
In the fall of 2014, did top-echelon state gov’t MMO’s fabricate and orchestrate an elaborate public attention misdirect ruse to be launched in Sept 2015 in the form of the MCEC/GEAR UP scandal creating cover and concealment smoke in anticipation of the release by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of unfavorable EB5 investigation findings and final decision?
Keep Digging?
Badger, Out!
I get a sad laugh out of republicans trying to defend the Rounds Daugaard, Jackley corruption. They refuse to even believe the Feds who have presented the report. They refuse to even consider what Kathy Tyler presented to them. To allow this to continue, they are complicit in the scams and corruption. Besides this actual proof of corruption, what more is needed to put our state honest? How can citizens just watch as at least $140,000,000.00 of their money has been stolen to line the pockets of high ranking politicos? How can citizens just stand and watch as other schemes to defraud them are ignored?
Well stated, Don. Thank you. There are undoubtedly more scams at work that probably will not see the light of day. You are most correct about the true power brokers in Pierre who benefit from graft. They are untouchable so far.
What I find different about the Rounds Racketeering Scam (I think this handle sums it up best) is:
– The incredible amounts of money that was fleeced and illegally pocketed over a period of several years.
– The depth of its treachery into the S.D. Board of Regents, the Governor’s Office through two administrations and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (and who knows where else).
– The fact that much of this happened in plain view and nobody blew the whistle until Benda’s violent and mysterious death.
– The arrogance of Rounds, Daugaard, Jackley and other kingpins even though a few reporters and Cory unearthed much of this illegal activity and put it in public. Those clowns just brushed it off and news reporters and editors chose to look the other way. They probably still remain confident they can get away with the racketeering scam and that it will continue as soon as the heat dies down.
I remain skeptical of Brendan Johnson in this. It’s clear he had the facts and walked out of office before he had to do something that might make some Republicans upset with him. How could it be otherwise? I say this as someone who personally likes him, but I don’t understand how anyone in that office could let a federal program be fleeced so badly and openly and do or say nothing about it.
Michael Boswell has got to be a plant from some parody outfit like The Onion, with his “Thanks Obama” take. Honestly, no serious person would have posted an opinion that this mess is Obama’s fault.
I’ll speculate that an Ethics Commission won’t do one bit of good and may even help insulate the politically corrupt from consequence. We’re barking up the wrong tree. Creating yet another level of bureaucratic composte to uncover decay underneath will just add more power to power hungry and more confusion to the rest of us. What we have to first understand is this seedy behavior is the birthright of the SD political elite and they know no other way to think and they aren’t about to change their ways. This is the same problem as trying to subdue the Cosa Nostra. They’ll find a way to use any new institution to their advantage and it is highly likely that the minority parties in this state with feel the vindication on several fronts. Not to sugges that the Federal Bureaucracy is vindictive or anything but one has to think, at least in passing, that the source of much of our sustenance in this state will only allow it’s hands to be bitten so many times before it decides to send us to bed without supper. In this simple person’s estimation, there is no more vindictive, government hater than Mike Rounds and we can bank on the idea that before he leaves the Senate, he’s going to cause more harm to South Dakota than any other politican in history. Thune isn’t far behind.
“There’s no such thing as good money or bad money. There’s just money.” ~ Lucky Luciano
“Judges, lawyers and politicians have a license to steal. We don’t need one.” ~ Carlo Gambino
“It takes many steppingstones, you know, for a man to rise. None can do it unaided” ~ Joe Bonanno
“This life of ours, this is a wonderful life. If you can get through life like this and get away with it, hey, that’s great. But its very, very unpredictable. There’s so many ways you can screw it up.” ~ Paul Castellano
“What you found out is once the investigation was there you’re not reading about it anymore. You’re not seeing anything about it because what they found out is there is no conspiracy. There was never a time in which I was the object of an investigation either federal or state and now the real truth is starting to come out,” Rounds said. http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/rounds-on-eb-5-there-is-no-conspiracy/?id=170148
96, You bring up a very important fact. Where was Brendan Johnson in all of this? As the Feds rightly know, there was indeed corruption that was clear. Johnson, it seems, just walked away from it. Why would he do that? Why would he just step away and then, no more?
Michael, I think we have a failure to communicate here. I have provided numerous hyperlinks to articles written by myself and others reporting facts about the GOED/EB-5 scandal. You appear not to be addressing any of those articles. Are you planning to read any of the facts of this scandal, or are you just going to salve your ignorance by dismissing anything bad written about South Dakota government as partisan propaganda? I won’t do the same to your bald (i.e., accompanied by no evidence) assertion that EB-5 flaws are President Obama’s fault; if you care to present evidence that President Obama deserves blame for EB-5, by all means, offer it (but remember: I’m already on the flow with my November 2013 article, linked in my comment above, saying that the Obama Administration recognized flaws in EB-5).
Joop Bollen signed a lucrative contract with his own company, SDRC Inc., to privatize the duties of his state job at the South Dakota International Business Institute in January 2008. Here, click this link to look at the contract yourself and tell me how the existence of that document with Joop Bollen’s signature is at all affected by whatever you think I think of conservatism.
Joop Bollen took state documents from the NSU campus after he quit his job as director of SDIBI in December 2009. NSU President James Smith said so. How does that fact continge upon my political affiliation?
Richard Benda diverted $550,000 from the million-dollar Future Fund Grant #1434 that Mike Rounds signed on his way out of the Governor’s office to cover his own “salary” as “loan monitor” for EB-5 project Northern Beef Packers. Mike Rounds knew Benda was going to work for NBP when he signed that grant. Again, click those links, Michael, and tell me how my status as a real journalist, fake journalist, or complete nincompoop changes those documented facts in any way.
The USCIS is barring South Dakota from participating in the EB-5 program due to flaws in how we ran it—not flaws in how the feds ran it, but flaws in how the State of South Dakota structured its regional center. Bob Mercer is reporting that fact. Bob Mercer worked for Bill Janklow. Tell me what part of the story Bob Mercer has gotten wrong, Michael.
We’re waiting, Michael. Take your time, read the evidence, and respond with facts about the actual issue, not easy insults about the people discussing the facts.
Craig, the idea that MCEC is a ruse to distract us from EB-5 is just silly. Stop digging holes that lead nowhere; focus on digging into the facts.
It is all the Black guy’s fault. My tomatoes had blossom rot, Obama did it. The sun came out today and forced me to put on sunglasses, damn it all Obama. The South Dakota political party that runs the place, stole tens of millions of dollars, Obama made them do it.
Someone remind me again what they call the marrying of government and private business? It is NOT free-market capitalism! It is NOT Republicanism! It is NOT conservatism!
This EB5 and MCEC corruption scandals are the calling card of political corruption most foul.
Mike Boswell is the type of slack-jawed partisan that embarrasses the whole political system by trying to defend the indefensible, simply because he is a dedicated Rounds’ stooge. He is obtuse to the point of being intentionally blind.
I’m guessing Mike Boswell won’t answer back with facts. He believes the that the conservative Republicans are not guilty and just won’t accept the facts that are presented to him.
If he has facts to dispute what Cory has reported then by all means lets see them, don’t bury your head in the sand.
I don’t see any facts you can pin to a specific person. That’s my point you examples of possible wrong doing, but no one that you can hold accountable. Corey where is your proof that a specific person committed a crime. Agreed that Joop Bolin had a conflict of interest, but that’s not illegal now is it. Joop Bolin is accountable to no one but Joop Bolin. The other point I am making is where is the Fed’s Administration and oversight. (There was none). That’s obvious from your New York Example and Senator Grassley’s comments. So again I will ask you Corey and Bob where is your evidence that makes a specific person accountable to the law? If you had it you would have give it to the Feds. You don’t so all you are doing is pointing fingers in the direction of the Republican Administration, hoping some dirt will land or misinform others that there “Might” be dirt there. You have already told me your position on conservatives in South Dakota and you are hardly objective are you. I also think that Jackley should look into your and Bob’s probing into Mid Central. Journalism does have criteria for professionalism in investigating.
We are country of laws and you must prove someone has broken a law or it is all heresay and opinion.
Oh, Michael, Michael, Michael,….oh dear. You’re right, there was no Fed oversight—it was all South Dakota. Do your research…..By the way, what’s your real name?
Michael Boswell,the feds don’t do oversight when wingnuts control congressional purse strings. The FBI can’t investigate,the IRS can’t even prepare tax returns because wingnuts have taken money from them so they can’t do their jobs. Just like security at embassies that wingnuts cut.Face it,buddy. Every problem in America is owned by wingnuts.
So Mike should we bury ours heads in the sand and do nothing??? Where is the missing money that Cory has pointed out? Are we just supposed to ignore that and trust our Governor and AG?
are we supposed that great journalist Pat Powers?
Yes proof is needed but it all starts with a conversation and questions.
Cory,
My comments herein were focused on the “Big Picture” not just on “EB5 Minutia”. Step back from the MCEC and EB5 details — evaluate the cloak secrecy and orchestrated fabrications continuously launched by top-echelon flapping jaws in this state as their manure spreader pitches their cultured dung to South Dakota citizens.
You have appropriately tattooed EB5 corruption details to Rounds-Benda-Bollen-Jackley-Duargaard … backsides. You are entitled to your opinions concerning my “Big Picture” allegation, but your degree of mistrust seems too be too naïve when it comes to evaluating the degree of greed and evil intentions that continues to run this state and trampling citizenship rights.
My weathered degree of mistrust of these false nice guys and their sugary sweet press release statements (and corresponding lack of full disclosure) is based on firsthand experiences dating back to 1984 when I was pressured by members of the Janklow Regime to sell my sole to these devils; I refused to do so; resigned and walked out the door — refused to become a slave to the greed, graft and corruption running this state.
Cory, have you ever manned a post defending this state and country? Have you ever put it all on the line objecting to a broken election process; covered up election night results; covered up election rigging acts; denial of your right to an election contest hearing; denial of your right to an impartial trial; having 10-days of your life stolen by a circuit court judge who violated a statute imposed mandate? I have; so please excuse my lack of politically correct sugary sweet speech, my callused nature and total lack of trust for every word spewed by the top-echelon officials to whom you have tattooed EB5 corruption to over the years with your fact-based research.
Cory, I will forward you emails I sent to the SD SOS Office earlier this month that you may find interesting … neither Krebs or her Deputy SOS has personally replied in any manner to my requests.
Badger, Out!
Michael, I really don’t think you’re reading the materials provided. Read my statements again. They aren’t hearsay or opinion. These are documented statements and facts. You’re offering generic responses relying on the convenience of relativism (there’s no truth, there’s just your opinion, and I don’t have to accept any opinion I don’t like).
Don’t give me these fluffy assertions; refute! Show me where any fact I’ve given you is false… or are you going to flip and say that the Obama Administration is barring South Dakota from using EB-5 on mere hearsay and opinion rather than facts revealed in its investigation?
Kathy Tyler, That’s my name I am a 5th Generation South Dakota a Retired Iraqi Veteran. 1979 Graduate of Watertown High School. I have 4 post secondary degrees and currently working on my Masters in Operations Management. I do my research and while you have a lot of things that are incidents of questionable behavior. You don’t have the smoking gun to prove a crime. “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
– John Adams, Argument in Defense of the British Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials, Dec. 4, 1770. http://www.john-adams-heritage.com/quotes/
Corey give me a person you can make accountable of a crime. You can’t thus. No Evidence.
Craig, don’t send me the e-mails you send to the SOS. I’m sure they say pretty much what your info-dump comments here say. Send me the replies they send you. Send me the documents that prove what we’re trying to establish. Send me real evidence that advances what we know.
Michael, you say “I do my research,” but I’ve seen no evidence of that here. You’re trying to sound big, but you’re not providing the facts to back it up.
I told you Joop Bollen is guilty of multiple crimes. Click the links in my second-to-last paragraph, read the articles that come up. Since you seem to ignore hyperlinks, I’ll give you another link here that lists the violations of state law and regulations my research and the reporting of others demonstrates that Joop Bollen committed in his EB-5 dealings.
https://southdakotamagazine.com/eb5-evolves
Read, analyze, and refute if possible, not with assertions of our personal merits (you’re a veteran, I’m a blogger, we both have degrees—so what?) but with real evidence. Documents. Facts.
Michael…thanks for the info. I can see that you haven’t read all of the paperwork that went with the uncovering of this scandal. I had a 3″ binder filled with facts plus more. If there wouldn’t have been criminal behavior involved, there wouldn’t have been a cover-up. Now you’re going to say there wasn’t a cover-up. The refusal to do a forensic audit; the refusal to let GOAC do personal interview; the refusal to see the autopsy; the refusal to bring in independent investigators; the refusal of the Executive Board to listen to the issues–those are cover-ups. Do your research…the facts are out there.
I don’t have too You are posting what you are calling evidence but you have no one to account for a crime. Bob and you are calling out the wrongs, but who is guilty. If Joop Bollen has committed a crime give your evidence to the Fed. I am sure the Obama Administration would be more than happy to take on a case against a Red State. I don’t see the Fed running to try anyone. As I see It Bob and you have a bunch of incidents that say someone did something wrong, but who. I don’t think anyone is going to try Benda. You might prove mismanagement, but that’s not illegal and hardly corruption.
Ok Kathy Tyler bring it to the Federal Courts with all the guilty parties and let’s see who is put on trial. My guess no one. That means all that is 3″ of useless binder of paper.
The definition of a conspiracy is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(criminal)
EB-5 is the perfect definition of what a conspiracy is and how it works. There is no person that owns the complete conspiracy as there are more heads than one involved. In my view, this is the kind of conspiracy that governors office was involved in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act
It seems as if the Feds are going to look at that as well. RICO has many arms, but all flows to the heads of the family.
Jerry lots of Conspiracies that just don’t prove anything. Thus they remain Conspiracies everyone talks about until doomsday. So your right it is.
Corey, Bob and you could be right, but until you find that smoking gun it’s all incidents and opinion. No better or worse than mine.
The bottom line in my thought is this South Dakota has one of the most corrupt governments in USA. Let us not forget these facts. Of course they do not need an ethics committee it would be a bigger waste of our tax payers money. What we need is an independent Fedral agency to come in undercover operators and get into the Boys club that runs this state and bust it wide open and put every single one of them in Prison. I have written to Federal authorities about my concern for the illegal activity that goes on in this state. It is nothing more than organized crime. The family that got killed and house burned in Platte recently, I believe is a murder scene by pro’s. I would not doubt if these two that worked for the company that was getting ripped off was about to report it or maybe even tried to go to the SD Attorney General and all of a sudden they are dead. stranger things have happened in this state! It is time to wake the people up and for them to know SD is among the top five most corrupt.
You know I brought this issue up before the end of the 2014 Election on Drive Time. Fred Foreman told me he was tired of talking about EB5. You know I feel the same. This is partisan politics and finger pointing. Until you can really prove anything then come talk otherwise. It is a dead issue and you already lost the 2014 election. This all smells of sour grapes and a lot of bruised egos.
Apparently this thread’s resident troll is basing his stance that since nobody has been indicted, except the dead guy and he ain’t talkin’, then there is no case against the players in the Rounds Racketeering Scam. His blather is the foundation of the SDGOP “never mind, move along” buzz to get the bastards past another revelation by the feds that South Dakota demonstrated gross corruption in its dealings with a federal program that it must be prohibited from participating in it again. Does that mean someone other than the dead guy got indicted? Nope. Does that mean Joop Bollen’s going to get away without being indicted? Nope.
It means there has been an impartial review, out of the hands of the Pierre power clique’s control, and South Dakota lets federal dollars slip into the pockets of people of interest in a massive corruption case.
Anybody with at least a sixth grade education could surmise that some much heavier stuff will hit the ground. When? I don’t know. But it’s coming along with a lot more information how Republican power brokers in Pierre really operate.
Why go there Craig. Cory is supposed to trust what you wrote?
I wouldn’t expect Cory to believe me. He’s want to see what the response was.
By the way Cory has had the guts to “put it on the line” a lot.
Believe Cory understands plenty. Obviously more then you do.
