I posted an interview four months ago with American immigration consultant Steve D. Albert about what he termed “rampant fraud” in the EB-5 visa program that provides overseas investors with a path to apply for a U.S. permanent residence.
Last week, Chinese investors whose EB-5 investment funds were misused in Texas received some good news from the Securities and Exchange Commission: The U.S. securities regulator announced on Dec. 12 that three Houston-area developers have agreed to settle charges that they misused investor funds raised from 90 Chinese investors under the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program on unrelated projects.
The three developers – America Modern Green Senior (Houston) LLC, America Modern Green Community (Houston) LLC, and America Modern Green Residential (Houston) LLC – have repaid the $49.5 million that they raised from the Chinese investors, the SEC said.
The developers told investors that their funds would be used exclusively for a large mixed-use real estate development EB-5 project, the SEC said. Instead, the SEC found that the developers improperly transferred $20.5 million of investor funds for various undisclosed and improper purposes, including funding purchases with respect to two unrelated real estate projects.
“These developers obtained almost $50 million from investors in connection with an EB-5 offering that was based on misleading statements and involved a misuse of the funds raised,” said Shamoil T. Shipchandler, director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office. “Today’s resolution provides full relief to all of the affected investors.”