Regulations freeze, SEC action (San Francisco), RC List Changes

Progress of Proposed Regulations
As EB-5 stakeholders process proposed new EB-5 regulations, they are thinking (1) how can I dissuade USCIS from the changes that would be most harmful for me personally; (2) how can I take best advantage of this golden opportunity to explain to USCIS how EB-5 works in the real world; and (3) how early could the proposed regulations become final, effective regulations? We know at least that regulations can’t proceed to the next step until after the public comment period closes on April 11, 2017, and now the new administration has put another hurdle in the road.

President Trump’s first Presidential Memorandum is addressed to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies with the subject Regulatory Freeze Pending Review (January 20, 2017). It does not put a moratorium on new federal regulations, but does require that any new or pending regulations be presented for review and approval of a Trump-appointed agency head before proceeding any further. This means that proposed new EB-5 regulations will need to go before General John Kelley, the newly-confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security. Would General Kelley allow new EB-5 regulations to move forward? The tireless Senator Grassley met with General Kelley on January 13, and reported that “In addition, we talked about new proposed regulations published by the Department today that would go a long way to restoring the EB-5 immigrant visa program to the way Congress intended it to be used: to help bring much-needed jobs and capital to rural and economically distressed areas. I [Grassley] expressed my strong desire that these rules be kept in place and allowed to go forward to ensure that this program fulfills its original intent.” I don’t know what input General Kelley may get from other directions, or whether the flood of lobbying dollars out of New York will have an impact. IIUSA indicates that its official comment submission to DHS will seek to demonstrate the negative effects that proposed changes would have on the industry.

New SEC Action
People drafting new EB-5 regulations and legislation are motivated, in part, to implement reforms that can help preempt the kind of situations that end in SEC action. When cases appear, we have a post-mortem opportunity to consider: what went wrong here, and how might problems have been prevented or at least detected earlier? Last week the SEC published a complaint against San Francisco Regional Center, Thomas Henderson, and related parties. This case has the usual allegations (commingling, misuse, and misappropriation of funds), but offers a relatively challenging “what-if” analysis. The regional center’s website and offering documents (as quoted in the suit) appear to make all the right representations about account transparency; it just happens that the RC apparently didn’t follow through on these representations, and a third-party co-owner with apparently every right and motivation to monitor proper use of funds had to resort to a lawsuit to claim his right to oversight and eventually apply the breaks. Retrospective armchair due diligence isn’t as easy for this case as for some others. I wonder – what different policy or different industry practices could have contributed to improved policing in this situation?

Regional Center List Changes
Additions to the USCIS Regional Center List, 11/29/2016 to 12/06/2016.

• Advantage America Seattle Regional Center (Washington): www.aaeb5.com
• CP Northern Regional Center (Michigan, Wisconsin)
• California Agricultural Greenhouse Regional Center, LLC (California)
• California Bond Finance Regional Center, LLC (California)
• Greystone EB5 Northeast RC, LLC (Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia): www.greystoneeb5.com
• QueensFort Capital Texas Regional Center, LLC (Texas): queensforteb5.com
• Texas Crown Regional Center, LLC (Texas)

Renamed:

• Civitas Pacific Northwest Regional Center, LLC (former name Civitas Northwest Regional Center) (Oregon, Washington)

New terminations:

• American Development and Investment Regional Center (California) Terminated 1/5/2017
• Bay Area Regional Center LLC (California) Terminated 12/22/2016
• Path America Sonoco, LLC (Washington) Terminated 11/23/2016