Mr. Guymon, insaner than most as he is, does understand that Mr. H understand plenty. More thAn most. More thAn most.
grudznick out
No bruised ego or sour grapes….just finally the knowing that we were right. We knew we were right, we fought because we were right, and now….yes, we were right.
You were hideously ineffective in the legislatures, Ms. Tyler. Hideously ineffective. Do you worry about that at night?
Possible wrongdoings. Incidents of questionable behavior.
I don’t think Mr. Boswell is bothered in the least that the actions of several – if not many – South Dakotans has now resulted in the state no longer being allowed to participate in the program. He refuses to acknowledge that the “possible wrongdoings” and “incidents of questionable behavior” were done knowingly and with intent. Marty Jackley knows what it takes to prove a crime was committed. That’s just one reason why he has tried to steer clear of this fiasco.
Owen,
Talking the talk is not the same as walking the walk.
Have a great day!
Badger, Out!
Craig Guymon — I’m assuming you’re the same Craig Guymon that recently voted twice in an election (http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/content/guymon-receives-opportunity-wipe-record-clean-0) Sorta makes it difficult to read your comments here knocking Cory, and your views about South Dakota corruption, as you’re a proven contributor to it. Wouldn’t mind when you sign out, Badger, that you stay out. But that’s just me.
And Michael Boswell — are we common South Dakota citizens, people like me and Cory, and I guess, you — left with the burden of proving the criminal wrongdoing in the EB-5 scandal? Doesn’t that fill you with a great deal of fear and dread about the current state of affairs in South Dakota government? The officials granted the official power and duty to uphold the Constitution and protect us in our role as citizens and taxpayers apparently are choosing to look the other way. You state you’re tired of talking about EB-5, except you’ve never really said a word about it. All you’ve done is make ridiculous claims that common citizens should somehow have stockpiles of EB-5 evidence before even voicing suspicions. Why do you think the feds have declared South Dakota an EB-5 no man’s land? Simply on a whim?
Mr. Boswell doesn’t seem to get it. Under States Rights theories that partisans operate under in South Dakota, The fed is suppose to supply the money and then leave the state alone to spend/squander as it pleases without oversight. For decades, South Dakota has stood on the front steps of Washington with one hand out palm up. The other hand is folded up into a threatening fist. The message is, give us the money, leave us alone. We know how to do things better than you do. Been in the middle of that experience several times.
Owen,
Craig Guymon = Tara Volesky
My good friend Mr. C is correct as usual.
grudznick, Out.
Michael Boswell,
Seriously, have you read Mercer’s article?
There is no partisanship in his reporting, just reporting what the federal agency stated in their report.
True that Mercer’s report did not give names and dates of the culprits actions but you have to realize that money meant for this state went elsewhere. That kind of money went into someone’s pocket and the whose pocket is a great question.
Thus we have a conspiracy, not a tea party conspiracy theory.
And now we come to the ongoing cover up as evidenced by the state just this last Friday filing suit against Joop Bollen to retrieve state records. Why was this not done years ago?
And of course, many of us are still wondering why the GOAC hearing wasn’t a hearing at all, you know why it had no investigative or subpoena power? Because they went into executive session with Marty Jackley and he told them to back off.
When all is said and done with EB-5 and South Dakota corruption I expect Cory to get the Pulitzer Prize for his relentless and courageous reporting. I mean that.
Michael Boswell is former military who fled Texas because the high numbers of non-whites there. His wife is from South Dakota. Why he was picked to take on Cory here is remarkable.
My good friend Mr. C again has great points. When do we all get to see Messrs. Dennert and Gosch et al on the stand answering these questions?
Hope you don’t mind that I don’t hold my breath, for this witch hunt to find it’s smoking gun. Until I see otherwise this is a conspiracy theory only. A mystery. As a common South Dakotan I sleep pretty well at night and I don’t have to worry the sky is falling under this Republican Administration’s watch.
Oh I get it but if the Fed doesn’t lose responsibility when they dole out the taxpayers (and borrowed) cash. You can delegate but you retain responsibility.
You were right about what? There is no smoking gun here the best you have so far is mismanagement and that’s hardly illegal.
Again I am not posting to convince anyone here who have decided they have won. I do comment to those that are undecided. And will say it’s what you can prove and prove in a court of law that makes it wrong. Otherwise it is incidences and hearsay. Out.
Dave and Gudznick,
Your naïve ignorance does not surprise me in the least bit given you are both hiding behind blogging handles, but for some reason lack the guts to own your words with your own names.
People in this state need to wake the hell up — the election process; vote counting; and canvassing practices used by the one-party machine in this state over the past 40-years continues to rig the outcome of public elections. I have neither the time nor energy to try to share all the facts I have in my possession with you here today.
But please try pulling heads from the sand with regards to the Machine overseeing public election — the system of internal controls within county auditor offices statewide has a major weakness — virtually no segregation of duties — no strong system of accountability. Now combine that with the fact that 70% of county auditors statewide are registered as GOP voters.
Feel free to aim your gutless insults my way; I have damn tuff hide and can handle any of the ignorance you wish to publicly display. As for my integrity, honor, candor, courage and intellect — neither of you clowns have a clue to whom you are aiming your insults at — you guys keep on talking your talk — in years to come, I will show once again how to walk the walk when I place my name on a ballot for a statewide office.
You both have a wonderful day,
Badger, Out!
A culture of corruption that loots an otherwise poor state are Republican analogs to the FLDS and Hutterian Brotherhood call Bleeding the Beast. Hani Shafai knows the concept well: he’s another earth hater who has tapped into South Dakota’s jugular.
Mr. Guymon,
I admit to a bit of confusion regarding your position and or stance on various topic. Mostly I blame this on your long, rambling and overly wordy bloggings that seem intended to make sure that nobody reads them in their entirety.
Or perhaps you lack the ability to boil your thoughts down into three sentences.
Regardless…I do enjoy your ramblings and attempts to stir the pot. Because the pot needs stirring, else it will burn the meat on the bottom.
grudzick, out.
A culture of corruption that loots an otherwise poor state is Republican Mother’s Milk where the twenty GOP donors who would benefit from repeal of the estate tax pays for trolls to create doubt about its existence.
Larry Kurtz that’s the kind of slander I would expect from Liberals on a blog. Thanks for holding that fine standard.
Michael Boswell is a flap.
If you wish to all remain enslaved by one-party rule in this state, continue to focus on all of the bones the Machine continues to toss into the air distracting you from the real source of the GOP’s power, control and influence in this stated — rigged ballot boxes, rigged ballot scanner data bases, and rigged canvassing board decisions.
Ignorance is bliss and you are all entitled to continue to practice the art on a daily basis! Have a wonderful day!
Badger, Out!
Michael Boswell is another white guy from somewhere else who has parachuted into South Dakota to fix it: Sam Kephart fifteen years ago.
Hey Larry go to the Codington County Court House and check the birth records or my DD214. You will find me there. but please feel continue to Slander away. It’s what I expect from some liberals.
Lar, you are so sexy when I can see your veins throbbing in those leather Jesus sandals you favor. I know you are raging.
There is a difference between a conspiracy theory and an actual conspiracy. The Feds will now sort through this and Rounds will have to resign and Joop better quit hunting.
I am a progressive not a liberal. Tell us more about your motivation for slandering Cory’s efforts to expose the Republican culture of corruption in South Dakota.
Mr. Boswell: You concur then with the court testimony: “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” In order for there to be any action by a court of competent jurisdiction, there must first be a formal complaint. If neither the Fed nor the State will accept and advance a complaint, then you are reasonable in your contention that a defendant is not identified and therefore there is no criminal behavior. You can not say, however, that absence of a formal complaint means there is not crime or corruption. That is intellectual impudence. All it means is that government refuses to do it’s duty as required. It happens almost every day in this state.
The AG or the US attorney can refuse to pursue a citizen complaint on the basis that justice won’t be served. That is the legal way of protecting your cronies. Perhaps you don’t remember Watergate?
Randy Seiler has been put on notice. His appointment is just beginning to bear fruit, rotten as it is.
You praying people? Get on it for Bob Mercer.
Correct John Wrede. It is to bad that Brendan Johnson got buffaloed to keep the lid on. The Feds are seeing this clearly with the report Cory posted. We can speculate but the facts have been reveled and it clearly shows a conspiracy at the highest levels of state government like what Kathy Tyler and the media laid out.
Exactly John Wrede, If you have the evidence of wrong doing file the complaint If not the State and then the Fed. The fact is that no one here has the smoking gun. I have read all this and I am still not convinced. They have Joop Bollen on conflict of interest (not illegal) , so far. They had Benda on misappropriation and well that’s not going anywhere. But where your argument fails is that possibly there isn’t enough evidence to convict. Maybe the complaint has no merit. While maybe the guilty are allowed to go free the rule of law is to protect the innocent. Watergate got it’s man. EB5 might but so far it’s a dry well. Larry, I question Corey’s objectivity. He had told me personally his thoughts on conservatism in South Dakota. I don’t feel he has the objectivity to do a non biased investigation. His politics and passions will paint his actions. IMO.
It’s the Fed’s fault for losing responsibility after doling out the cash to state officials. Of course it is. Had the Feds done their research, they’d have learned that there are no laws in SD. It’s like Deadwood, really.. before Seth Bullock arrived.
Readers of DFP, we have been put on notice: we are targets for those 20 GOP donors feeding at the federal trough then relieve themselves on voters and tell us it’s raining.
Grudznick, you are not only hideously ineffective, you are just plain hideous.
I really like that hat, Bob.
There is some confusion I can straighten. My friend Lar is a Libertarian, my good friend Bob is a liberal Libertarian. Although both smoke ditch weeds there is a difference.
“sour grapes and bruised egos”—Michael Boswell, does that explain why the State of South Dakota is taking Joop Bollen to court to get him to turn over money and documents that the state says don’t belong to him? (Again, read the entire Mercer article.)
Michael, I understand that no matter what facts I put forward, you’ll offer the same soothing dismissals that excuse you from offering real counterevidence, documents, or anything else of substance. But tell me, what is your objective here? What is your main thesis? Are you trying to say that South Dakota government is not corrupt? Are you trying to say nothing bad happened in South Dakota’s use of EB-5, and that USCIS is punishing us without grounds? Are you trying to say that Bob Mercer and I both are full of crap? Help us understand what point you are trying to make.
At least two players bought wives as perks in these schemes: while maybe not illegal it begs the question about whether it conforms to conservative christian ideals, merely lust or just another moral hazard on the fairway approaching that last hole?
World Trade Centers 1, 2 and 7 were dropped into their approximate footprints using that same cocksure fundraising rationale.
NO Corey I question your ability to be objective in this conversation or investigation. I am saying while you have a lot of incidents, but you don’t have a smoking gun to prove anyone outside of Benda and Bollen (so far conflict of interest) has does any wrong doing. It is obvious that the Fed is having issues with EB5 across this nation and is equally being mismanaged. (Your NY example and Senator Grassley’s Comments). When you looked into this issue even Mid Central can you say with a straight face that you weren’t going after possible Republican Corruption. If you can’t then you should excuse yourself from this.
Mr. Boswell is gonna run for office. Why wouldn’t he? Seems like he does not understand facts..check. Seems like he hates liberals..check. Seems like he would follow in lockstep his dear leader..check. Maybe hopes to get a big ole check…check.
Jerry there is no money on the planet that would make me run for office.
Smoke often indicates a smoldering hay pile. That Cory is advocating for its extinguishment is hardly biased.
Lar, you know darn well you can’t “buy a wife.” You have to make them love you, these women creatures. They are just as human as you and I. In fact, your second wife was a wonderful person with amazing skills. You really dropped that ball, my friend.
Attacking the messenger is always the only defense republicans use. The cannot govern and only want the wild west mentality, before Seth Bullock, thanks Steve for that one. Law and order republicans are non existent or they would have done something about the missing funds. There is just to much missing money to not be alarmed. Mr. Boswell is the typical zealot that refuses to admit his party has corrupted the system to the point that in order to make sense out of it, they blame it on the program.
There was a smoking gun. Apparently pheasants wrestled it away from Benda,who never went pheasant hunting before,and they mowed him down in a hail of lead,then tried to make it look like a suicide so wingnut officials wouldn’t strain their intellects trying to figure out what happened.
Jerry if I am a Zealot then Corey is the left side of that coin. Again if they had the smoking gun they would request the indictment and we would have to exchange opinions. When you investigate a possible crime you are supposed to remove your predispositions and investigate assuming everyone is innocent until proven guilty. That’s being responsible to the rule of law and in Journalism.
According to the reports written and proven, several million dollars went missing in Russia and China. How in the world can that be that politicos and those connected with them could ship that kind of money overseas to be hidden Mr. Boswell? These are facts that are indisputable, this isn’t a bunch of bar talk. This money could and should have been used by South Dakota taxpayers for much needed funding for education and other important funding rather than going in to politico’s and their friends pockets. This money is your money as well, assuming you are a South Dakota taxpayer.
oops wouldn’t have to exchange opinions.
Reports indicate $5,000,000.00 just vanished like a fart in the wind. Over $3,000,000.00 was for expenses that should never have been allowed. How is this not an indicator of corruption at the highest level? How can you look at this and just say it is meaningless unless you are a zealot that has the scales pulled down tight over the eyes.
Jerry millions go unnoticed all the time specifically when the Federal Budget is in the Trillions. Who sent these millions to Russia or China? Who signed off on it? Those are the facts that prove wrong doing not just millions were sent. Who sent them? They don’t know.
We are not talking about Washington Mr. Boswell, we are speaking of Pierre.
The reports that the papers have brought about would not have done so unless they were damn sure of their reporting as zealots like yourself would have tried to bring out the pitchforks to shut them down. This EB-5 is the republicans baby, you all brought it into our world and now it is up to you to take care of it while it fills the diaper.
Mr. mike, who is from Iowa, shows his corn-borism with the “hail of lead” comments. Who among you has not had a few pellets rain upon the brim of your proper South Dakota hat, and who among you fears dying from a “hail of lead”? That is just among the insanerest of comments ever and shows that Mike is from Iowa and does not know how to properly use a shotgun.
Mr. Boswell: I will continue to maintain that you simply do not grasp the issue. You acknowledge that the result of the Watergate Investigation is that it “got it’s man.” What you don’t seem to understand is how or why. A matter of critical importance. Nixon was not proven to be part of the Watergate Break In nor was it ever shown that he had knowledge of it until after the fact. Nixon resigned from office under threat of prosecution for “perjury” during a Congressional investigation. That is the essence of CORRUPTION that is relevant to the instant issue. You’re expecting a smoking gun that can only be revealed through the judicial process and it is not incumbent upon the private citizen to enter a formal complaint. It is, however, the duty of government to act on behalf of it’s citizens to police itself and when it doesn’t, that is also CORRUPT behavior the deserves the type of public criticism that it receives on this blog. Once again, demanding subpoena duces tecum is not an effective denial that crime, criminal behavior or malfeasance in government office has occurred. It’s just an alternative form of “covering up” that which has not yet been exposed as criminal. Your arguments are representative of the problem, not the solution.
From the report “Incomplete and inaccurate reports were filed for five consecutive years to the federal agency, including after state government took back control of South Dakota’s program on Sept. 24, 2013”
Anyone in business knows that you cannot submit bogus reports. These reports were approved at the highest levels of state government. How can anyone not look at these and see that there was a deliberate attempt to defraud taxpayers? Those taxpayers are also me. Know anyone who has filed fraudulent papers to the Fed? Even Dennis Hastert got caught on that kind of a deal.
These are Federal Dollars and a Federal Program. One that has examples of mismanagement across this nation as documented above. Again I just looked at Bob Mercer’s list, no one person is specifically is noted as being responsible. It’s like let’s list of a bunch of things and say it’s all the Republican Administrations fault. That’s bogus and it doesn’t prove anything. You have to prove someone approved this or that. None of that is in the examples provided by Bob Mercer. It’s all opinion and hearsay. Business Fail and money get’s lost. That happens. To prove wrong doing you need who is responsible. This is not evidence it’s a political opinion. “Benda died Oct. 20, 2013, while apparently hunting pheasants alone at a farm near Lake Andes. His death was ruled a suicide committed by using a stick to push the trigger on his shotgun, which fired into his abdomen.” apparently smells of political agenda. http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/state/3863619-feds-aim-kick-sd-out-eb-5-program-state-sues-bollens-records
John Wrede Protecting the Innocent part of the problem? “It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, “whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,” and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.”
