While Maddville and Dakota Wuss College go at it over who is lying about EB-5 (Mostly Rounds) I found an interesting twist on how Rounds ran EB-5 in this article;
Other press reports placed these fees — which are totally unregulated by the feds — at a flat, one-time payment of $30,000 to the regional center, and $15,000 to lawyers (who were probably related to the center.)
All of these fees, except the legal ones, would have gone to the state government had it not been for the contract with the Rounds administration
Let’s think about this conversion of a unit of a public university to a for-profit entity for a moment and discuss a hypothetical analogy:
Suppose the dean of the Engineering School at the hypothetical Maryland State Institute of Technology, discovered that some patents the school owned were about to become very valuable. Do you suppose the dean could persuade the president of MSIT to spin off the engineering school (including the patents) to the dean’s personal ownership, for a nominal return? That sound’s pretty unlikely, but that is exactly what happened in South Dakota at Northern State University.
I am puzzled as to why the facts outlined above — none of them secret — have not exploded into a major scandal in South Dakota. Here’s a situation in which one might well talk about self-dealing, conflicts of interest, depriving the state government of millions in revenues, the fiduciary responsibilities of state officials (such as Bollen), and the like.
I suggest you read the entire article. It is intriguing because what this blogger does is point out what is ‘scandalous’ about EB-5 that has already being reported to us, and fairly obvious to those who have been following the mess, and how the media isn’t effectively relaying that message to voters and constituents.
As the article points out, why hasn’t this exploded into a major scandal? Our apologetic, underpaid, advertorial media is mostly to blame.
It is amazing, well maybe not, that not one network has picked up this story. When ex Gov. McDonnell was found guilty yesterday I wondered if there were any other governors who felt a tinge of “oh shit?”
North raises an excellent point. We should pose this question to Rounds: “Why did you allow Bollen and Benda to privatize GOED’s EB-5 operation when that meant foregoing millions of dollars in revenue for the state?” Watch Rounds stammer and spin on that one!
Actually Cory at Madville Times posted a thread on EB-5 fees sometime back.
Just some light reading:
http://fortune.com/2014/07/24/immigration-eb-5-visa-for-sale/
Actually – the “blame” lies in the FACT that this sort of dealing is typical of SD’s governments and institutions. I.E., it is business as usual – expected – nothing extraordinary or exceptional – just part of the every day culture of the state. And you thought Chicago was a hotbed of political corruption.
I’m suspicious that media in SD is controlled by a few regional kings. Is real news refrained, sequestered, or just plain propaganda. I wanted to think reporters were not so bright apprentices and/or there wasn’t enough budget for investigative reporting. Leaders of industry and government are so blatantly corrupt. I think they want to get caught. FNN will eventually discover what’s been going on and play with it for months. Said leaders are waiting for the national attention. They’ll have to do some time in federal prison but their names will be forefront & their narcissist egos satisfied.
Roger, I am sure Cory did, but I am talking about the MSM in South Dakota and how they seem to be resistant to pointing out what is actually ‘scandalous’ about EB-5. Sure they write long columns about what facts they do have, but they are afraid to point at the big gorilla in the room. Tell the people of South Dakota about how corrupt Rounds was as governor. I put together a booklet for the Weiland campaign of all the cartoons I did of Rounds as governor. When I first started searching, I thought I would have about 20 or so. I found over 100 toons I did of Rounds scandals as governor. He is as crooked as they come.
Our local news is a joke and without them blaring the facts on TV or in the newspaper people will not have a clue.
I am afraid very few are paying attention or care to take the time to delve into any research on this EB-5 scandal. The few people I have talked to say they watch the news, don’t really hear much about it and just blow it all off as the Dems making waves.
Can you post those toons from Rounds time as Governor? That would be great!
Naw, can’t be more crooked than Hollywood Mike?
Dan – this is what frustrates me about you all here. You are focused on one mayor who makes some decisions that are iffy. meanwhile, you pay NO ATTENTION to the one-party rulers in Pierre – who hardly do anything at all that is NOT corrupt. Business as usual.
So the dems said nothing while a few repubs were making money on a state program. I highly doubt this is a one party issue. If we ever get a real investigation, we’ll find quite a few were getting “finders fees”.
The Dems over calculated on waiting this long to make this into political hay. The average voter has already moved on and assumes the problem died with Benda. Your dems are charlie brown with the football.
A well written article.