Ask and ye shall receive, but it you will go horribly wrong

Many EB-5 project developers call us and want to obtain from us all of the information we know about the EB-5 Program.  Then they go away and try to do it on their own with often horrible results for themselves and their foreign investors.

EB-5 investors warned about scams

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a warning to EB-5 investors about scams.  One of the scams mentioned was the Chicago convention center.  Read the investor alert here:

http://tinyurl.com/l25b5zq

The Chicago convention center was a $156 million fraud investigated jointly by USCIS and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  The SEC has become increasingly involved in the EB-5 arena.

FINRA publishes guidance for broker-dealers concerning EB-5 securities offerings

     FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc.), the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States, has published guidance for broker-dealers in performing due diligence on EB-5 securities offerings or "private placements."  Read a summary by clicking on the URL below:

http://tinyurl.com/pappqva

10 requirements for an EB-5 compliant business plan

Great article, written by some friends of mine.  Highly recommended.

http://tinyurl.com/nzpdnlt

Stuck in the mud and spinning away

"The '64 Skylark had a regular differential, which, anyone who's been stuck in the mud in Alabama knows, you step on the gas, one tire spins, the other tire does nothing." - Lisa Vito, as played by Oscar-winning actress Marisa Tomei in the 1992 movie "My Cousin Vinny"

     The tire that's stuck in the mud is U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the tire  that's spinning is the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO).  How so?
     The AAO issued two regional center decisions overturning the California Service Center's denial of an application  to amend a regional center's geographic area and approved industries and an application for regional center designation by applying the May 30, 2013, EB-5 adjudications policy memo issued by -- who else? -- USCIS.
   In the first case (decision dated June 12, 2013), the AAO wrote that because the May 30 memo no longer requires regional centers to file amendments to "amend" their geographic areas and approved industries, that application for five states in the Midwest and 12 more industries, was due to be approved.
     In the second case (dated July 19, 2013), the AAO wrote that "verifiable detail" is not required because the May 30 memo now requires only "general predictions" with respect to job creation, capital investment, and timeframe for an EB-5 investment project. Federal law says that regional center applicants must submit a "general proposal".
     True to form, USCIS is not following the law, its own regulatio  ns or policy guidance.  So it's stuck in the mud.

FBI raids McAllen TX regional center

Regional center principals allegedly defrauded Mexican investors in a Ponzi scheme that took new investors' money to pay off earlier investors.  See:

http://tinyurl.com/lklpxxh

Cowboys at the border

Dang, Jose, who do these guys think they're protecting?

http://tinyurl.com/mf3tje2

These guys are not professionals; they're just bullies in uniform with guns. Unfortunately, they are paid with our tax dollars. More's the pity.