– John Adams
http://www.john-adams-heritage.com/quotes/
The feds have landed in Pierre, heads have rolled, evidence scorched, collateral damage wrought, crimes committed and are still being committed: that much we know. Whether anyone will be prosecuted remains a mystery. That the Rounds/Daugaard years are smeared with shit is a given. Whether anyone cares is what Cory is striving to ascertain and that there are those who would throw barriers in his path is history unfolding.
South Dakota is too corrupt to manage yet another federal handout because single party rule has corrupted absolutely.
Denny Daugaard is Walter White and his days as a kingpin are numbered.
While I do try and avoid ad hominem in these debates I have to say Mr. Boswell, that your propensity for circular reasoning is beyond pathetic.
The money came from investors Mr. Boswell to purchase immigration to the United States. The EB-5 was for investors that invested in rural areas and areas that have high level of poverty, you know, usins.
Geesh no kiddin. I am wondering if Mr. Boswell and Mr. Grudznick are one in the same
Mr. Boswell should just find a blog that fits his perception rather than pretend he is seeking Cory to be an angel non-partisan. Most of us don’t give a flying f*** if a blogger is non-partisan or rabid right or rabid left. We can all check facts if we feel a need to or ignore fraudulent posts if we don’t like them.
Boswell just demonstrates the political tribalism that has destroyed South Dakota as a state respected for honest, effective government.
If a cow is shot dead and rotting and nobody saw who shot the cow, the cow is still dead and stinking.
Around, around and around the manure spreader goes pitching dung into the air as top-echelon state officials line crony pockets while sitting in cushy chairs laughing aloud as ballot boxes are stuffed, ballot scanner data bases are rigged and canvassing board cover ups are launched statewide retaining one-party power, control and influence that continues to enslave South Dakota citizens.
Badger, Out!
John Wrede the point that this is a political blog makes me point out that this issue is partisan and brings to question the objectivity of the sender. If the real reason they bring this forward is not to prove guilt, but to smear a the opposing Political Party they are equally wrong. It’s nothing more than old school muckraking.
And so it goes, then we wonder why our state is in such a manner that it is so damn easy to run a numbers game here without threat. The only time to worry is when the greed becomes just to much for the involved to handle. At that point, hope that it is not hunting season.
Capitalizing political party is evidence of illiteracy, Mr.
BosworthBoswell: try harder.Charlie Hoffman presents with similar disrespect for writing in English: makes one wonder, init?
Mr. GrudznickBoswell, the gig is up. Your zealot suit is showing and it is worn. I get that you do not want to believe that your party is filled with crooks that are a step in front of the law, but that is the way it is. The Rounds-Daugaard cabal has proven themselves to be as corrupted as any other third world outfit can be. The only thing missing from either of these two is a uniform with those big ole epaulets like Mohmar Kadaffi had and of course the sunglasses.
PP has a penchant for capitalizing stuff helter skelter. Weird.
I don’t have to prove who I am as Corey already knows who I am and that I am absolutely for real. We have many of the same friends. Two of which are old school teachers of mine.
BTW you can’t catch the guy who killed the Cow if you have no evidence to prove guilt. All you got is a stinking cow.
It’ll be interesting to see if the television networks will be involved in this.
This is news whether Mr. Boswell thinks it’s not.
Mr. Mercer and Cory has laid out a way for the investigation to go. Hopefully the networks will get involved.
Whether people have done something wrong or not it should be investigated. Not doing anything is not the answer.
Of course that’s what Pat Powers and it looks Mr. Boswell want-to do nothing.
Mr. Boswell, when you see a sign along the road, do you argue with it?
There have been a lot of problems at the federal level with tracking corruption. Budget cuts in all areas of the federal government have made federal government oversight of the dollars that state governments and private contractors get very difficult, if not impossible. Many of these cuts have come during the Bush Administration. I follow the environmental side of things fairly closely, and the Justice Department offices that enforce environmental laws has been repeatedly cut over the years to the point that corruption in environmental programs, usually handled at the state level, is rampant. That’s also been true with other areas, including and especially, tax laws, where Republicans have seen to it that the fat cats can steal at will.
If you think about it, Republicans are always pushing “block grants” for federal programs. Why is that? It’s just a way of saying, “Let’s let the Red States profit a little bit more from graft.”
I think the Obama Administration is far less dirty than Cheney and Bush. Those guys were outright shoveling money at very questionable projects, and keeping it off the books. Look at the recent Defense appropriations bill passed by the Republicans: taking money off the books so their cuckoo defense policies won’t be blamed for any resulting deficits
But, yes, we have the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy actively engaging in graft through their “consent-based” bribery of state Governors in siting nuclear waste dumps. It’s a payout to any Governor and his capitalist cronies dumb enough to volunteer a state to host a nuclear dump. South Dakota’s government is just corrupt enough to jump at the chance.
… Ole Mother Hubbard went to the Machine’s cupboard to fetch her old dog a bone … But when she got there the Machine’s cupboard was bare … Due to the Machine tossing bones into the air for outcasts to chew upon … While ballot boxes were stuffed … Ballot scanners data bases were rigged … and Canvassing Boards cover ups were launched … Around, around and around the propaganda machine goes pitching more bones into the air …
Badger, Out!
Mr. Guymon, you seem to be rather a farce. I hope I live to see your statewide run for something. Will it be as a Libertarian party or a Democrat party candidate?
grudznick, out.
Mr. White, as the Secretary of School and Public Lands, is probably the most separate from all of this E-B5 business and should be overseeing the next set of hearings. Ms. Hawks, who was totally insignificant as a legislature, will of course not be mentioned because she is of even less interest that that lady who the libbies ran for Governor. The one who cut her own hair. You know who I mean, I just can’t think of her name. Lar?
Been reading Michael B through this whole thread and couldn’t understand where he thinks he is coming from. I do now. “Jerry millions go unnoticed all the time specifically when the Federal Budget is in the Trillions. Who sent these millions to Russia or China? Who signed off on it? Those are the facts that prove wrong doing not just millions were sent. Who sent them? They don’t know.” So my car gets stolen but they can’t find the car or the perp. Without the perp there was no wrong doing. No crime was committed according to Mike B. At this point it is just a conspiracy that my car is gone. Seriously?
Alert 60 MINUTES at: http://www.cbs.com/feedback/
Grudz,
Well it looks like I am already gaining creditability — “Mr. Guymon” and now I’m just a “farce” in your blind eyes. Thanks for the compliments. Please continue to hide under your rock in your digital world aiming all the impudent insults you wish at my ass. Guarantee ya my hide and constitution can handle all the bullshit you wish to aim; and dish back just the same!
Here’s a quick resume: At age 23 held BS and MBA; and was a commissioned officer in US Army.
In the fall of 1984, as an accountant managing GDBG funds for projects statewide, I refused to sell my sole to the Janklow Regime – refused to have a string attached to my ass. Since 1985, I have been a co-owner of insurance agency — have managed tens of million of dollars of claims paid to Guymon Agency customers … I was honorably discharged twice from the US Army …
I have neither the time nor energy to share all of the documented facts I have in my possession concerning how the June 5, 2012 Davison County primary election ballot boxes were stuffed; ballot scanners data base was rigged; and election night results tossed out without being reconciled with the June 7, 2012 official results that were calculated using a spread sheet application …
Not one politically correct bone in my carcass; Just a crusty ole cuss who will be cowed by no man or political party; Never learned how to speak from both sides of my ass; Refuse to straddle a fence on any issue; Refuse to play ball like GOP & DEM elitist aiming sugary two-faced hypocrisy; Won’t find me in a front pew; As moderate as moderate gets; Will support majority rule 100% of the time; Family, Friends and lifetime customers know me as a man with a steel trap mind; and Plan to exercise my Freedom of Speech rights to the “Nth Degree”.
So Gudz as you have probably already deducted, I really do not care whether you are still taking on air or are six foot under when I decide to put my name on a ballot for a statewide office.
Badger, Out!
PS: Have also been known to cuss with the best of ’em. So please excuse my parting thought, Gudz please KMA!
If you’ll notice, this Boswell hasn’t denied that there has been – and still is – real and serious criminal activity going on under (or up to and including) Mike Rounds while Marty Jackley looks the other way and further shields those involved. He only repeats the “you cannot prove it” and “you don’t have a smoking gun” mantras, which is ridiculous for such an educated, worldly fellow. I even thought for a brief moment that Boswell might have some familiarity with criminal law, but then he wrote, “When you investigate a possible crime you are supposed to remove your predispositions and investigate assuming everyone is innocent until proven guilty.” He is wrong. One cannot investigate a possible crime and, at the same time, assume that everyone under investigation is innocent until proven guilty. Criminal acts don’t just fall out of the sky. Or do they?
Because we don’t know the name of the person who fired the Buk surface-to-air 9M38-series missile with 9N314M warhead at the Malaysian Airlines flight over Ukraine does not mean that it was never shot down. It certainly was.
Much more information about EB-5 in SD would be public knowledge if the elected and appointed officials in charge of applying, adhering to and enforcing SD law were interested in getting to the bottom of these “lots of things that are incidents of questionable behavior.” It’s obvious the people best positioned to explain this “mystery” are not interested in doing so. Why not, Mr. Boswell? Marty didn’t even talk to Joop Bollen and now the program is shut down. Is it too much to ask Bollen to come in and chat a bit about these possible wrongdoings?
Exactly, Mr. Sanchez. The fraudulent troll is just stirring the pot here to disparage anyone seeking the truth behind the racketeering scam which is obvious to everyone. Ignore this troll for what he is, a con artist seeking to turn another trick on this blog. Keep in mind that his starting position in this discussion was to deny anything we’ve learned since October 2013. His position is it never happened.
Mr Boswell doth protest too much, methinks! If the federal gov’t oversees it’s monies, it is BIG GOV’T INTERFERENCE! If it doesn’t, then it should. Huh? And, of course, it is all Obama’s fault! Mr. B. may be a real person, but it appears he was sent to this site to push the “move along” agenda.
Just FYI on the beef plant in Aberdeen as of now, 1. they STILL haven’t filed their corporate reports with the state yet, suppose to be done in may of this year, kinda of a big deal for this big of a business. 2.STILL no approval for the water holding area or water usage. 3. From a person that applied and was going to get hired until I decided not to, based on the fact that they have NO Paid Time Off policy or sick leave and pay was less than 13 bucks a hour to be on the line. 4. they told us they would be open on October 1st of this year, they haven’t even got the lined hired yet. Sad. Side note, still trying to figure out how a person can put a gun to his CHEST as the report mentioned (or even the head for that fact) and pull or push the trigger, unless you had a stick or something longer than your arm. Still don’t believe he shot himself.. but why are we blaming the reps in Pierre,, the people vote those corrupt people in, so who ever keeps voting in the same party is the problem.
LOL I like this full of conspiracy. Is he real or is a troll. Makes me laugh. Corey knows who I am and my credentials. I wasn’t sent by anyone as I am only a concerned citizen. I stand by what I say. Is there a mystery behind EB5 obviously there is, but who is responsible? Benda? Joop Bollen? Well maybe Joop will spill the beans now that he is being forced to give his records. Who else is responsible. From what Bob Mercer wrote. There isn’t one thing the USCIS pointed to a specific person. It was all this was done and this was done. The other part of Bob Mercer’s story was all Political Opinion and the same here by Corey. If you have some proof, then make your case. Otherwise yes move it along. EB5 is old news and people are tired of it. It made no difference in the 2014 Election. As I also said here the worse so far you can prove is mismanagement and that’s not illegal. So the USCIS is going to take EB5 from South Dakota for mismanagement ok, finally they are providing oversight over Fed Dollars. I am fine with that. But also pointed out in this article looks like they have many more EB5 investigations to do all across this Nation. I still question if Corey and Bob aren’t out for a Republican Witch Hunt or just trying to apply some dirt. Well if they went into this investigation or Mid Central with that in mind. They are doing a disservice to you and the State of South Dakota. The end.
Mr. Guymon … Politically correct and political correctness are terms embraced and used continually by bigots attempting to shield themselves from valid criticism. Correct is correct, no matter what qualifier you choose to put in front of it.
LOL I like this full of conspiracy. Is he real or is a troll. Makes me laugh. Corey knows who I am and my credentials. I wasn’t sent by anyone as I am only a concerned citizen. I stand by what I say. Is there a mystery behind EB5 obviously there is, but who is responsible? Benda? Joop Bollen? Well maybe Joop will spill the beans now that he is being forced to give his records. Who else is responsible. From what Bob Mercer wrote. There isn’t one thing the USCIS pointed to a specific person. It was all this was done and this was done. The other part of Bob Mercer’s story was all Political Opinion and the same here by Corey. If you have some proof, then make your case. Otherwise yes move it along. EB5 is old news and people are tired of it. It made no difference in the 2014 Election. As I also said here the worse so far you can prove is mismanagement and that’s not illegal. So the USCIS is going to take EB5 from South Dakota for mismanagement ok, finally they are providing oversight over Fed Dollars. I am fine with that. But also pointed out in this article looks like they have many more EB5 investigations to do all across this Nation. I still question if Corey and Bob aren’t out for a Republican Witch Hunt or just trying to apply some dirt. Well if they went into this investigation or Mid Central with that in mind. They are doing a disservice to you and the State of South Dakota. The end.
sounds like Mike Boswell is on the Republican payroll…Mike, how much of EB5…Gear up grant or other project from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development do YOU get as a pay off?? Nothing?…yeah…riiiight….
I think Michael Boswell has been reading too much Dakota War College…..or maybe he has some of the EB5 missing money. He doth protest too loudly. Kathy Tyler, we were RIGHT!!!!! I live in the county near where not just one but now two murders have been committed due to Gov’t mismanagement of State/Federal money. It doesn’t take too many of us in Charles Mix County to believe that corruption is the game of the day.
Mr. Lansing, thank you for sharing our “2-Cents Worth”; you are entitled to your definition of politically correct; but I do not recall requesting you share it with me. Porter, have you ever heard the old saying, “What goes around will come back around and bight ya square in the ass?”
The common, ordinary honorable citizens of this state are tired of listening to flapping jaws like yours that utter politically correct bullshit that is laced with misleading partial truths, twisted facts and damnable lies — politically correct speech.
What follows shares a common man’s definition in a crystal clear, in your face manner. Politically correct speech is the what forked tongued, pathetically weak men (pussies) spew because they do not have the balls to share what is really on their minds and in their hearts.
I believe the phrase “cowardly lack of candor” would also be appropriate in describing such cultured gutless men who lack the courage to speak honestly in a direct and candid manner.
Got any more bigoted words you wish to aim my way. Feel free to replay; you can count on me doing likewise.
Badger, Out
politically correct. A way that we speak in America so we don’t offend whining pussies. Only pathetically weak people that don’t have the balls to say what they …
man’s manner of speaking, “politically correct seech” is also known as “impudent political bullshit which for sale politicians spew with forked tongues.
Nice article Cory. I am kind of surprised by the lack of comments–whew–I would guess there are a lot more shoes that will be falling.
No, Michael, I question your ability to be objective in this conversation or investigation…The End!
I have provided bountiful facts. Boswell wallows in the Benda suicide (gee, not an issue in the original article, was it?), ignores every substantive question I’ve offered about the documented issues, and throws out more “Drive Time” talk radio style puff and nonsense. The sentence I put in bold above, a direct repurposing of a statement Boswell uses, shows the conveniently impenetrable relativism Boswell uses to shut off any conversation that challenges his prejudices. He can simply shout “You’re not objective!” and consider himself the winner of any debate… even when he hasn’t really entered that debate in any substantive way.
