EB-5 in the news (Kushner Cos in China, SEC in Idaho, visa dates, Ombudsman, RC terminations)

Now that we’ve celebrated the good news of regional center program extension to September 30, 2017, here’s some concerning news to keep in focus as well.

• The regional center program was barely extended – just another few months added. The program desperately needs stability – preferably the stability of a permanent program, and at least the stability we used to have of three-to-five year extensions. These tiny months-long jumps reflect deferred decision-making, not necessarily votes in the program’s favor. We need Congress to take positive action on EB-5 — something it hasn’t done since 2012.
• Big-city mega-projects are a minority of EB-5 offerings but claim a large number EB-5 investors, and their prominence in the news is not helpful when Congress and the public need to see how EB-5 is also working to help undercapitalized areas. This weekend, media from the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and The Guardian to NPR and Vox.com are reporting hot stories from journalists who persevered in observing an EB-5 roadshow being put on in China by the Kushner Companies. It hardly matters if the backers are completely innocent of influence peddling – indeed, they ought be innocent, because everyone is likely to just assume and act on the assumption that they’re guilty, regardless of what they do or say. Prospective investors are likely to assume without being told that the Kushner EB-5 project promoters can leverage access to power at the highest level, making the offering very attractive, and EB-5 critics will be just as eager to jump to the same conclusion, making the offering very dangerous politically. Senator Grassley, Senator Leahy, and Senator Feinstein at least are going to have a field day. (Updates: Feinstein and Leahy have a letter out to the White House Counsel, Grassley has written a letter to John Kelly, Leahy, Conyers, and Lofgren have written a letter to the Kushner Companies, and the White House has started issuing statements.) Some of my relatives even called me today, questioning my involvement in EB-5 after reading the news. I’m proud of my personal experience with many small businesses that launched thanks to EB-5 investment, with investors who sacrificed to invest and have persevered on a difficult and lengthy path to US residence, and with entrepreneurs who’ve brought so much more to the US than their money. Such stories rarely make the news, however. In reviewing statistics on EB-5 filings for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, DHS indicated that regional center projects in FY2013-2015 included 15 investors on average, while non-regional center investments had two investors on average (NPRM footnote 58). That’s just an average, but reflects the EB-5 world I have known best. But mega-projects, though few in number, are increasingly making a big splash in a small pond. The Kushner project reportedly seeks to raise $150M from 300 investors, which means it could claim nearly 10% of available EB-5 visas for a year assuming an average of three visas per investor. The 27 mega-projects summarized by NYU researchers in a March 2016 article would use up over three years of EB-5 visa numbers by themselves, if fully funded. New York City Regional Center recently announced its 1000th I-829 approval, with permanent residence for over 2,750 individuals and conditional permanent residence for an additional 5,200 investors and family members  – nearly 8,000 visas facilitated by a single regional center. This big-fish phenomenon is something to grapple with as we contemplate the future of the EB-5 program.
• Investors understandably gravitate to major-league capitalists when the SEC keeps showing up amateur capitalists. The SEC has announced another EB-5 case, this one involving Serofim Muroff, associated entities through which he allegedly misappropriated funds, and an administrative assistant/bookkeeper charged with facilitating the misappropriation. Here is a link to the SEC press release and complaint.  The woes of Idaho State Regional Center are not new (various lawsuits have been ongoing), but this SEC case looks distinctive to me in the way it applies securities laws to the EB-5 context, and I look forward to expert analysis.  (UPDATE: see McKee and Ahrenholz: SEC Flexes Enforcement Muscle in EB-5 Action.) The handful of EB-5 cases brought so far by the SEC have common themes that should be targeted by industry best practices and integrity measures in new EB-5 legislation.
• The news from Charlie Oppenheim during the IIUSA EB-5 Washington, D.C. Conference was predictably sobering. Mr. Oppenheim anticipates that the cutoff date for China-born investors will have advanced only to June or July 2014 by the end of this fiscal year, and to September or October 2014 by the end of next fiscal year. Considering the I-526 filing surges that have happened since 2014, this trend  is not going to get prettier, absent legislation to change visa numbers. Mr. Oppenheim also noted that Vietnam could trigger the per-country limit and become subject to a cutoff date in 2019 or 2020. The small-pond phenomenon (only about 10,000 visas available annually for investors plus family members, and 7% per-country limit when the cap is reached) is another important issue for Congress to address as it contemplates the future of the EB-5 program.
• President Trump, who has yet to exhibit any warm fuzzies to EB-5, despite what the Washington Post may suspect, has appointed a new CIS Ombudsman known for being anti-immigration generally and anti-EB-5 in particular.  My only question is whether Julie Kirchner’s probable bad intentions are any more likely to be effective than good intentions expressed by previous Ombudsman.
• Meanwhile, USCIS continues to approve new regional centers while terminating others for failure to promote economic growth.

Regional Center List Changes
Additions to the USCIS Regional Center List, 04/17/2017 to 05/08/2017.

• First American Redevelopment Regional Center (California)

New Terminations:

• North American Center for Foreign Investments, LLC (California) Terminated May 1, 2017
• Westgate Orlando Regional Center, LLC (Florida) Terminated May 1, 2017
• New York Green Hotel Regional Center LLC (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York) Terminated May 1, 2017
• DRC Capital Partners, LLC (Arizona) Terminated May 1, 2017
• E&W Lake Tahoe Regional Center LLC (California) Terminated May 1, 2017
• ACIC Management, Inc. Regional Center (Washington) Terminated May 1, 2017
• PetroSam, LLC (Texas) Terminated May 1, 2017
• Alaska Gold & Mining Regional Center, LLC (Alaska) Terminated April 21, 2017 Liberty West Regional Center (Arizona, California) Terminated April 19, 2017