A group of nearly 80 Chinese investors have filed suit against Nicholas Mastroianni II, alleging he defrauded them of their EB-5 investments.
Mastroianni founded the U.S. Immigration Fund for EB-5 investment. He’s known to have raised EB-5 funds for a number of major developers, and USIF remains one of the biggest EB-5 service providers.
According to a lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court last week, Mastroianni raised $99.5 million from 199 EB-5 investors for the Harbourside Place development in Jupiter. The deal was he would raise $100 million.
The complaint, filed through Miami-based Levine Kellogg Lehman Schneider + Grossman, alleges Mastroianni intentionally structured the EB-5 investments so that he was one investor short for the $100 million, first-priority, secured construction loan. The alleged purpose of that was so that Mastroianni could eventually control the new senior lender.