This isn’t just people behind the wheel venting their frustrations, Michael. This is journalism and conversation among people who really want to know what’s going on, even if that means learning some unpleasant facts about South Dakota government and culture. If you are tired of hearing about EB-5, if it bruises your ego to hear that the state government you’ve voted for is corrupt, just turn the dial to the soothing pop-country ad-fluff that makes all those bad things go away.
Michael B says finally they (Obama admin) are providing oversight with federal money. Gov Rounds is the one that should have been providing oversight!! It happened on his watch! Millions of dollars missing from the state of SD is not enough proof for you, Boswell?
I would like a GOP that comments on here quite regularly that makes more sense, like accountant Troy Jones that could maybe explain the missing millions. He’s controlled state money before. Maybe he would have ideas how this much could have slipped out of state govt.
Mr Jones, care to comment?
LOL Lora Hubbell no one pays me for comments on open discussion sites. That’s incredibly laughable. Your intent is to discredit any dissenter. LOL paid by the Republican Party my god to what levels some people won’t stoop too. Go ahead ask the Republican Party if they have any record of me having activity within the party other than a registered voter. You won’t anything. Corey it isn’t enough that you obviously went into investigating this issue with an axe to grind, did you do the same when you went into Mid Central as well. Was the dirt digging done before the incident in Platte. Again you do a disservice to real Journalism. IMO you’re a political hack. It’s nice how you avoided to actually look at my argument that Bob Mercer’s article the USCIS never pointed to a particular person. Or the fact that EB5 is abused not only in South Dakota, but across the nation. You claim I didn’t make an argument, but I did I said who is at fault and can you prove it. You can’t prove anything. You have a list of things with no clue who did what. It’s as obvious as the nose on your face that your intent was to do muckraking. These people deserve more than that, but neither Bob Mercer or you have the answers. Jenny who signed off on those millions, do you know, do you have proof? From what I see of EB5 and even Gear UP is that the Fed transferred millions of dollars with very little guidelines and some people made a lot of money across this nation off of it. Actually some people started successful businesses and some people got a good college education.
btw I expect comments like that from Lora Hubbel from Kristi Noem’s Facebook page, but it seems she likes to stoop to that level. I am simply a Resident of South Dakota and a registered Republican. I am on no Republican Party payroll or do this for any pay. I am just a concerned person that wants to know the real truth without all the political bias. Something that some can’t get past. If they ever find out who did what, I will be the first to say good job. I don’t think they want to prove anything. They like that they can point fingers and can drag the rest of you into this finger pointing.
Lora, let’s not get distracted by discussion of Boswell’s bona fides. He’d prefer that distraction. Let’s just keep waiting for Boswell to offer something other than drive-time relativism and wishful thinking in response to the substantive questions I offered him yesterday.
I’ll try to get down to the courthouse during lunch to get a copy of the state’s suit against Joop Bollen.
How christian: this morning every media outlet in the state is reporting another instance of GOP-sponsored corruption because it’s business as usual. Good that Dakota Free Press enjoys traffic, circulation beyond that of many South Dakota newspapers. That Pierre is an ethics black hole is not news and nothing will change until the feds want to end it.
Perhaps the SD Board of Regents’ role, or lack there of, in the EB-5 scandal should be exposed before they get a chance at the $millions in the Gear Up Program! Thanks, Bob Mercer, I always knew there were honest Republicans!!
Perhaps we can start a new thread on the Benghazi probe for Mr B. Wrong doings, but no crime. Move along. You are a liberal so you can’t be objective. Etc, etc, etc… Still just a bit strong on your criticism, Mr B. Never saw you on the board until this popped up and your boys started to look rather corrupt! Now you can’t say enuf. But it’s nice to have concerned citizens to help keep us on track! (Sarcasm mode disengaged.)
@Guymon … no one needs your permission to confront a bully, which is all you are. Calling me a gutless coward is easy when you don’t have to stand toe to toe with me and take your drubbing. PS- please stop using the vulgar word “bu*****t”. One of the primary missions of liberals is to educate the youth and having to deal with vulgarities such as you utter is distracting for them.
Grudz-who is from La La Land and is the insanest of all apparently believes shotguns were made to shoot humans in the side and call it suicide. Boswell who is almost as insaner as Grudz-who is from La La Land-hasn’t ever heard of cronies covering up crimes and getting rid of evidence so there is no evidence to tie people to the crimes they have likely committed.
Jerry said millions went missing from South Dakota,Boswell counters with what is a few millions from the trillions the fed has. Nice deflection.
Rod, excellent suggestion!
In prior years, why has AG Jackley failed to do so? With regards to investigating and exposing the role or lack there of that the Board of Regents played in the EB5 mess, did AG Jackley honor his Oath of Office? Or, has AG Jackley served as a consigliere in providing advice, cover and concealment for his Bosses?
Smell-test asking: “In what month in 2014 did top-echelon state officials launch the plan to move the administration of the millions of dollars of GEAR UP federal grant funds from Mid Central to the SD Board of Regents?”
Badger, Out!
Once again:
A Ballot Initiative to create Dynamic Websites where all Purchase Orders generated by all State and Local Government Offices can be reviewed, is part of the answer to better Government.
Mr. Porter,
Throughout the EB5 remarks I have posted herein, I did not launch the first stone at anyone who posted EB5 comments. My creditability seems to have improved from the initial stone you hurled labeling me to be a bigot — now I am just a bully. Thank you so much!
With regards to your reference to you being a gutless coward, the stones you have hurled at my character confirm so with crystal-clear transparency. With regards to toe to toe, have never tucked tail and run away from confrontational exchange of words in my life.
With regards to my common man’s candid in your face speech and callused nature, I have to ask which front pew do you rest in while spewing your two-faced hypocrisy?
Finally, with regards to my common man’s “rough language”, my freedom speech rights allow me to use such adjectives without being censored by others such as you. With regards to the word “bullshit”, Wiktionary states, “false or exaggerated statements made to impress and deceive the listener rather than inform … an object of frustration and/or disgust, often caused by a perceived deception.”
Porter, is the “bull” your pitching the real issue you are addressing? How about instead of “bull”, I use some other “rough language” placing another word before the “shit” such as — ape, bat, bear, bird, cat, chicken, cow, dog, donkey, elephant, goat, horse, pig, rat, sheep, whale, worm … as referenced in modern dictionaries defining the word “bullshit”.
As you have probably deducted, when I decide to place my name on a ballot for a statewide office my campaign will undoubtedly aim some very colorful language.
Have a wonderful day!
Badger, Out!
“… the honey badger also boasts a dangerous gland at the base of its tail containing a stinky liquid. Generally, it’s just used to mark territory, but should the animal find itself in distress, its biological kneejerk is to release a stink bomb—different, but just as rotten as its sister scent-leaver.”
Sounds (and smells) about right. Badger, stay out.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/63407/11-fierce-facts-about-honey-badger
Don’t worry about Grudz not replying. Today he’s busy. He’s staking out the airports to spy on the South Dakota government officials and elites heading to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board meeting. That starts tomorrow. But, Grudz, you don’t have to go to hear the presentations. It will be live on a link provided by the federal government. I’ll try to tune in at points during the meeting. Here’s the link, in case people in South Dakota might be interested in what could be coming your way:
https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/ListenPage?companyId=909&webcastId=11057
I just want to know who in Pierre new what, when. And I know they knew about it, because I was in the Secretary of Ag’s office, asking about it, and he said it was a Federal Program that they oversaw.
You can blame the Federal Government, but again its a state program that the state prided themselves on, that they apparently didn’t know what was going on with. As someone who has been to Pierre a time or two, I find that hard to believe.
The fed reported in 2013 that the EB-5 program was woefully short of oversight. It reported basically the same thing in 2003. Guess who controlled the purse strings during and after both of these reports? Clue-it weren’t Democrats.
Mercer: “We now seem to be in a new phase, where the federal government is taking definite action against South Dakota…”
http://my605.com/pierrereview/?p=12612
We have our own chris christie (rounds and daugaard!)
christie hired a law firm specialized in covering up christie’s butt. which law firm did denny hire? is rounds “feeling the beads of sweat dripping down his butt crack” (old Joe Butler, Esq. story). This is gonna be hilarious. huge story. about time. why brendan let this slide demands explanation. does obama already know about SD’s republican stink and an inside decision was made to have the Immigration service take down denny and throw rounds out of office?
why do any of us bother letting “el bozo multiple post secondaries” and troll grudz take up cyber space?
Dave,
You hurled the first stone attacking my character with twisted words launched from your honey badger flapping jaws — boilerplate protocol practiced by dishonorable cowards who do not have enough grey matter between their ears to intelligently debate the facts, but instead attack the messenger in a childish manner.
With regards to my casting a second ballot on Election Day on June 4, 2013 in a standalone school board election orchestrated by Mitchell’s Double-Dipping Supt Joe Graves, I did so in the afternoon in the presence of Davison County’s corrupt auditor; doing so was an act of civil disobedience objecting to: (1) A rigged election process that continues to lack a strong system of internal controls in auditor offices statewide failing to segregate election duties and hold staff members accountable for their actions and/or failure to take action; (2) A flaw in the election process that had existed for decades; and (3) The June 5, 2012 Davison County primary election ballot stuffing, ballot scanner data base rigging, initial election results having been tossed out with the official results never publicly reconciled with the election night results; the county auditor having been allowed to use a spreadsheet application to calculate the official results; and the cover-up corruption involving local and state officials. I have neither the time nor energy to share all of the documented facts I have in my possession with you or any other flapping jaws.
I do thank you for the Honey Badger information. However, my honorable character and callused nature are more aligned with the traits of South Dakota’s indigenous American Badger. As described by Wiktionary, the American Badger, “… is an animal that is often underestimated because badgers live quietly until attacked, but when provoked are tenacious fighters. Their lower jaws are firmly locked into long cavities of the skull, so dislocation of the jaw is all but impossible. This enables American badgers to maintain their hold with the utmost tenacity, but limits jaw movement to hinging open and shut, or sliding from side to side without the twisting movement possible for the jaws of most mammals.”
As you now know, my American Badger jaw does not flap twisting my words like your flapping jaw does on a habitual basis.
Have a wonderful day!
Badger, Out!
kudos mercer, cory, tyler and duffy!
No, this thread is not about Craig or about Michael B. It is about how South Dakota’s ruling party allowed so much corruption to take place that the federal government is going to deny the entire state access to a lucrative economic development tool. Throwing South Dakota out of EB-5 is unique. I don’t think there is any other instance where an entire state has been blacklisted from EB-5. Has this kind of thing happened with any other federal program?
Wow, Mr. Kurtz, that is an important development in this ongoing dilemma South Dakota has created for itself. No matter what kind of howling or whining that is going on here about butt hurt feelings, the facts remain as reported, South Dakota is corrupted to the point of no return unless the capos are sent packing. We all owe this “finding” of the federal government on what we have known for a few years now, the republicans cannot be trusted with the keys to the car. They not only have run into the ditch, they have run over us in the process. There are 50 states in this union, along with several territories, the only one that has been denied this kind of federal money is unins. We’re number 1, we’re number 1..in the corruption department. The board of regents is just about to launch a new technical school on the art of the grift with Joop as its professor and Marty as his consigliere. Tuition is being waived if you are in good standing with the tea party and other treasonous organizations.
Cory, excellent restatement of the facts and posed question!
What’s next? Will the US DOE determine that South Dakota is too Corrupt for GEAR UP – rejecting the SD Secretary of DOE’s Oct 2015 application for approval to have the SD Board of Regents be the sub-recipient of remaining annual SD GEAR UP federal grant awards and the 2017-18 $35 million 7-year SD GEAR UP federal grant?
Given the SD Board of Regents entanglement with the EB-5 scandal, perhaps the answer to the above question will be — SD Secretary of DOE GEAR UP application rejected by US DOE after consulting with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services concerning the roll SD Board of Regents played in EB 5 corruption — SD too Corrupt for GEAR UP!
Badger, Out!
My apologies to readers for goading Guymon and contributing to the off-topic comments that have littered this thread. Cory is correct — we must focus on how corruption in our state has robbed its citizens of scarce funding in the past by allowing it to be either be pocketed by crooks (Joop) or simply frittered away to who knows where, and how it also is going to make future economic development much more difficult as it appears a source of federal economic development funding will be drying up.
What follows is just a spit balling — brainstorming consideration:
If the Oct 2015 SD Secretary of DOE’s GEAR UP application is rejected by US DOE after consulting with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services concerning the roll SD Board of Regents played in EB 5 corruption, the rejection of SD Secretary of DOE’s GEAR UP application would indicate in a crystal-clear manner that top-echelon state officials (who hold all the power, control and influence) are simply too damn corrupt to be trusted to honor and comply with GEAR UP federal grant requirements in delivering oversight guidance and monitoring over-watch accountability due to the present degree of cronyism and nepotism already entangled in SD Board of Regents operations.
Do not know if this is another administrative option for GEAR UP, but I would not be surprised to find the Bureau of Indian Affairs DOE already being an US DOE recipient for GEAR UP federal grant awards ear tagged to support American Indian youth education programs for tribes in other states. If South Dakota is found to be too Corrupt for GEAR UP, then perhaps the BIA DOE would be a viable option for reinstating this valued educational program throughout South Dakota reservations, universities and technical schools?
Badger, Out!
Craig,
Forgive me, but will you please dispense with the Badger, Out! shtick? I know it’s your brand on this blog, but it outshouts the seriousness and quality of your message.
Actually, I was wondering the same thing as you’ve stated above. How would a massive corruption case like the racketeering scam affect South Dakota’s eligibility for current and future federal assistance? And would this level of widespread malfeasance and absent oversight and transparency hurt the state’s eligibility for grants, like the National Science Foundation?
If criminal behavior done so openly is not even going to warrant any involvement other than a whitewash by the Attorney General or the Legislative Operations & Audit Committee, how can any program financier be confident the money isn’t going to be stolen and misused? Why would anyone deal with a state like that? “Trust me” shouldn’t cut it with anyone.
Cory,
Thanks for bringing this blog to where it belongs, the republican corruption of EB-5.
Since we now know where a lot of the EB-5 money went, is now time to find out who signed off on these discrepancies. The $5 million that is just plain missing, money doesn’t just disappear, someone got it. The same goes with all the accounts mentioned by you and Mercer.
It seems to be clear that the FBI has closed the investigation of EB-5, but has Homeland Security opened its own investigation?
Meanwhile, the United States Attorney’s Office, is now planning on extensive vacations for all there. As they are a major part in the corruption allowance here in South Dakota, it now seems to them that they should just take extended vacations to give notice to the crooks and liars that it is now open season. The Feds say on one hand that South Dakota is to corrupt to deal with and on the other hand, they say they are really to damn busy watching their belly buttons to do anything about it while the bodies stack up and the corrupted money flows, they dither.
Now, let’s bring Mike Rounds and our other congressionals into the conversation.
How hard do you think Mike Rounds is working to restore the Gear Up funding to his cronies?
And more importantly is he going after Immigration Services to restore his piggy bank EB-5 program?
I would really like to see Daugaard’s and Rounds letters of support for both these programs.
I totally agree with you Roger but I’d like to see any reaction from Daugaard and Rounds.
KELO is reporting that USDoEd approved the BOR takeover of GEARUp.
http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/switch-for-gear-up-grant-approved-by-feds/?id=186285
Good questions Roger,
Time will tell.
As far as putting Gear Up in BIA education. I must tell you, and remind you…. BIA education is a dismal failure in indian education and Keith Moore spent 2 years trying to find a way to steal from it while he was Director. Then Kevin Washburn, Moores boss, issued a press release saying Moore completed a successful 2 year term. LOL. Moore embarrassed me as a South dakotan and a tribal member,
Corey had some better ideas for Gear-up administration.
Corey, I know you don’t believe in life after death…but…Pat Duffy might just be dancing at your efforts to get your arms around the EB-5 scandal.
Mainstream media in SD is weak. State subpoenas for Bollen records? I read it here first. Thanks DFP!
Remember that the decision to suspend and ultimately revoke South Dakota’s Regional EB-5 bank isn’t just based on corruption it’s also based on sustainable results. There are no sustainable results. Every project has been a disaster. We’re taking millions of dollars that was put up and next to nothing to show for it. There is a reason foreigners wanted to have a project here. They want access to SD’s trust laws. They could literally shield billions here from taxes.
