Smith: Jay Peak indictments and the court of public opinion

By Todd Smith | The Caledonian Record

On May 22 a federal grand jury indicted Jay Peak developer Bill Stenger for actions and omissions relating to the investments obtained through the federal EB-5 immigration program. That program allows foreign investors to obtain legal resident permits in return for investing $500,000 in a development project that will bring a specified number of jobs to underdeveloped rural areas like the Northeast Kingdom.

Todd Smith

Todd M. Smith is the publisher of the Caledonian Record.

Stenger was indicted along with his Miami-based financial partner Ariel Quiros and two associates of Quiros, his chief lieutenant William Kelly and Korean promoter Alex Choi. According to Anne Galloway’s report in VTDigger, which has carefully followed developments since 2013, the 14-count indictment accuses the four defendants of a wide-ranging fraudulent scheme to misuse investor funds for unlawful purposes. The three American defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Count one describes in detail the financial transactions of the four men. Counts two through nine are the charges of wire fraud, over telephone and email, that are the basis for federal criminal jurisdiction. Count 10 charges that the four concealed illegal actions by Quiros, described with Choi as “the financial partners in control of the project.” Counts 11 and 12 charge Quiros, Kelly and Choi with concealing relevant information and misrepresenting the financial status of the proposed but failed AnC Bio factory in Newport.

Counts 13 and 14 charge only Stenger with knowingly and willfully lying to federal authorities about a third-party analysis of sales projections for the AnC Bio Vermont business plan, and making false statements about a timeline for selling products from the biomedical facility “that omitted uncertainty about the FDA approval process.”

In September 2016, Stenger settled accusations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, without admitting guilt, by paying a $75,000 civil fine. He also paid a $100,000 fine in a settlement with the State of Vermont, whose Agency of Commerce and Community Development gravely mismanaged the regulatory process.

Last week federally-appointed receiver Michael Goldberg terminated Stenger’s consulting contract because of the indictment. In so doing, Goldberg said “The Receiver stresses that Mr. Stenger’s termination should not be interpreted as an indication that the Receiver believes that William Stenger did anything wrong … and, in fact, a forensic accounting performed by the Receiver’s professionals early in the case failed to uncover any funds wrongfully diverted to Mr. Stenger.”

The picture that emerges from all this is, as we see it, this: Bill Stenger was a well-respected, talented and popular businessman sincerely interested in creating economic growth in the Northeast Kingdom. He saw an opportunity to use EB-5 investments to create developments in the Jay, Newport and Burke areas. He somehow fell in with Quiros and his associates, who took over the financial management while Stenger actually ran the Jay Peak ski area, hotel, water park, and condos, and did the bulk of the fundraising with the foreign investors.

As a partner, Stenger acquired responsibility for the financial misdeeds of the other partners but, burdened with his responsibilities as the developer on the ground, apparently neglected to raise any red flags if indeed he knew of the extent of those misdeeds. That makes him legally liable for his partners’ wrongdoing.

Todd M. Smith is the publisher of the Caledonian Record, where this editorial first appeared. He lives in St. Johnsbury.

Image courtesy of Todd Smith

4 thoughts on “Smith: Jay Peak indictments and the court of public opinion

  1. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t old Pat Leahy involved in this from the very beginning? If memory serves me well, it was Leahy who got this whole losing proposition going Could be wrong….but I don’t think so.

    • Right, and why wouldn’t the Agency of Commerce and Community Development need a lawyer? Where’s the accountability of those whose job was to ensure accountability? Oh wait, the Progressive’s mantra… It wasn’t really me that did anything wrong cuz we’re basically good, it’s society’s fault.

    • CERTAINLY our previous forgotten Governor Shumlin was up to his ears in this fraud, even travelling to foreign countries to promote and hide this record high Vt. fraud.
      Forgotten was the pleas of the Vt official who was assigned to follow the financial reports of this state project. No reports were received, and he waved the red flag repeatedly. Higher authorities told him to stand down, shut up.

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