For Immediate Release: Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Contacts: Zach Crago, 605-271-5405, zach@sddp.org
First report on Bollen deposition reveals disturbing new facts about Mike Rounds
1) Governor Mike Rounds’ team intervened in Board of Regents affairs to protect Joop Bollen and most importantly the “train” of EB5 money propping up Mike Rounds’ top political priorities like the Northern Beef Packing plant.
2) Rounds employee Joop Bollen regularly reported to Governor Mike Rounds’ office in stark contrast to previous assertions by Mike Rounds.
3) With legal turmoil afoot, the Board of Regents orchestrated Joop Bollen’s resignation from SDRC Inc and Bollen’s eventual return to SDRC Inc all while Bollen was a Rounds employee.
4) The Governors Office of Economic Development, Board of Regents, and the Attorney General’s office have no excuse left to continue withholding Bollen’s deposition, legal correspondence, exhibits, memoranda and other deposition transcripts from the EB5 litigation.
5) Nothing in the report exonerates Mike Rounds. In fact, the report further incriminates Mike Rounds as the EB5 scandal engulfs his campaign.
EB5 Citizenship-for-sale Kings Joop Bollen & Mike Rounds
The report further reinforces the indisputable facts in the EB5 scandal.
1) Mike Rounds’ employee Joop Bollen signed an illegal contract with a company he owned to manage the EB5 program, a key component of the Rounds economic development strategy.
2) As a result of the illegal contract, Joop Bollen walked off with a $108 million in EB5 fees that belong to the people of South Dakota.
3) Mike Rounds knew about his employee’s illegal activities, and Mike Rounds didn’t fire Joop Bollen; Rounds rewarded him with a sweetened no-bid contract in December of 2009.
4) When asked questions about the EB5 scandal by a legislative committee, Mike Rounds submitted testimony that the Rapid City Journal quickly found to be untrue. Submitting false testimony as Mike Rounds did is a class 6 felony in South Dakota.
5) Even now after everyone agrees that Rounds employee Joop Bollen had an illegal contract that enriched himself over $100 mil, Mike Rounds continues to protect and cover up for his employee.
In Case You Missed It
Bollen’s deposition explains how EB-5 became privatized
Management shifted from NSU campus to Rounds’ administration in 2009
Aberdeen American News, Bob Mercer
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
PIERRE — The EB-5 controversy raging in South Dakota’s U.S. Senate race began with an obscure episode seven years ago on the other side of the world.
Joop Bollen flew to China to help inform potential investors about a fish-raising business proposed near Pierre. [Read the full story at Aberdeen American News.]