Excellent point daleb, we South Dakotans are sitting on billions with a b worth of trust money from the various clans of stolen wealth in America. They pay little to nothing for us to be their Cayman Island banks. The trust laws here are an invite for money laundering, another slap in the face for law and order. Daugaard and henchmen go to the sources of the wealth for political donations and pats on the ass for being such good soldiers to the big bosses.
need to start fresh with new pol party. greens as in salad green party. old way is corrupt and broken. poeple tired of same old same old look at race for Prez.
Has anyone seen Bollen around South Dakota in the past several months?
SD executive and legislative branches too corrupt to be eligible for EB 5 program?
SD Judicial System too corrupt to inforce an effective checks and balances system?
SD AG’s Office too corrupt to investigate EB 5 or any of the MCEC federal grant programs?
SD DOE and SD Board of Regents too corrupt to be eligible for GEAR UP program?
SD DOE too corrupt to provide teachers with adequate compensation?
SD DOE corruptly lines cronies pockets with US DOE federal grant funds?
SD SOS Office too corrupt to protect the integrity of the election process?
SD SOS Office too corrupt to guarantee the accuracy of election results?
SD SOS Office too corrupt to secure and maintain confidential business entity records?
… What will be the next SD corruption headline?
Badger, Out!
SD DOE and Board of Regents
badger out? what? caught in cage? animal rights?
If your looking for Bollen, just call Marco. He will reply Marion and you have the twerp.
Is there any reasonable way to estimate how many dollars are lost to SD by the cancellation of EB-5? Would it be more than $100 million a year?
Probably look to honest states that have initiated the EB-5 and you can get a pretty good idea.
Oooops, one of the pins seems to be in South Dakota …. FAIL
http://eb5visanews.com/
http://eb5visanews.com/eb5-reaches-vail/
KSFY and KELO are reporting that the state is going to sue SDRC, Inc. That should be a circus!
More dog and pony Kathy Tyler. That will end up like getting into a fist fight with yourself, it only makes people laugh when you see Jim Carrey do it.
According to Porter’s first link,the fed shutdown Victorville,Californias EB-5 center for failure to follow the rules. The case is on appeal. South Dakota is the only state shut down that I have seen,so far.
EB5 issue is not specifically a South Dakota issue but a national one. Check This Forbe’s article. http://fortune.com/2014/07/24/immigration-eb-5-visa-for-sale/
Here’s another. http://www.wsj.com/articles/posh-tower-proposed-for-struggling-new-york-neighborhood-central-park-south-1444728781
Here’s an SEC raid on IL EB-5 http://watchdog.org/77761/sec-raids-illinois-based-cash-for-visa-program/
Boswell: “everyone else is doing it so let’s all run off the cliff together!”
No Larry it’s an ill-conceived program with very little oversight across this nation. The USCIS is now starting to provide oversight. But this isn’t specific to South Dakota and it isn’t the only place it is abused by individuals.
Bendagate was all about sex trafficking hidden under layers of SDGOP slime: hookers in Pierre? It’s deja vu all over again.
If this wasn’t a big deal there wouldn’t be 200+ comments on a Democrat’s blog in South Dakota.
Well, evidently the corruption around EB-5 and USCIS’s decision to bar South Dakota from participating in that program does not trigger alarm bells at the federal Department of Education to question whether South Dakota ought to be participating in GEAR UP.
That’s not all bad: as Nick Estes reminded us, GEAR UP is a good program, giving lots of Indian students positive experiences and preparation for college. We should not punish Indian kids by taking away a good program just because the state let certain people run it poorly. But I would still think the feds would view our GEAR UP reboot with added scrutiny.
Michael, yes, yes, we are aware of EB-5 problems elsewhere. (Your WSJ link repeats information I gave at the top and thus is not new information making your point stronger. I read the Forbes article during the Rounds campaign last year. I reported on concerns about securities fraud in South Dakota’s EB-5 program in December 2013.) But barring South Dakota from EB-5 is unique to South Dakota and indicates the level of corruption in Pierre. Cry all you want about federal oversight… but will you agree federal oversight matters specifically because corrupt dudes in Pierre and Aberdeen abused the program? And does the fact that other states have seen EB-5 abuse too invalidate anything I’ve said about the corrupt abuse of EB-5 in South Dakota?
Again Corey do you have a specific Name on who is corrupt? The basic principle of the US Constitution is that you are innocent until proven guilty. Who’s in the wrong as my cousin pointed out? The one who cooked the books. That’s was most likely Richard Benda.
I do have to chuckle. One of the BOR’s members was a main player in EB-5. And the entire BOR wasn’t totally innocent.
Mr. Boswell is working very hard to try to cover up the piles of manure that have been spread here in South Dakota with the EB-5 and other corruption cases. Anything to take the spotlight away from his hero’s Daugaard, Rounds, Jackley, Bollen and Benda. Mr. Boswell searches already plowed ground hoping to find a nugget that will give his gang a reprieve from that mean ole Federal government that has shut down his beloved EB-5 here. Mr. Boswell trolls along and along and along fighting the windmills in his mind. Someone should write a lengthy book about fighting windmills, I think it would sell.
I will give you this Corey, I believe there is enough here to support an investigation, but not from within the State and specifically independent politically. Otherwise it’s all he said she said.
This really is absurd, you know. Marty wasn’t all that concerned about Joop Bollen holding onto and, no doubt, destroying these financial documents (per Board of Regents regulations will be the explanation, which is laughable) before USCIS yanked SD’s ability to play in EB-5. How and why the FBI didn’t have the documents for its investigation is a bit curious. What did Marty tell the FBI? “Well, the BOR told Joop to give ’em back. He told them to go pound sand. He won’t budge. Sorry.”
I think Bollen will end up reimbursing the State for some legal costs, but he won’t have many documents of any real significance left to turn over when he finally complies with Marty’s request.
Michael, we’re getting nowhere, are we? I’ve offered my links, which say quite specifically that Joop Bollen broke numerous rules and laws. Is that not sufficient response to your question? And where is your response to my questions? You may be here to throw verbal punches, but I’m here to get answers. Engage, please.
Kathy, I share your alarm that we would hand GEAR UP over to the same entity under which Bollen was able to turn EB-5 into his personal money-making machine. Regents, we will be watching.
Michael Boswell,
Tell us some news we don’t already know. Two years ago Cory was reporting on EB-5 in South Dakota and other parts of the country. Go to the old Madville site and check it out.
Actually the EB-5 program could be a worthwhile economic development tool for South Dakota if Rounds and his cronies kept it honest, but they didn’t.
It wasn’t the feds that lost $5 million. it wasn’t the feds that abused $3 million expense accounts, and it wasn’t the feds that set up Cayman Island bank accounts. It was all done here in South Dakota by republican politicians and their cronies.
Will the stolen money ever be accounted for, Michael?
Can you prove that Mike Rounds or Dennis Duagard knew anything? if you can’t it’s all political muckraking. If Joop Bollen is truly guilty of a specific chargeable crime, then the Fed will get him if not the state. But unethical doesn’t mean illegal (for Joop Bollen).
220 and counting.
Can you prove that Rounds and Daugaard didn’t know anything?
Here’s the quote you should all read from our second President John Adams. ”
“It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, “whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,” and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.”
– John Adams”
http://www.john-adams-heritage.com/quotes/
The above says I don’t have to as they are innocent until proven guilty.
Michael,
Dakota Free Press is not a legal court, it is a court of public opinion where we don’t necessarily have to operate under the presumption of innocence. I had a friend that was a homicide detective and he would say that going into a murder investigation everyone was guilty until he could eliminate them.
So far in Cory’s two year investigation of EB-5 no one can be eliminated in either the EB-5 thefts and cover ups or the death of Richard Benda.
We don’t know what Rounds and Daugaard knew or didn’t know, do we?
That is why it is called an investigation.
If Rounds and Daugaard didn’t know a single thing about the EB-5 cancer happening under their noses, why in the hell didn’t they know? Were they just ignorant of Bollen’s and Benda’s action or were they intentionally ignorant?
Either way, it demonstrates how little regard Rounds and Daugaard had for the future of South Dakota.
Roger does your boss watch your every move? How many people are caught for embezzlement and the boss doesn’t find out until millions are gone. I know a few examples here in South Dakota that has happened. When I was on convoy in Iraq was the LTCol know what was going on the Road to assure we complied with the Rules of Engagement. Was he going to jail if an act against the ROE was done. NO
You are right Roger it is not a court of law, but a political blog and is why I have said that Corey is not non partisan to assert wrong doing by anyone. He’s too vest in his own liberal positon to be objective. So you can crucify the Republican Administration in a blog, but that doesn’t translate to reality. But if the parties came together and agreed to an outside of the State of South Dakota commission not obligated to a particular party to investigate EB-5 and Gear UP. I would be all for that.
During SD’s initial 10-years of the EB-5 program from 2004 -2013: 705 approved apps $500,000 @ $352,500,000 total economic development revenue; or $35,250,000 per year. Over the next decade, decisions made by Gov Rounds and Gov Duagaard will apparently cause the citizens of South Dakota to lose at least $352,500,000 in EB-5 economic development revenues; and how many thousand new jobs?
Evidently the greed needs of cronies were more important than providing new job opportunities for the next generations of South Dakotans? What kind of a leadership example did the corruption surrounding the EB-5 Program set for the next generation of South Dakotans who are launching their careers? Top-echelon state officials told the next generation, “WE DO NOT CARE & YOU NOT MATTER!” Such failed leadership is responsible for a high percentage of the next generation continuously leaving this state; and never returning to become residents of South Dakota ever again.
Suggest the SD House present a bill in 2016 for consideration. Bill #1: The tourism “Great Faces and Great Places” marketing promotion shall be replaced with South Dakota’s claim to fame, “SD the Most Corrupt State in the Union”; and “SD the Most Corrupt State in the Union” shall be carved into the chests of the frowning faces of George, Tom, Teddy and Abe at Mount Rushmore.
Who the hell would want to move to South Dakota, launch a career and raise a family? Other than favored insiders who are supporters of the Machine’s corrupt system of one-party rule which has achieved such notoriety — “SD the Most Corrupt State in the Union!”
Badger, Out!
Over the next decade, how many thousands of new jobs that would have bee created via investment of EB-5 revenues in economic development did decisions made by Gov Rounds and Gov
Michael have you said the same things Pat Powers on DWC. Isn’t he doing the same thing?
The difference with Cory is that he backs what he says with facts. I’d invite you to go back and read what he written.
I have read it Owen but it lacks proof in a court of law.
231.
It might be Michael but as was mentioned before this isn’t a court of law and what Cory has dug up is enough to get a investigation going. Sadly that hasn’t happened yet
Here is a quote you should all read when evaluating Mr. Boswell’s many words of little sense.
“When you investigate a possible crime you are supposed to remove your predispositions and investigate assuming everyone is innocent until proven guilty.” ~ Michael Boswell
Boswell, find me one – just one – investigator that operates this way. One. Just one!
In the meantime, get a clue.
Walter Cronkite
235
Having read several of Boswell’s comments, I would be amazed to learn he was able to read his field manuals.
After reading the drivel from Mr. Boswell, I think of Sibby and wonder how he is doing.
Walter Cronkite was exercised caution in reporting the news. Reporting the news is different that investigating a crime. Try again.
Cory is a liberal Democratic blogger and activist, he doesn’t deny or dodge that so why is it an issue with you Michael?
You seem to refuse to look at facts Cory and Mercer have put forth and are ill informed about the depths of the EB-5 scandal.
For instance, did you know that when Cory helped break this big news Daugaard secretly canceled the contract with Bollen? BTW, why is Bollen still a South Dakota Regional Center?
Did you know that after Benda’s murder/suicide it was revealed that Jackley had prepared an arrest warrant for Benda for multiple counts of embezzlement? Just think, if Jackley had arrested Benda when he should have, Benda would be alive today and talking to investigators. Why did Jackley not arrest Benda when he should have?
Mr. Sanchez is right, if investigators operated on the presumption of innocence, there would be nothing to investigate.
All I see is political muckraking. I have no problem with a truly non partisan non South Dakotan investigation. But if that investigation turns out that no one is guilty in the Republican Adminstration, I don’t think the Democrats would accept it. They like beating the Republicans with the EB5 Stick. I don’t think they want to prove anything as they just might lose that stick to use. Again if you have specific legal evidence beyond Benda or Bollen please present it. I have already said that Bollen did have a conflict of interest. But can you prove someone in BOR or Governor’s office committed a crime (specifically the Governor’s office). Right now all I am getting is hearsay and opinion.
There doesnt need to be an ounce of corruption to shut doen GOED and SDRB. There are no results. Its actually written into the law, that a certain level of results have to be met or it will get shut down. The metrics in place to be able to prove sustainable results are very loose. Now the only question it why.
Another point, there was never a full audit of the program. The state wants over a hundred dollars an hour to research and produce documents. As far as the AG’s office goes, their prerogative is to protect the Governor and state officers. Its likely that unless a Democrat wins governor we will never know the depths of the corruption of our government. I imagine there would be a few fires and people disappear before it ever got to that point. Nothin to see here.
A true journalist or a scientist for that matter doesn’t going into an investigation with an expected outcome already in mind. I know Corey can’t say that. That’s what I have a problem with and why I doubt his objectivity. He may be able to investigate, but can he do it objectively without expecting an outcome. I doubt it. I also think the thought of an Independent investigation would deny you any victims. I am all about the rule of law and the presumption of innocence. That’s what the basis of real law and real civility stand for. Not mob rule or tiny noises in the night.
This Boswell has no Dr. Johnson, unless he regards the author of the Dakota Wretch Collective as one. His comments on journalism show that he has never read a text on journalism or procedural manual, or if he did his comprehension problems prevailed. It is distracting from the import of of the original post that he should receive so much attention. There are people in South Dakota who have refused to let the malignancy that underlies the NBP/EB-5 business be glossed over, despite the state’s covering up and the justice department’s unexplained dismissal of the evidence. Those who have relentlessly asked for investigation and explanation of the of the obvious crimes committed are receiving some recogntion in the measures reported in this post.
By keeping the pressure on through this blog and the efforts of people who refuse to deny corruption when their faces are thrust in it, the perpetrators will eventually be revealed.
Mr. Boswell wants to have the proof set out in front of him. The proof is all around with so many traps, that they will start to be sprung once an serious federal investigation starts. The local boys are in it up to their eyeballs so they if they look down, they only see their own sludge. Patience Mr. Boswell, patience. Blogs like this are the only way we can keep the steady call for that day to start. From the report that you have read, the Feds acknowledge that the state is corrupt to the core, not my words, their’s. I am amused to see you still blathering about nothing to see. The curtain will be raised soon enough, so squirm and be uncomfortable.
Conservatism is dying. Harper in Canada has been shown the door. People are sick and tired of the corruption that the conservatives have shoved down our throats. When will we tire of the trash that is stinking up the place here?
With regards to corruption, President Theodore Roosevelt explained, “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not Guilty’.”
Any doubt in anyone’s mind how US Senator Mike Rounds replies when the roll is called?
Badger, Out!
My favorite words for Rounds, Daugaard, Jackley and Joop would be “Will the defendants please rise” Those 5 words are all I ask for. Crooks and liars need to find a new home should be our motto here.
Boswell…You’re using I, me or mine six to eight times per paragraph. It’s apparent to the group that there’s really only one thing on your mind. We’ve got you and your Republic Party so jumpy that you’d say anything. You know, like a felon in the trunk of a cop car. It’s time you go back on your meds, think some more about your favorite subject ( your own happy ass) and enjoy this take down of your “swine class” with we, the “new sheriff in town”. WELCOME TO LOSERVILLE … POPULATION YOU!!! heh HEH ho
Have y’all in the group noticed that when hunting begins and the guns come out that there’re a couple ex-military commentors that get a bit tilted? The angry words and twisted ideas flow from their brains like the hot sulphur and lead spew from the gun barrels. This folks is PTSD. We’re liberals and we’ve compassion. That’s why they seek us out. As frustrating and unfulfilling as life is for you guys, know that the Republic Party is part of your pain. We on the left appreciate your military experiences and realize what you’re up against. We forgive you.
this blog is sick! reminds me of x-files with all the conspiricy theories.
