Gov. Phil Scott, Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan and VTDigger.org founder and editor Anne Galloway issued a press release Friday afternoon touting a settlement in Digger’s lengthy battle for access to documents in the EB-5 scandal.
Digger is seeking a total of 1.5 million pages of relevant documents. The state has refused to release them, citing ongoing litigation.
At first glance, Friday’s press release appeared to signal a major step in the legal battle — but in actual fact, according to Galloway, it only included 100 or so pages.
She called the document release “minuscule,” and added that, “We worked really hard to get them. We had a team of lawyers at work for at least four months.” Galloway called it an “outrage that it takes so much effort to get so little.”
EB-5 is a nationwide program aimed at spurring development in depressed areas by offering green cards to noncitizens who make significant investments in designated projects. The state of Vermont’s program became victim to fraudulent schemes put forward by Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger between 2008 and 2016.
Digger has played the lead role in covering the scandal. In 2016, state and federal investigators charged Quiros and Stenger with numerous counts of fraud.
The documents released on Friday, Galloway said, were forms submitted by the state to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services related to how much each project received from investors over time — as well as “some very limited communications between the state and USCIS, pretty dry stuff. We’re going through it to see if there’s anything to report.”
What the joint press statement failed to make clear is that the legal settlement was over a single suit filed by Digger regarding a specific set of documents.
“The governor has been pushing for releasing as many records as possible, but we understand the fact of ongoing litigation,” Scott spokesperson Rebecca Kelley said. Roughly 800,000 pages of documents related to state legal action against Quiros are being prepared for release, with a contractor removing any personal information from all the documents, such as phone numbers, addresses and Social Security numbers. “As soon as that’s done, we’ll release those documents,” she said.
The other 700,000 are documents from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, which oversaw the state’s EB-5 program. Quiros and Stenger began their fraudulent activities during the administration of former governor Jim Douglas, when a single ACCD staffer was responsible for promoting and regulating Vermont’s EB-5 program. Kelley said that the administration and attorney general are working on a process for releasing those documents.
Galloway is not pleased. She noted that the Quiros case is effectively closed, and that the discovery phase is over in a lawsuit brought by EB-5 investors. Given the circumstances, Galloway questions the need for a litigation exception.
“It could be several more years before we have the relevant documents,” Galloway said. “This is the largest fraud in the history of the EB-5 program, and it occurred under state oversight. The public has a right to know what happened.”
Correction, March 9, 2019: This post has been updated to note that Anne Galloway was one of the people who issued the joint news release.
Correction, March 11, 2019: An earlier version of this story contained errors about when the fraud began and Digger’s role in uncovering the scandal.
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Go Anne, go!! Give the bastards no rest!
It’s amazing how if the roles were reversed and the “state” needed the documents they would be after us tooth and nail, but because there are politicians and policy in question they are dragging their feet. Hound them….make them accountable to us…and if need be publish repeated articles on their lack of transparency!
I know Digger is supposed to be revered and never questioned but they’re no more trustworthy than any outlet. They have their prejudices and it’s hard to trust such an outlet. And the staff is pretty white and pretty male. But don’t criticize!
Scott is not a big fan of transparency. Anyone remember DuBois construction?
Please note, Anne Galloway censors my posts on VTDigger’s website as she deleted one today that drew attention to the fact that no media outlet in Vermont has done much “digging” of the truth surrounding the nearly 3 year criminal fraud probe of the Brattleboro Retreat.
Ms. Galloway doesn’t want you to know that she has conspired with her attorney Cornell (who was my 2nd fraud attorney in the Retreat litigation) and both have blackballed me in the Vermont media market and helped to ensure no digging is done on the multi-year criminal fraud probe of the Brattleboro Retreat.
Also, Seven Days and Vermont Public Radio also have refused to review the evidence and report on it also. VTDigger and others falsely claim to doggedly pursue the truth, when the reality is they selectively report the news despite the fact that the Retreat criminal probe was of longer duration than Jay Peak.
The State of Vermont has covered up the Retreat’s malfeasance and the good news is after 8 years I am making progress with other media and I don’t need VTDigger, Seven Days or VPR to report on the Retreat anymore.
Vermonters should ask themselves, why are alleged reputable news organizations passing up reporting on a decade of fraud at The Brattleboro Retreat?
“Scott is not a big fan of transparency. Anyone remember DuBois construction?”
There was/is nothing hidden or secret about Gov. Scott’s relationship with DuBois Construction.
State Auditor, Doug Hoffer, has promised a thorough audit of this EB-5 fiasco. He’s been working on it for more than a year and I don’t think ‘the State’ can prevent him from accessing this documentation. On the other hand, whether he chooses to pursue the information or not remains to be seen.
You have to wonder why only civil charges with monetary fines and consequences have been brought on Stenger and Quiros thus far and NO criminal charges have been filed?
The only reason I can think of is that they have the goods on the politicians and State officials who would also get dragged into the prosecution as well if that were to happen and that’s the reason for the lack of transparency and foot dragging.
Perhaps the new owner(s) of Jay Peak will be able to appreciate the spectacular view of the Coventry landfill; who knows maybe if the wind is blowing in the right direction, they could even take in some breaths of fresh mountain air.
I have a question and a comment. From the above article, “Its initial reporting led to state and federal investigations” (referring to VTDigger). First, can you show a timeline or some frame of reference for that statement?
Second, the article also states, “Quiros and Stenger began their fraudulent activities during the administration of former governor Peter Shumlin”. Is Mr. Walters familiar with AnC Bio. Gov. Jim Douglas traveled with the pair of con-men across the world to seek investors.
Hi Paul Drayman,
These were both errors that have been corrected. Additionally, a Seven Days timeline of events related to the EB-5 scandal is included below the story. Here’s the link: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/arc…