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State, Bollen Settle EB-5 Lawsuits

Attorney General Marty Jackley secured EB-5 czar Joop Bollen’s plea bargain last month; now the Governor’s office announces another bit of its GOED/EB-5 scandal swept under the rug. The state has settled its two lawsuits with Bollen’s SDRC Inc., the corporation which the Governor’s Office of Economic Development contracted to privatize Bollen’s job running the EB-5 visa investment program for South Dakota:

“Since 2013, the State of South Dakota has worked diligently to resolve the problems stemming from the federal EB-5 program in South Dakota,” said Tony Venhuizen, the Governor’s chief of staff. “Today’s settlement and the recovery of $1.5 million from SDRC, Inc. not only compensates the state for past EB-5 related expenses, but also ensures the state has the funds it would otherwise have had under the contract with SDRC, Inc. to guard against any future claims.”

Under the terms of the settlement, SDRC will immediately pay $546,250 into an existing state-controlled indemnification account, with an additional $81,250 payment by Sept. 1, 2019. Since commencing its civil actions, the state separately recovered an additional $894,633.32 in indemnification funds owed to the state by SDRC, Inc. [Office of Governor Dennis Daugaard, press release, 2017.03.14]

The $546,250 appears to be payback for the legal costs the state incurred in the Darley case, in which a California business sued the state over monkeyshines in the South Dakota EB-5 program. The settlement appears to include no damages or penalties, only fulfillment of obligations created by the state’s contract with Bollen’s SDRC Inc.

The only legal case remaining in play on South Dakota’s EB-5 scandal is the LP6 Claimants case, in which Chinese EB-5 investors are suing the state and Bollen for blowing smoke on the value of the Northern Beef Packers EB-5 project in Aberdeen.

4 Comments

  1. TJL 2017-03-15 09:32

    AG MJ sure likes to make deals instead of getting to the bottom of the issue. Another snow job.

  2. mike from iowa 2017-03-15 10:52

    Lately I have been reading about a Chinese woman-Angela Chen, plus a couple aliases, who works to hook up Chinese investors with American investments. There was also an Angela Chen involved in EB-5 investments.

    Anyway this woman recently dropped nearly 16 million on an apt in Drumpf Towers. She also has ties to Chinese military intellligence. Just wondering if any EB-5 sleuths out there can connect her to South Dakota’s EB-5 mess.

    Didn’t Rounds and Daugaard got to China looking for investors?

  3. Jana 2017-03-15 12:00

    Did they make Joop “pinky swear” he wouldn’t do it again?

  4. leslie 2017-03-19 19:04

    was she the Asian lawyer, either Filipino or Korean, or Chinese (I don’t specifically recall from Corey’s excellent sleuth-work here) that had ties to Benda, Bollen, and the many Darling/California connections? Lawyers are pretty easy to track down. HOW ABOUT THE USCIS INVESTIGATION OF THE STATE’S (regents, GOED, cabinet, governors, public and private lawyers, lawyers, lawyers) INCOMPETENT OVERSIGHT? shhhhhh. Oh, and when does the honest replacement pres. at NSU get a medal for his honesty?

    What a cover up of the real truth to the taxpayers. Maybe if they knew they wouldn’t keep re-electing people like Mike Rounds. Did the judge ask any questions before accepting all these settlements and plea bargains? Everybody at fault came up smelling like a rose. Except the fall-guy. and Benda.

    We should ask for a full accounting of all fees, interest and expenses, of the myriad of the many past and current lawyers, accountants & law enforcement, ect. to get the real cost Joop and HIS lawyers put the state through, and whether they still have plum contracts with the state. not that we don’t trust dennis, marty and sen. rounds. we’re (you’re) all still friends, right, republicans?

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