Kris, refresh me on what part of my original post, the USCIS decision to bar South Dakota from EB-5, or the state’s lawsuit against Joop Bollen’s SDRC Inc. relies on any whacky conspiracy theory.
Michael continues down the boring and irrelevant path of challenging my credentials. So tiring. Michael, I’ve said before, I could grant that I’m a complete jerk, that I eat boogers, that I support moving the Vikings to L.A., and it would not change the truth of a single thing I’ve reported in this story or in my hundreds of preceding posts on the EB-5 scandal. Pick your lane: are you interested in understanding and promoting good government, or are you here to distract us from the real issues with false arguments and personal attacks?
Corey, I question your motives are they to find guilt or to grind your axe. I have asked other journalist on your intentions and the common thread is yes you have an axe to grind. That makes you unbiased. Sorry that give you less credibility and makes you a political hack. If you found no real guilt of anyone in the Republican Administration beyond Joop Bollen and Richard Benda you wouldn’t be satisfied. You would still want to swing that axe scream corruption. Well mismanagement is not corruption Conflict of Interest is not corruption they aren’t illegal. The worse you can say is that at least in Joop Bollen his actions are unethical again that’s not illegal. If you think this is a personal attack well, I think you should look within yourself and see if you want to bring people to justice or you are just trying to dig up dirt. If you are just trying to dig up dirt, well if the shoe fits wear it. As far as the USCIS to bar SD from EB-5, good ridden. It’s a failed Fed Program that has been abused across this nation. Abused because the Fed didn’t provide the upfront oversight to assure it couldn’t be abused. If you turn on the money faucet, some are going to take. That’s said but true. But that said you have to prove who’s doing the taking and prove in a court of law.
oops bias.
Good news, Boswell,
Keep talking …..
• Reversal on schizophrenia treatment.
A landmark study funded by the U.S. government and out today concludes that schizophrenia patients benefit from fewer drugs and more talk therapy, compared with the usual drug-focused treatment.
More than two million Americans have a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Antipsychotic drugs can blunt hallucinations and delusions, but come with debilitating side effects.
Porter that’s the kind of name calling and mudslinging that I expect from the Democratic Party and Liberals (and some far right conservatives). It’s the old military to dehumanize the enemy to make it easier to kill. Now that’s really compassionate and really classy. The fact is if the Democrats didn’t have the EB-5 stick to beat South Dakota Republicans they wouldn’t have much of anything else. That’s why guys like Corey and Bob really don’t want to prove anyone is guilty. That way they can grind their axes and scream corruption. Proof and evidence of a violation you can use in a court of law. If their investigations are so great why isn’t there a Federal indictment? Because they don’t have enough evidence to prove someone is guilty of a crime. If they do then I will be first one to congratulate them.
Thank you Porter for proving my point exactly
Have y’all in the group noticed that when hunting begins and the guns come out that there’re a couple ex-military commentors that get a bit tilted? The angry words and twisted ideas flow from their brains like the hot sulphur and lead spew from the gun barrels. This folks is PTSD. We’re liberals and we’ve compassion. That’s why they seek us out. As frustrating and unfulfilling as life is for you guys, know that the Republic Party is part of your pain. We on the left appreciate your military experiences and realize what you’re up against. We forgive you.
You’re probably a sensible guy, when the PTSD isn’t raging. Here’s some PoliSci basics for you. In politics perception is reality. I’m not here to put anyone in jail. I’m here to convince people that the Republican party is corrupt. All across the internet, South Dakota voters are commenting how embarrassed they are that they voted “R” and how they’ll think twice before doing it again. The perception is that you guys are crooks. And in politics, that’s the new reality. WELCOME TO LOSERVILLE … population, YOU.
No PTSD here Porter sorry to burst your bubble. Just a Veteran who knows that it stinks on the left and the right and no one wants to find the guilty parties.
Whether Michael or I suffer from PTSD is irrelevant to the facts of South Dakota’s corruption.
Michael, I question your motives. I call you biased. Therefore, everything you say must be invalid, right? That’s basically the argument you’re using to distract us from talking about the facts of South Dakota’s corruption of the EB-5 program. And it’s a faulty argument. Come back when you’ve got facts to discuss. I’m not the story here, and neither is Michael. EB-5 is.
Why is Troy Jones not answering my question? How come the SDWC never ever has any articles on EB5? It just makes them look like they’re in denial over it, and in hiding.
I mean, really EB5 pulling out of SD is big news. Come on GOP you have all the power, don’t be afraid of this issue. You really don’t have to worry about dems taking over.
Hay Boswell, scientific method, ever heard of that? you start with a theory, then try to prove it right or wrong, modify your theory then try again…
you don’t just start with two items, throw them together and wait to see what happens….
oh wait….. hold my beer and watch this….
Michael: You do know this blog doesn’t exactly work like the mainstream media … don’t you? It is a political blog, not a news blog. Cory has consistently provided his readers a mix of original reporting, and stories produced by others in the media (such as Kenneke and Mercer). Cory also provides his own unique point of view and commentary on the happenings of this state. You keep lamenting that Cory “is biased”. People who understand how the world works know that they can expect Cory’s unique opinion on political happenings in our state and nation, and that’s why they visit this blog several times a day. Scroll to the top and you’ll see that Cory describes Dakota Free Press as “South Dakota’s True Liberal Media.” The reading of Cory’s and other people’s point of view in this blog and in the comments doesn’t change the facts reported here one iota.
Now to get back on topic. You’ve stated, “Well mismanagement is not corruption Conflict of Interest is not corruption they aren’t illegal. The worse you can say is that at least in Joop Bollen his actions are unethical again that’s not illegal.” You also state, “…it stinks on the left and the right and no one wants to find the guilty parties.” Do you believe the state of South Dakota has filed State of South Dakota v. SDRC Inc. simply because it doesn’t like Joop’s ethics? By the way, don’t bother answering this question if you can’t provide anything but your oft-repeated slamming of Cory, slamming of liberals, and slamming of South Dakotans who are curious about what certainly appears to be a great deal of wrongdoing very high in our state government.
Good intelligent comments here this morning, CH.
The party of me?
Loserville?
Troy, did you forget to set your dfp alarm?
Yep Roger, all you have are theories. Unprovable, unrepeatable theories. When you come up with something concrete that implicates someone, we’ll listen. Just keep telling people Benda was murdered and no one will have to destroy your credibility. You will do that all on your own. There is a reason why not even Cory will write articles on all the speculation that people are trying to pass off as fact. Facts have provable results and the facts right now say the corruption these days is limited to a couple people in powerful positions. They got caught and implying anyone associated must have been involved…..welp….sounds like complete fear mongering and political posturing. As was said before, even if a independent outside investigation found nothing, you would all be crying the same thing. Whiney ass democrats are all I hear.
DFP is biased and DWToilet is far right and bias…….er…..I meant fair and balanced just like Fake Noize network.
PP is days away from pulling the plug on DWC.
Mr Buresch,
Bollen signed a contract to himself?
Tried to cover up the suit in California?
Of course there is missing money?
I’m not a whining ass democrat. Your wrong.
I understand the repubs of south dakota think they are voting for certain values when they chec X by these names. But at some point why don’t you looking the mirror and say” I’m tired of being a lemming”
We do not have all the ” facts” my friend. ..we do not. Doubt we ever will.
Have a great day.
You act out like this every year at hunting season, Boswell. It’s the guns that set you off. Check the records. We had this same discussion about a different item last year and maybe the year before as I recall. Try getting back on those meds, huh? You too, Badger. You’ve been scary this week.
As I said before, you have one or two people committing wrongdoing and you are trying to implicate the entire party and government because anyone involved must be in on it. That’s what makes you all sound like crazy, whiney ass democrats.
Mike from Iowa, yes, folks have seen Joop Bollen in South Dakota this year. He maintains his residence in Aberdeen.
Jenny, you are absolutely right: the federal government banning a state from participation in a federal program due to corruption is huge news, the kind of loss on which elections are won or lost under normal circumstances. Let’s see what further information we get from USCIS, what the state does to keep access to EB-5, and what State v. SDRC Inc. reveals.
Daniel, I don’t think it’s crazy or whiny to say that two generations of one-party rule (for which the ineffective and divided SDDP bears some responsibility) increases the opportunities for corruption. GOED/EB-5 and MCEC/GEAR UP show us that.
If Buresh says we’re crazy, the smart money doubles down.
Well Said Daniel. Corey, in any legal case when you a trying to prove guilt you have to have evidence to convict. The Defense doesn’t have to prove anything. I am not disputing anything you say, but it’s not enough to prove anyone is guilty of a crime. It doesn’t prove anything beyond mismanagement and that’s just not a crime. If your intent is to prove someone is guilty of something, then get on with it. If not and you just want to use this a political beating stick, then your just as bad as those you are beating (it smells to the left and right). You’re just as corrupt as those you are pointing your finger at. Remember where those other fingers are pointing. It’s been 2 years now since Benda has passed. You, Bob, The Democratic Party, and the Republican Challengers have yet to prove anything. It’s on you sir either get on with it or you are part of the problem. Just as guilty as those you say are with guilt. With that I am done with this conversation.
Once again with regards to corruption, President Theodore Roosevelt explained, “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not Guilty’.”
Good morning Michael Boswell, technicality bull—t artists such as yourself, hide behind stacks of law books dotting your damnable “i’s” and crossing your repulsive “t’s” arguing about every letter of every word, but do not have the intestinal fortitude nor the visionary foresight to step forward putting it all on the line. Technicality con artists such as yourself, have little firsthand understanding of the principle core values upon which honorable leadership is founded that demands “24-7-365” integrity, honor, candor and courage.
Good morning to all honorable South Dakotans which includes all of our GOP, DEM and IND family members, friends and customers who know none of us have all the right answers. The most important issue at hand with regards to the EB-5 mess is the flawed leadership decision making processes used by Gov Rounds, Gov Daugaard and AG Jackley which have launched South Dakota to the top of the corruption pyramid as “The Most Corrupt State in the Union”!
The issue at hand is not one based on technical legalities, religious protocols or partisan politics. The issue at hand is based on principle core values: right v. wrong; honorable v. dishonorable; forthrightly candid v. discretely cloaked; cowardly v. courageously. The U.S. Senate needs to launch a nonpartisan investigation based upon the findings contained in the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services 18-page document sent to Governor Daugaard on Sept 28, 2015. The US Senate investigative committee needs to question Gov Rounds, Gov Daugaard and AG Jackley under oath concerning all findings identified in the USC&IS 18-page document.
End of Discussion! Call the Roll!
Badger, Out!
Benda killed himself. ..he became “collateral damage”. Buresch n Boswell don’t seem care he committed suicide over EB-5. There were no other crimes in this case. The one guy that stole ended his own life? End of story? How convenient it that?
If Jackey had an indictment he should have arrested Benda right away and maybe Richard would be alive today . If that was you or me that arrest would have taken place.
Na…there’s no problems in Pierre. Nothing to look at here folks, move on fights over.
Jenny,
Why don’t I answer your question? First, I don’t read every column in DFP looking for questions to me. Second, I don’t feel a need to read or or comment about issues that have been reduced to civil or criminal matters. Real life isn’t like on Law & Order and white crime takes longer to pursue than catching a guy red handed with a gun in a convenience store. It has been 7 years since the financial meltdown and we are just now seeing both civil and criminal resolution. It is unrealistic to think we will have full clarity on this issue for years.
That said, to answer your question directly, I occasionally write about matters of interest to me or matters where I want the feedback and commentary of those who read DWC. My guess is Pat is the same way.
Both Cory and Pat run blogs where they get to pick the editorial content, have no obligation to cover every issue, and exercise that prerogative every day. There have been a lot of issues with Obama Pat thinks are worthy of conversation that Cory doesn’t. I think that is fine and good because it is my opinion the diversity of perspective makes both DFP and DWC more valuable to the whole than either would be without the other.
well DB, i think you are missing the point. All theories need to be brought forth and thoroughly examined, no matter how solid or far fetched. In order to do this, in this format, a discussion needs to take place. To flat out deny that anything has happened or ignoring the other point of view defeats the purpose of the discussion. A lot of information has been gathered on this subject that is easy to confirm from outside sources. Is this the entire story? I think not. I don’t believe it is necessary to produce concrete evidence on a political blog, but raise enough logical theories to inspire our fearless leaders to fully investigate and serve justice where necessary. If not, perhaps they need to be replaced..
Shorter Troy: SDGOP has peaked.
Spike,
I just saw your post after I hit send on my above comment. Suicide is the ultimate irrational act. No matter what one faces, self-destruction is still disproportionate. As someone who knows people intimately who have dealt with suicide, the implication failure or action by Jackley, the Department of Education, federal investigators, etc. is the cause (or to contemplate it is a likely outcome or a benefit) is inappropriate. The suicide of Richard Benda and murder-suicide by Scott Westerhuis is tragic. While I assume the cancellation of the SDDOE contract with Mid-central was warranted, because of the tragedy I’m sure people at the SDDOE are wondering at their core a lot of “what ifs.” Same with those in the AG’s office who informed Rich Benda he was being investigated.
If you, God forbid, were associated with a suicide in your family, you wouldn’t want people adding to the self-incrimination. We should not be doing that to our public servants. Agree or disagree with their positions, actions, or even abilities but I ask you treat them as you should be treated if you were so involved with a suicide.
Shorter Troy: corruption okay when SDGOP does it.
DB-these one or two crooks weren’t crooking in a vacuum. They operated because wingnuts made it possible for them to commit these alleged crimes without oversight. They operated within wingnut dominated/controlled administrations which had opportunities to ferret out answers and didn’t bother. Alarm bells were ringing and wingnuts did virtually nothing to investigate their own. Your whole party in SoDak is a stinking cess[pool of corruption and cover-up,imho.
Troy,I imagine even you realize that Powers goes off on Obama,Democrat,witch hunts,all wingnuts seem to. Cory seeks truth,justice and the ‘murrican way. That is the difference between the two blogs.
Ok, let’s take this thing to 300 comments. Bollen is spilling his guts in ways Rich Benda could do only after a shotgun blast. Mike Rounds colluded to defraud not only the federal government but paid bribes to cover up his involvement with the prostitution rings that have worked the Pierre area for decades.
Even after Jean Rounds asked him not to run for US Senate Tike Mike knew he had to to prevent Marty from probing his pile and to keep Brendan Johnson from opening his investigation to the public. Why? Because Tim Johnson got money from the EB5 program, too.
Expect Randy Seiler to announce Joop has been offered immunity from prosecution.
Guess where Jackley is at present, when the crap has hit the fan here? Checking on his stash perhaps. The cockroaches are running for cover, there is a pall over the Rounds-Daugaard offices of corruption as the drip continues. A good day for South Dakota when honest folks can hope to look to government for what its purpose is supposed to be, to provide honest services for the tax dollars we honestly submit. Lets all hope that this is the beginning of that and the end of Future Funds and the like that drain our tax dollars to the pockets of the corrupt.
If your on to something Mr. Kurtz, do tell. There has to be a reason Brendan helped to cover the crap by looking the other way.
The Janklow family has been sponsoring Filipino immigrants for over fifty years: anyone who believes this thing isn’t endemic is delusional.
http://cis.org/north/finally-uscis-zaps-south-dakotas-eb-5-regional-center
“Finally — USCIS Zaps South Dakota’s EB-5 Regional Center
“While there have been many reports of EB-5 scandals around the county — it is a lightly policed program involving apparently easy investment funds that has attracted a wonderful array of aliens and citizens, schemers and crooks, as we wrote earlier — all previous attempts by government agencies to uncover the South Dakota problems came to naught.
“The Republican governor and attorney general, and the GOP-dominated state legislature, took numerous steps to block any serious inquiries and to blame everything on the late Richard Benda, the dead man. An FBI report on the situation was never made public; it was turned over the acting U.S. attorney, a man wanting appointment as the U.S. attorney, who, I suspect, felt it was too hot to handle.”
