For Immediate Release: Friday, October 3, 2014
Contacts:   Zach Crago, zach@sddp.org, 605-271-5405 

Rounds continues to hide the truth after Rapid City Journal unveils document that contradicts Rounds’ testimony

Sioux Falls (October 3, 2014) — Mike Rounds can’t stop telling tall-tales when it comes to the EB5 scandal even after a Rapid City Journal reporter proved Rounds didn’t tell the truth in written testimony to a legislative panel investigating the EB5 scandal, says Zach Crago, Executive Director with the South Dakota Democratic Party.   

EB5 Citizenship-for-sale Kings Joop Bollen & Mike Rounds

EB5 Citizenship-for-sale Kings Joop Bollen & Mike Rounds

 

“Mike Rounds had a full week to provide the legislature with honest answers in writing about the EB5 scandal. It looks like Rounds tried to pull a fast-one and failed,” says Crago. “The cat’s out of the bag, and there’s no amount of amending or deflecting Mike Rounds can do to put the cat back in.” 
Yet even after Rounds was forced to backtrack his previous written testimony to the Government Operations & Audit Committee, Rounds continued to insist that his office had nothing to do with Joop Bollen, the state employee who granted himself a contract to run the EB5 program and walked off with over $100 million that belongs to the people of South Dakota. 
 
But even the Rapid City Journal saw through Mike Rounds’ rhetoric. They state:  
 

Rounds has repeatedly sought to distance himself and his administration from the regents’ handling of SDIBI and the lawsuit. In another of his responses to the legislative committee, he wrote that he did not learn of issues with the administration of EB-5 until October 2013 — about five years after the lawsuit was filed.

But there is a paper trail showing the EB-5 lawsuit involved the governor’s executive branch before October 2013. For example, a billing statement obtained and divulged by the state Democratic Party shows that as early July 30, 2009, a lawyer representing the Governor’s Office of Economic Development was involved in meetings about the litigation with other lawyers representing the regents and the state attorney general’s office.

Governor Mike Rounds’ attorneys got involved simply because Joop Bollen was a Rounds employee. In fact,extensive contracts between the Governors Office of Economic Development and the Board of Regents prove Joop Bollen was a Rounds employee who reported regularly to the Governor’s Office. 
 
It’s clear from the record Joop Bollen was working in Mike Rounds’ shop, says Crago: 
 
“Mike Rounds championed the EB5 program being run by Joop Bollen. In fact, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development was paying half of Joop Bollen’s salary and his foreign travel bill to recruit wealthy foreign investors. 
 
“Joop Bollen was a Rounds employee.  That’s the only way to explain why an attorney for Rounds started actively participating in the EB5 litigation after Mike Rounds’ office was served legal papers in July 2009.
“Mike Rounds just can’t escape the fact that he knew about corruption in the EB5 program much earlier than he’s telling the public, he protected his lawbreaking employee inc ourt, and he rewarded him with a sweetened no-bid contract now worth over $100 million that belongs to the state.” 
As a result of the EB5 litigation, the Board of Regents, the Attorney General’s office, and the Governors Office of Economic Development all have the answers to this EB5 scandal in over 100 pieces of correspondence, memos, documents, and most importantly a 10 hour deposition transcript of Joop Bollen. 
 
If Mike Rounds is allowed to withhold the truth from the state legislature, then it’s time for the Board of Regents to release all the EB5 files to the public once and for all. 
###
Want us to continue investigating Mike Rounds, Dennis Daugaard and the EB5 scandal? Make a contribution of $250, $100, $50, $20, $10, or whatever you can afford right away!