Broadcast on Vermont Public Radio
I met him outside, in a garden in the Washington, D.C., area, after Vermont Public Radio agreed to grant him anonymity.
“I don’t want to mention my name because I’m — let’s say, a former politically exposed person,” he says. “And one of the reasons why I was looking for EB-5 was political persecution in my home country.”
Bill Stenger surveys construction developments at Jay Peak Resort. © Hilary A. Niles
He is one of many foreign investors in Jay Peak’s EB-5 developments now scrambling in the wake of charges that the resort orchestrated a massive securities fraud with their money. But it’s more than just money riding on the outcome for some.
This individual is a former high-ranking official in what used to be the Soviet Union. His children, like those of many other investors, were attending college in the U.S.
But, perhaps unlike some other investors, this one needed to leave his home country for his family’s safety.
And EB-5 could provide it: In the federal program, foreigners invest a half-million dollars in an American business. If 10 jobs are created within two years, conditional visas for the investors and their families turn into green cards — permanent U.S. residency.
It’s a scheme Jay Peak began using in 2006 to bankroll $350 million worth of developments at the resort and at the newly acquired Burke Mountain ski area. Other projects in Newport were promised, too.
The Russian investor visited Jay. He never met resort owner Ariel Quiros, but his impression of president Bill Stenger was good.
“He was rather open, answering let’s say difficult questions, for example what happens if you pass away, what’s going with the project? So, we had really a long discussion, maybe an hour and a half,” he says.
And the business case was simple math — reasonable and attractive, the investor says. In late 2010, he went for it. He visited Jay again and saw the construction. He got updates and, slowly, started to earn back his investment.
“So in my view it was a really big surprise when I got the news that there was a massive fraud,” he says.
Surprised, in a way, but not shocked.
“It’s not the first time I was cheated.”