How are the South Dakota newspapers covering this story? Living in Mitchell, I take the Daily Republic in part, to support the decent writers and employees who work there. However, I had to look on page 4B of the sports section to find a report on this EB-5 mess. It was from AP Pierre.
By contrast in the Argus leader which I take for an explanation of news, the Argus saw fit to put its EB-5 story on the front page with an appropriate headline and Dana Ferguson’s name.
I would like to hear by the time this gets past 300 comments what type of coverage other readers have?
Is it just me, or does Mr B’s presence create the typical feel of the a Republican trying to discredit the messenger so no one listens to the message? Not aligned with any group? Just a concerned citizen? The voracity of comments tends to make one think it could be just a bit more. Just a bit too strong, Mr B!
Word on the street has it that Michael Moore is coming to Pierre to launch a new movie investigating “The Most Corrupt State in the Union”. Rumor has it the title of the documentary is going to be something like “Bosses Seek Cover and Concealment Provided by Consigliere”.
Badger, Out!
Thanks Mr. Newquist. The “too hot to handle” really means to dangerous to handle. A man could turn up dead dealing with this gang. Can we finally get to the bottom of what happened to the dead guy? It looks and sounds more like a hit than taking a chance that the stick might break and you would just be wounded. Unseal the arrest warrant that was current on the days before the incident at the scene. Jackley claimed that he was going to charge Benda, what for?
It would appear the RCJ has awoken from a 20 some year slumber and actually did a story on EB5…..
Several have thought the same Mr. Kurtz, The Boz is trolling for dollars. He is the gift that we should ignore because when you open the gift, it reeks of Rounds poo.
Marty, Brendan and a host of others law schooled together with similar commitments, party be damned. I doubt TJ collected on eb5, Larry.
When the RCJ writes something, anything that goes against the right wing, the cat is out of the bag. Time for Rounds to move on back to the plains of Dakota for a timeout for a little bit. Marion maybe heading to Marion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Penitentiary,_Marion oh, the irony of it all. Cellmates with Daugaard, a Chicago kind of boy himself. The two can idle away hours learning even more skills on duplicity from Rod on how to market a senate seat. Rounds would already have known the road to that, he just got detoured.
Mr Newquist, another excellent article posted here as well as on your own site. Guns of Autumn is right. Thank you.
Rod,
The word on the street has it that controlling interest in Mitchell’s “Daily Wipe” was purchased under cloaked secrecy by the secretly operated non-profit entity that continues to: (1) Back public/private partnerships in Davison County; (2) Vertical integration throughout the Corn Palace City; (3) Tramples equal employment and educational opportunities in Mitchell public schools; and (4) Meets behind closed doors to discuss needed cover and concealment for Supt Joe Graves who breached his employment contract for three consecutive years as he bellied up to the MCEC gravy train feed bunk sucking up his cut of federal grant awards that were dispersed to loyal cronies. “The Daily Wipes” published information concerning EB5 will mirror those publicly disclosed in Items #1 – #4.
Hopefully, the Argus, Bob Mercer and Angela Kennecke will tattoo South Dakota’s claim to fame as the “Most Corrupt State in the Union” onto the backsides of U.S. Senator Rounds, SD Gov Dagaard and SD AG Jackley before all of EB-5 dusty finally settles.
Have a Great Day!
Badger, Out!
Troy,
Na you missed my point. I’m well aware that any post mentioned here you burst forward with your wisdom and experience of either having dealt with it, know all about it, done it, fixed it, etc etc, you have done plenty to contribute to society. If you don’t believe me just ask yourself.
I’m glad you know people that have dealt with suicide. Hope they are making a difference. I’m saying if Benda died alone in a field with a belly full of buckshot. I’m sure you knew him too. He didn’t have to die. Your putting it on him that his was “his irrational act?” So all others that facilitated and looked the other way weren’t part of his problem?
I don’t have your resume Troy, but I can tell you I’ve definitely and obviously from your response dealt with suicide on a much more real level than you could stomach.
Your not an expert on suicide…but…YOU did stay at a Holiday Inn last night!”
I do appreciate your involvement on Coreys blog. I liked Stace Nelson because he cares for all people. Why don’t you join him and let’s just try to stop this mismanagement that is resulting in horrific deaths.
The word on the street also has it that top-echelon state officials have launched statewide raffle of shotguns preparing for the next corruption scandal?
Badger, Out!
Mismanagement in and of itself may not be criminal or corrupt but when it involves the taxpayers money, at the very least, the formal charge is malfeasance in office and it is reason for impeachment or dismissal from office. All this rhetoric infers that simple mismanagement is a reflection of ineptitude only. If that is the case, then the people who appointed Benda, Bolen and the rest are as inept and veiled as they are. Corruption and denial of wrongdoing is the stumbling block in any formal investigation and we’ve seen that throughout the history of this EB-5 issue and we’ll see it again throughout this SDDOE contract debacle. It isn’t mismanagement, it is a disgraceful and unethical breach of the public trust at the very least. The oaths of office taken by Rounds, Daugaard etc. are firm contracts with the people of this state that should expect integrity, honest, fair ethical and responsible behavior from those who govern. Criminal behavior can and may be identified by an investigation that is predicated on allegations of violating the public trust. That is what is being done here. I think you need to get use to that Mr. Boswell because your sideline defense is impotent in this forum. You would be better served by filing an amicus brief when charges are brought.
larry-“everybody else is doing it”, as you will remember was Rounds’ line 1st!
jerry-from years now of cory’s excellent coverage, i seem to remember marty “sherlocl ” jackley was gonna charge him for double billing a$5,000 airline ticket-slueth that our GOAC and state auditors are!! maybe a $550,000 check too to NBP that would cover his two more years future salary with buddy Joop-oop! i meant the corporate shell.
troy- sorry, spike can be direct. I am sure you meant “white-collar crime”. :)
BTW-the EB-5 scandal in Chicago,both main crooks have been indicted,unlike in South Dakota where the deer,the antelope and crooks roam free.
One more thing,some investors in Chicago project have withdrawn and re-invested their money in Portugal according to David North. Sounds like more investors might do the same thing. Bad news for grifting ‘murricans.
We’re so close to breaking this that I can smell it. Remember, we’re talking about South Dakota. Someone ALWAYS snitches.
What if you were pocketing $200,000 out each $500,000 invested for a green card. What if you knew Russians and Chinese that you could quietly loan/gift $500K to (unnoticed) because no one was keeping track of the size of the gov’t pile. Then, when the deal was done, you got your $200K, they got their green card, there was $300K left to invest in SoDak and the EB-5 paperwork was so jumbled it wasn’t traceable. You’d be set. Do that ten times and you’ve got $2 million for yourself (and your Republican minions helping keep it quiet) out of the $5 million that’s missing. AND you’ve got a vice grip on the businesses the Russians and Chinese set up in the state.
~It’s now time for Immigration to locate and shake down the foreign nationals that took the deal and ask some questions. Someone ALWAYS snitches.
I always have wondered why Benda would have a death wish. So the guy double billed for an airline ticket, big deal, small claims court could handle that. In the big scheme of things, a couple of grand is chump change. Jackley, bring out the autopsy, disclose your arrest warrant for Benda and show your evidence you were going to present to your Grand Jury.
For those of you who like to keep score:
At the end of 300 comments: Hall 3, Guymon 17 Boswell 50!
These numbers are close but not guaranteed.
If Benda really killed himself it’s because someone threatened his daughter not because he diverted funds. Jackley has all but admitted that by not releasing the postmortem results.
Rod Hall,
Back to the media coverage for a moment, when Cory broke this story on Sunday I immediately emailed it to Seth Tupper at the Journal, I still have not received a response from him.
On Monday evening the Journal posted a the weak article by AP. Finally today the Journal posted the Mercer article. Odd that they would post the AP article over Mercer, after all Mercer is a contributor to the Journal.
Benda was to be paid $225000 per year for 2 years. If my math is correct that is $450000,not $550000. Who is Rory King?
Rod Hall,I haven’t found any mention of the EB-5 scandal in iowa press. All my knowledge comes from links to here and EB-5 Fraud and other Dakota outlets.
Let’s go for 405 posts,that should beat September 23,2014’s 404 posts on homecoming tradition in Watertown. (404 posts last time I checked)
wow, corruption and racism.
‘The word on the street has it that controlling interest in Mitchell’s “Daily Wipe” was purchased under cloaked secrecy by the secretly operated non-profit entity”
Like who Craig?
So what happened in Pierre my republican friends? Just a little economic development project I guess.. N Benda double dipped some travel money. No biggie.
We’re the nut cases?
I want a job where I can sign a contract to myself that takes all the gravy to my house. This was at the highest level of SD government with a 300 million dollar project. Whew. guys can say we are blowing this out of proportion all you want. I like the finger-pointing at other EB-5s. LOL!!
Even though the repubs in Senate would give these guys a free pass. It would be something to see them squirm in front of a Senate committee.
OR a grand jury but I guess even Johnson/seiler aren’t above being punked out. And don’t give me that justice is blind bs. I know better.
As a side question not really related (apologys) does anyone know what year the Westerhuises began to build their complex?
In 2010 federal prosecutors took 162,000, yes thousand, cases to grand juries. 11, yes 11, were declined for indictment. In 2013 SD US Attorney’ took something from EB-5 to a federal grand jury and no indictment. this isn’t politics? Baloney, they were protecting the state government as best they could.
A ham sandwich can get indicted…prosecutors in this case didn’t pursue an indictment for the crimes that may have taken place. This reeks.
As Joe said “it ain’t over till its over”
EB5 cash flow was $600,000,000 as i recall. We don’t know what is gone, yet.
boswell qualifier: no one pays me to comment “on open blog sites”. shill
Sept 28, 2015 governor’s news release manure spreader breaks down with no public statement released with regards to U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services intentions to drop kick the South Dakota’s EB-5 Program.
Oct 18, 2015 South Dakota citizens first informed by journalist Bob Mercer concerning USC&IS preparing to dropkick teeing up South Dakota EB-5 Program.
After Mercer did so, did top echelon state official work around the clock with a “public image damage control focus” greasing and oiling up the governor’s news release manure spreader’s cogs preparing a Oct 20, 2015 noon hour public release statement? Simply astonishing to learn the governor’s office had announced that the SD Secretary of DOE’s Oct 15, 2015 request that the US DOE approve the SD Board of Regents as the replacement administer of the SD GEAR UP Program had be approved on Oct 19, 2015 when the same Board of Regents was entangles with South Dakota’s EB-5 scandal.
On Oct 19, 2015 why did the US DOE fail to confirm that the Board of Regents was approved to administer the SD GEAR UP Program. Sorry but the governor’s office just saying so does not make it so. Been too damn many incidents of “What They Do Not Know Cannot Hurt Us”. Just trust us no longer works. A copy of the US DOE letter/document approving the Board of Regents to administer the SD GEAR UP Program needs to be immediately placed face up on top of the table for all citizens to read.
Badger, Out!
Besides being Native, what does a person have to do in South Dakota to get a Federal Grand Jury seated to prepare to jail you? A state employee that acts for the state in banking matters with investors, no problem, keep the money. The poor fellow that was the bag man, grand juried and then ends up very dead, case closed. The slimy dude that gave the bag man the moolah, elected to the United States Senate as a reward for overseeing the grift. Amazing stuff here. United States Attorney, sees and reads the same stuff and more that this blog site reviews, moves on with a without a whimper. New guy to the job, boxes the stuff up and puts it into storage, nothing to see here. Now we get the word that South Dakota is the most corrupt of all the states because of the stuff in the box the US Attorneys yawned about and denies anymore gravy from the EB-5. You would think the US Attorneys were appointed by a republican president, they were not.
Thanks Troy for responding to my question. I wish you could talk more about how the state could give Bollen that much control over Eb5 and not be audited, but we know you won’t go there.
Jenny,
1) Without giving an accounting/audit explanation, I’m not sure financial audits would have caught except by accident or possibly some control procedures most of the major charges against SDRC/EB-5. While financial audits may have been more likely to catch what may have occurred at Mid-Central, I think what you are asking is about program audits by either the State or Customs.
2) Which leads me to asking the question whether the main responsibility for program audits is the State or Customs? In most cases, federal programs administered by the State (or pass-through entities like SDRC) are audited for program compliance by the federal government. At least this is how Community Development Block Grants or EPA municipal water programs work.
3) Which then takes me to EB-5 program itself and asking why this is a Customs program (Customs is essentially a law enforcement agency) and not either a Commerce Department program (economic development) or Agriculture Department program (rural development). Both Departments have sophisticated and broad experience administering loan/investment programs whereas Customs has no experience. Several years ago (before we knew we had issues @ SDRC) announced he was going to move the EB-5 program to Commerce with Customs only approving the individual application for the Visas. This would be similar to how HUD’s water infrastructure program works with EPA approving the project for environmental objectives but the real work is done by HUD. I applauded this Obama announcement but don’t know why nothing has been done.
4) Because this was in Customs (which is ill-equipped to administer and design proper controls), this program was ripe for abuse because the odds of getting caught were less likely than in Commerce or Ag. That said, even if it were in the right Department, there will never be enough controls to stop the person intent on breaking the rules or committing fraud. The challenge is to have the right controls in place to catch people after the fact ASAP and by having the controls to catch wrong-doers, the program doesn’t attract the unscrupulous.
In short, the evidence is stacking up this was a program with insufficient controls AND a lot of money was passing through these entities throughout the program (SDRC isn’t the only one being pursued through legal channels in the US). But, just as we are finally getting prosecutions and imposition of fines on the financial meltdown of 2008, it will be years before this mess gets sorted out.
In the meantime, whether it be those who want to minimize the problem or maximize the problem for political reasons, nobody not intimately involved in the pursuit knows enough to do more than make wishful speculation of the outcome.
Shorter Troy: SDGOP is toast.
@OrionGuy … You’re backstroking like the Olympics is already on. That’s the most pathetic attempt to shift the blame from South Dakota Republican back-room theft to Washington and Obama. C’mon, man. You’re moving to justify blatant malfeasance and fraud because the laws and oversight weren’t strict enough? The analogies to that kind of double talk and gibberish abound and are a disgrace to your professional standing. No wonder you don’t use your last name.
Porter,
1) I was answering a specific question with regard to audits.
2) This is a federal program and whether it be Medicaid, CDBG, etc., program compliance audits are nearly always done by the federal government.
3) This program is so low level in the federal government and even insignificant in Customs, my statements are not intended to be blame to Obama directly or indirectly. In fact, a President who had more than the most passing knowledge of the program would be a President too down in the weeds to be paying proper attention to the big picture. That said, I’ve yet to hear even a bad rationale why this program was even administered by Customs nor an explanation why the program has not been moved by Obama (who said he was going to do it) or Congress.
4) I have not once justified malfeasance and fraud. If it occurred (but will be no easier to prove in court than the malfeasance and fraud related to the financial meltdown), I endorse prosecution and pursuit wherever it will lead. However, if you have insight in why the SD AG should be the principal pursuer, I want to hear it. Otherwise, it is my suspicion this is a matter to be best pursued by the USDOJ/FBI.
It’s administered by Customs because it was assigned to Customs for administration of people and money coming into USA from foreign citizens and their financial institutions. What credibility do you have to determine the level of priority within a Federal agency. NONE! And your backhanded attempts to indict our President over theft in a “low-level” state are transparent and noteworthy of your perceived reputation. The SD AG was negligent in a thinly veiled investigation and whether you recommend the Feds take over or not SoDak voters can now rest assured that justice is moving forward.
~ Sir, if a group of your investors were given the cock and bull explanation you laid out when $5 million of THEIR money went missing I’m afraid the FBI would be at your desk, also. Is this the brand you’re trying to carve out when pursuing new clients? That if they don’t spend their days watching you, their funds might turn up justifiably gone? If your associate went to the ladies room and her purse was stolen from her desk is that her fault for not taking it with her? Your political party is on the pike and all your “hot footing” won’t change the process or affect the outcome, now. The Feds smelled a rat and are coming to round y’all up.
