Former EB-5 Champion says ‘Kill it’

Sioux Falls, SD (April 21, 2016)-

A former champion of the EB-5 program, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) now says the program must be reformed or ended due to corruption.

“If these reforms don’t go through, we will not have an EB-5 program because Sen. [Chuck] Grassley and I will certainly do everything to block it,” he said, referring to the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “If these [allegations] are true, I will assume that we can now do what Sen. Grassley and I wanted to do — to put the changes into the EB-5 program — or kill it.”

Vermont’s EB-5 program has come under fire as state and federal authorities have accused two men from the state’s Northeast Kingdom area connected with tourism business Jay Peak Resorts of misappropriating nearly $200 million in money raised from it’s EB-5 program.

“The more we hear about EB-5, the more there is to dislike,” said Suzanne Jones Pranger Executive Director of the South Dakota Democratic Party. “Rounds and Noem talk a tough game on reducing government waste, but as we saw from their recent votes reauthorizing a program riddled with abuse, it’s just that – all talk, no action.”

Both Rounds and Noem voted to reauthorize the EB-5 program at the end of 2015. Rounds has long been a supporter of the embattled EB-5 program despite questionable oversight of the program during his time as Governor. Kristi Noem reversed course, voting for the program after promising she wouldn’t reauthorize EB-5 without additional safeguards this December.

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