Last updated on 2022-09-09
Jonathan Ellis helpfully fills in details about Pyush Patel, Joop Bollen’s “shadowy” long-time business partner:
Public records show that Bollen and Patel have a long history, dating as far back as the mid-1990s when the two started a liquor store business near Atlanta. Records also show that the state of California filed tax liens against Bollen, Patel and a flower business they owned in Los Angeles in 1993.
Patel currently owns convenience stores and gas stations in the Atlanta area. He did not return messages left at three of those stores, and he did not respond to an email address that he listed with the Georgia Secretary of State as a contact email. Previous messages left at his home were never returned.
Besides their various business relationships, the two appear to have close personal ties. “Pyush” is the middle name of Bollen’s son, according to divorce records, and the two own beach-side condominiums in the same South Padre Island, Texas complex, according to public records obtained by Argus Leader Media.
In February 2012, three weeks before Bollen allegedly wired money to Patel, Bollen and Patel each bought a $250,000 tax increment financing bond for the Northern Beef Packers Plant in Aberdeen, according to the Aberdeen American News report of the sale [Jonathan Ellis, “EB-5 Money Wired to Shadowy Business Partner, Documents Say,” that Sioux Falls paper, 2016.04.01].
And don’t forget, as I noted Thursday, Pyush Patel has been listed on the corporate documents as vice-president of SDRC Inc., Bollen’s EB-5 management company, since at least 2012. Between that partnership and Patel’s purchase of TIF bonds in 2012, apparently with money filched from Indemnification Fund #2, Patel appears to be an increasingly important player in our understanding of South Dakota’s EB-5 scandal.
In his press conference yesterday, Attorney General Marty Jackley responded to my question about whether he had spoken with and plans to charge Mr. Patel in this matter by saying that “At this time, under the rules, I am not able to go into specifics of witness matters” and repeated that the current charges against Bollen are initial charges. A.G. Jackley spoke of naming witnesses in a possible grand jury hearing on May 13—not other suspects, just witnesses.
But suspect or witness, given Patel’s close involvement with EB-5 czar Bollen, we should expect Patel to appear in a South Dakota courtroom, either in person or in affidavit form, this spring. Come on over, Pyush!
EB-5 is a travesty of justice. It violates the concept of fair play in immigration by letting wealthy foreign nationals to buy their win into the country. Combine this with a lack of ethics in state government and you get death and embezzlement. Thank you GOP.