1) What you’ve provided is a response, but not an answer. Let’s imagine a federal agency was adequately equipped to provide the safeguards/oversight you’re referring to and then address the glaring obstacle that is the gang of thieves, crooked bookkeepers, and insufficient audits at the local and state level. How do you suggest getting Joop’s (er, the state’s) business and financial records to the appropriate federal agency so it can provide the necessary oversight, Troy? Prior to last week, do you remember that time when Marty was serious about going after those documents? Neither do I.
2) Compliance audits at the federal level cannot be done effectively when the information provided by the State is incomplete or purposefully skewed.
3) Great. I hope you and the others keep pushing this angle as a defense. It makes SD’s state officials appear very opportunistic. They recognized a weakness and then exploited it better than everyone else who is still allowed to participate in the program. You’re giving the SDGOP’s position, if that’s what this is, some legitimacy.
4) Refer to item #1.
I remember Obama saying he was going to close Gitmo. Wingnuts have blocked every attempt so they can call him a liar. I remember winguts are/were going to defund the ACA and PP. Obama and Dems have blocked them at every turn so they can call wingnuts liars.
If you pilfered a “measly” $5 million where would you launder it? Probably not in a bank because banks are quite upfront and generally accountable. You attempt to slide it into an investment portfolio, though. Are there any investment counselors that are attempting an off the wall defense of the questionable actions of Jackley, Rounds and Bollen? Why would a businessman want to be involved in this mess unless he had a few irons in the fire, also? Inquiring minds want to know …
Or, you buy two wives and a family to manage prostitution rings for legislators in Pierre.
$5 million buys ten hookers green cards.
Troy, without trying to maximize political import, permit me to ask a moral/legal question. Who should face the greater penalty: the public official who fails to implement sufficient safeguards (audits, open records, etc.) to prevent abuse of a government program, or the public official who abuses a government program?
Roger, that article choice is odd. Why not pick Mercer if he’s on staff/contract? Why not go for the best article out there? Was it just space considerations?
(Mr. Sol, good off-topic question! I’d need to see the property records at the courthouse to answer that.)
CH,
If the failure was intent to allow abuse, I don’t see the distinction. But, a public servant who doesn’t have the experience or knowledge to design proper controls is probably just over their head. That is my point in this being in Customs and not Commerce or Agriculture.
Cory,
The Journal will always go with the least damaging story about the SDGOP until they are forced with the hard news one.
About your question to Troy, it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference which government agency is assigned a program to administer, grifters and scammers will find a way to misdirect or steal money.
We shouldn’t get misdirected from the SDGOP fraud by debating where EB-5 belongs or doesn’t belong, the evidence is clear that it was ripped off.
Fair enough, Troy. From a voter perspective, what should raise my dander more: the feds’ boneheaded decision to assign the wrong agency to oversee EB-5, or our state officials’ poor performance of such a degree that we get banned from using that program?
CH,
I am not sure how anger serves any good. Or that it is either/or. On one it a call for reform so it doesn’t happen again. On the other, if we are calling for justice, we should allow the process to work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqdJJTDVxYw
Troy: you’re a dork. There, i said it.
Wellbutrin by the way you present: flat affect, resignment, surrender. Classic.
Mr. Jones … How many green cards have been issued through Commerce or Agriculture Departments? EB-5 is a green card issuing vehicle and thus is administered and policed through Immigration and Customs aka ICE.
345.
Free Press vs War School 345-0 I see over there that Troy Jones, a financial consultant, says that gamblers present a more clear prediction of future elections than pollsters. Here, Troy. Just take my money and gamble it away. Your mindset is unfailing in it’s paradigm.
I was able to view parts of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board’s meeting on Deep Borehole Disposal over the last two days. Much of the discussion involved technical issues, with some involving policy matters. Since South Dakota may be selected as the disposal site, it is important for the states’ citizens to become knowledgeable and involved, even as the Department of Energy is refusing to release any information about whether there is a proposal submitted to test the Deep Borehole Disposal process somewhere in South Dakota (most likely northeastern SD).
The Review Board is a group of academic and independent scientists who look at various radioactive waste matters from an independent (non-governmental) point of view. They are supposed to provide a sort of “peer review” for policy and science in the area of radioactive waste. They generally are not a rubber stamp for government projects, but they tend to b
Though they refused to press the Department of Energy on the specifics of various proposals, there was a lot of good technical discussion that boiled down to this: the Department of Energy is rushing this project, is not fully engaging the broad scientific community with knowledge of various disciplines that would be helpful in planning and carrying out this project, and is not engaging citizens in “consent-based” siting.
The Department of Energy, say most of these scientists, is pushing the project ahead without adequately considering a number of serious technical issues, and that could create danger should deep borehole disposal be selected as a way to disposal of various high-level radioactive wastes. At the very least, the study would be inadequate, and the money squandered. Particularly hard on the DOE were various hydrogeologists, who seemed united in the belief that the one or two boreholes DOE wanted to use as a “test” would be woefully inadequate to research the hydrogeology of deep disposal of radioactive waste in crystalline rock.
DOE is maintaining steadfastly that this project is a “test” in which radioactive waste will not be disposed at this time. However, they also admitted, and most of the scientists agreed, that whatever location is selected for the “test” will likely be viewed as the eventual disposal site, providing site characterization is favorable. The federal government will be sinking a lot of money on research and they don’t want to waste any money. The scientists seemed to believe that the amount of site specific research needed will be far, far in excess of the 5 years DOE is saying it will take for the initial tests, and they warn that there will be “surprises” found that may make a site less than ideal. DOE seems to be protective of their schedule, almost to the point of being reckless in their demand to stick to their schedule and budget.
Much of this is being driven by government research labs, which presently have a favorable political environment to spend lots of money quickly. Obama and Moniz are on board, so the Sandia Labs and various consulting firms stand to get large dollars. However, that support may not last long, depending on who is elected next, who is Secretary of the Department of Energy, and whether there are smart people of dumbies in Congress.
Independent scientists tend to view deep borehole disposal as little boys reading science fiction (very few women are involved at DOE). I got the feeling that the Review Board is willing to go along for a while because they think the little boys at DOE and their wide-eyed enthusiasm for science fiction is kinda cute, and they will soon see that drilling holes to dump dangerous waste down is not the same as playing in the sandbox.
When your state is so corrupted, this is the kind of attention that comes with the territory I am thinking. If we are looked on as outlaws, then those that are looking at places where people are to damn dumb to stop the corruption, can easily grease the wheels for the projects success. Speaking of deep bore holes, not so long ago there was one of these drilled by Wasta. The drill was done by a private individual as I remember, but had some interesting vehicles that I made mention of. The drill was completed and the process was taken down. No more was heard from that deal that I know of and no postings of the results. How much money will the powers to be get for making us glow?
Troy, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
There is not one area of government that the GOP doesn’t control or hasn’t bought with crony contracts or the hope or promise of a big government payday for going along to get along.
How do you expect to see justice in this tightly held power structure? While I won’t go to the extreme of comparing SDGOP absolute control of South Dakota to the Mafia…the business model is exactly the same.
I don’t think the justice you think just happens has a snowball’s chance in highly incestuous politicized state like South Dakota.
Thank you for your efforts, Donald. Let us know any costs you need recovered along the way on deep bore.
Don-how should we approach this? how do we get around DOE’s irrational exuberance?
I just read through the 18-page pdf of the fed’s warning letter to the SD Regional Center. It is as bad as is being reported. Lots of money moving around suspiciously, mysteriously, unaccountably. It appears to be all centered on Joop, but surely others had to know, and be in on it? Even if it is foreign investors’ money, there’s no excuse for such sloppy business practices, esp. by people who otherwise believe government should not be involved in business, picking winners and losers, etc. They have until Oct. 31 to answer and defend themselves. Will they?
buresh/ boswell give up at 10 am 10.20 and troy takes over. cute.
O.K., Troy, maybe anger isn’t the right word. If voters are making a hiring decision, whom is it more urgent that they replace: the elected official who doesn’t regulate programs strictly enough to check abuse, or the elected official who commits abuse?
Porter,
If the EB-5 was exclusively about issuing visas, the money would go to the federal government. It is also an economic development/rural development program, of which Customs has no experience or competence as compared to Ag or Commerce. There are multiple programs where multiple agencies are involved based on expertise. DOT builds roads but get permits, etc. from EPA. Homeland declares disasters and SBA makes the loans and other agencies make the reconstruction grants. There is no reason why Commerce or Ag can’t do everything except process the Visa.
Tom Lutey from the Billings Gazette and i follow each other on twitter: he has never seen anything in Montana like the wholesale corruption in the South Dakota Republican Party. He asked for links to the Bendagate scandal so i provided Cory’s work and to much of what i believe are the most important stories surrounding South Dakota’s disgrace.
troy ussensubcomitteeimmigration oversight is more than appropriate, chaired by yer guy (sessions, a fmr USA, and is checked by ranking member schumer, hahhhvard lawyer, oh, and comedian al franken who has turned out to be no slouch…, so commerce ect. is just baloney
Montana’s Copper King scandals forced the legislature to adopt a more transparent government. The state boasts a vigorous two-party system lacking in South Dakota.
Troy, Immigration and Customs is more equipped to police the Green Cards and to discover theft in the program than Commerce or Ag. That’s why your buddies got caught for not presenting Washington with the proper or doctored reports.
There is no reason for Commerce or Ag to administer the program other than it would be easier for shysters to skirt the oversight from those two “unequipped to detect fraud” agencies.
You’re trying to shift blame, obfuscate the issue and backstroke your way out of prosecution for the SoDak Republicans. Not this time, amigo.
Are you simply trying to cover for your cohorts or is there something else you’d like to tell us. SOMEONE ALWAYS SNITCHES.
boswell’s excuse:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/opinion/how-texas-teaches-history.html?hpw&rref=opinion&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
Wasn’t it Troy’s party that decided FEMA needed to be run by International Arabian Horse Assoc. head?
Right on, Mike. That’s “Brownie” and he’s been reduced to a second tier right wing radio talk show host in Denver, now. Poor guy’s still neurotic and trying to explain why Geo. W. Bush let him take the fall for their party’s poor response to Katrina. I don’t think the guy sleeps well, but I’ll wager there’s a few SoDak Republicans in the same all-night mindset, these days. e.g. Jackley, Rounds and Bollen.
Brownie and Bush financed a Rapid City politico to the tune of $100,000.00 for sandwiches after Katrina. Mike Derby got a hundred grand for nothing. A long way to come for a sandwich, but not so far as to get some teat.
Porter,
Here is a recommendation written by the left-leaning think tank-Brookings Institute that called for Commerce Department oversight and supervision of the Regional Centers which receive the money from the immigrants who get visa’s via the EB-5 program. Brookings doesn’t propose changing which immigrants get approved (remains in Custom’s which is their particular expertise) but does propose moving it to Commerce who administer dozens if not hundreds of disparate economic development investment programs, in particular they reference Commerce’s Economic Development Agencies (see page 14) which is the “expert” in the federal government on virtually every component of the non-Visa component of the program (monitoring performance of the investments and conformance to the public policy goals (e.g. job creation). Except for some self-contained rural development programs in Ag, energy development at Energy, and urban development at HUD, they oversee development programs which have arms in other departments. They are the go-to agency in particular for the EPA.
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2014/02/05-eb5/eb5_report.pdf
One thing I’ve never mentioned or seen in most discussions at least here in SD is another reform that makes sense is to also give some supervision to the SEC and/or state securities regulators where Regional Center “offerings” are required to conform to small-issue offerings with regard to disclosure (e.g. Regulation D, etc.). I think both Leahy and Grassley have proposed this. I don’t have time to research this further so I could be incorrect. Just relying on memory.
In short, if SDRC had been supervised by Commerce and subject to securities regulation, I have a hard time imagining what has occurred here and across the nation happening. Plus, wrong-doing would much more easy to prosecute.
So, based on the actual performance of the program to-date, please explain why you think Custom’s is the best place to supervise the investment arm of the program? Where does Brookings err?
How like Troy to shut the barn door after the horses have been incinerated in the barn fire.
Oh well, the grapes were sour enough to leave for the murder of Roundsian crows.
Mr. Troy Jones … Your assertion that because EP-5 was mismanaged, that gave permission to steal from the program, is confusing. Everyone reading these posts of your’s knows exactly what you’re trying to do. LWIY (last word is your’s)
Troy does a fantastic job of putting everyone else at fault for his bosses corruption, we done counselor, well done. Your rebuttal lies in the killing field in south eastern South Dakota. Your rebuttal lies in the tens of millions of misplaced dollars that have fallen into the hands of one of Pierre’s finest, Joop and his bro’s. Your rebuttal lies with the lies of your past and present governor for their involvement in the scheme or schemes.
Yeah, if only someone else could have administered the program(s) then our elected officials would not have corrupted themselves. I am sure that somewhere in our state there is not a charged felon that says the same thing, if only someone else were to have done this, I would not be here.
leslie-here is another one few people ever knew about. http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2006/08/mcgraw-hill-bush-graft-and-twig.html
Porter,
Whether one is supervised/regulated or not, stealing is always wrong and is criminal. Nothing I have should was intended to condone fraud or theft.
There are three points I’m attempting to make but obviously failing to make:
1) Proper supervision and regulation can make it harder to steal (good public policy).
2) Proper supervision and regulation can make it easier to prosecute (good public policy).
3) If there is consensus the principle of the EB-5 program with regard to charging for Visa’s is good policy (across the political spectrum it appears there is agreement this an accepted component of legal immigration) and there is consensus economic/rural development is a good policy (again, it appears there is such agreement), failure to improve it in light of the problems seems to be unwise especially since there is agreement across the spectrum consisistent with Brookings and I believe Heritage also supports similar changes (I think that is where I saw the recommendation for securities oversight).
Troy,you forgot to tell us peons that your political party and buds hate regulations and do their level best to get rid of or ignore same. Sounds disingenuous.
well now you cite brookings inst. in past commentary SEC regulation has come up. what is most interesting is how rounds secured the banking committee to ignore regulation of EB5 investment.
Mike,
Proper regulation and oversight which is not excessively expensive relative to the benefit is not opposed by most in my party (a party dominated by conservatives and not libertarians). Additionally, we generally oppose the imposition of regulation and supervision on private activity not extended to government activity as it creates unfair competition. Finally, if the government is going to do something we expect it to do as promised (e.g. economic development and job creation) and not accept intent as justification whereby we are prepared to terminate programs with good intentions that fail to deliver.
Troy: where will the next instance(s) of corruption in South Dakota be found?
My guess? Defense. A citizen’s group in Rapid City has been abusing one program but here is a list:
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/smart/south-dakota/#money-in–federal-contracts
2013:
South Dakota’s delegation has been niggling about the Corps of Engineers: no doubt there is graft in those dollars, too. Republican contractors siphoning from EPA, the Forest Service (Alan Aker, for one)…who else, Troy?
Tike Mike Rounds took on the Department of Education: what did he know and when did he know it, Troy?
Btw, Troy: you didn’t publish my comment on your post at Pat’s Potty. Little would make me happier than to have Trump pull out of the earth hater prez race and run an unaffiliated campaign.
The federal government should have proper regulation and supervision. What about states, Troy? Shouldn’t state governments also have offices that do the same? Regarding your most recent points 1 and 2, where do you believe SD Gov dropped the ball on EB-5, if at all? Clearly, some mistakes were made. You can at least agree with that assessment, can’t you?
In reality Troy,your party hates government as much as regulations,except when it comes to regulating and governing women’s ovaries, or poor folks who get a pittance from the government but you want them drug tested and thrown off welfare because the koch bros need more money.
thx mfi@11:11
Troy: I think you need to take a very hard look at the State’s Constitution and decide, from there, if there is any language that can be construed to mean that government should indulge itself in economic development schemes that use the public’s money for anything! Like government and religion, government should stay out of capitalism to the extent that it doesn’t deserve regulation. And capitalism should develop itself with private money. It it can’t it has no business leaning on the government’s deep pocket. And that includes Ag subsidies, corn ethanol production subsidies, energy subsidies, and the works. If those industries can’t pay their own way, they deserve to die.