Jay Peak bombshell

[VTKilarney]

A new article discussing alleged co-conspirators in the Jay Peak EB-5 fraud:

Court filing: Shumlin aide ‘could qualify’ as co-conspirator in Jay Peak fraud case

A lawyer for Alex MacLean, who served as former Gov. Peter Shumlin’s deputy chief of staff, took strong exception to the claim included in a filing by attorneys for indicted

vtdigger.org

I notice that Alexandra MacLean does not mention working for Jay Peak in her LinkedIn profile.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-maclean-001a49162/

 

[thetrailboss]

A new article discussing alleged co-conspirators in the Jay Peak EB-5 fraud:

Court filing: Shumlin aide ‘could qualify’ as co-conspirator in Jay Peak fraud case

A lawyer for Alex MacLean, who served as former Gov. Peter Shumlin’s deputy chief of staff, took strong exception to the claim included in a filing by attorneys for indicted

vtdigger.org

I notice that Alexandra MacLean does not mention working for Jay Peak in her LinkedIn profile.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-maclean-001a49162/

Looks like it was a Pretrial Disclosure that labeled these individuals as "Co-Conspirators" in order to allow for the admission of their out-of-court statements under the Rules of Evidence. (VTD attaches Stenger's Motion in Limine to bar these statements). The article certainly makes it worse than it seems. If the Feds were to bring charges they would have already.

That said, one would not want the label of co-conspirator in this matter.

 

[BenedictGomez]

George Gulisano, former Jay Peak chief financial officer, who worked for Quiros from 2010 to 2016. In a deposition with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Gulisano claimed to have audited the eight EB-5 projects run by Quiros and Stenger.

This I find interesting.

Whereas I always thought it was beyond unusual that the guy running State of Vermont's EB-5 center had absolutely no education, work experience, or capacity that could prepare him to (really) understand finance or conduct an audit, a quick review of Gulisano's LinkedIn shows he absolutely 100% does. IMO there is simply no way a guy with his background & work history wouldn't have known something was very amiss at Jay Peak if he was doing the audits.

So what's going on? I'd never heard of this guy's involvement in terms of blessing all these audits before today. Could he be involved, but not being charged because he told the SEC where the bodies are? As an FYI, he left Vermont for South Florida, which I find interesting given that's where Quiros is from. I wonder if they knew each other prior to the Jay Peak crime.

 

[thetrailboss]

Looks like MSSI has settled its claims--for $800,000.

Canadian company pays $800K to settle claims of fraudulent sale of Jay Peak

The agreement between the resort’s court-appointed receiver and its former owner resolves a lawsuit related to the purchase of the ski area by Ariel Quiros in 2008, allegedly with investor funds that were not supposed to be touched.

vtdigger.org

The allegation was that MSSI knew or "should have known" that Q was going to raid the EB-5 fund to pay for the resort when he purchased Jay in 2008. And in fact he did use $18 million of the escrow funds to buy the resort. In essence, it is when the whole fraud began.

 

[fbrissette]

Looks like MSSI has settled its claims--for $800,000.

Canadian company pays $800K to settle claims of fraudulent sale of Jay Peak

The agreement between the resort’s court-appointed receiver and its former owner resolves a lawsuit related to the purchase of the ski area by Ariel Quiros in 2008, allegedly with investor funds that were not supposed to be touched.

vtdigger.org

The allegation was that MSSI knew or "should have known" that Q was going to raid the EB-5 fund to pay for the resort when he purchased Jay in 2008. And in fact he did use $18 million of the escrow funds to buy the resort. In essence, it is when the whole fraud began.

Drops in a bucket, with the Receivership only getting 100k, and no admission of guilt.

 

[thetrailboss]

Drops in a bucket, with the Receivership only getting 100k, and no admission of guilt.

Yep. After everyone else gets their cut......

 

[skiur]

Stenger to take plea deal in ‘Kingdom Con’ case

One of the main players in the Kingdom Con fraud case has made a plea deal with prosecutors.

www.wcax.com

 

[BenedictGomez]

ROFL @ State of Vermont blaming Quiros & Stenger for "deceiving" them.

They're going with the, "Vermont is completely incompetent" defense.

 

[VTKilarney]

ANother article here:

Jay Peak’s Stenger reaches plea deal in EB-5 fraud case, admits to false statement

Bill Stenger, former CEO and president of the Jay Peak ski resort in northern Vermont, is expected to enter his guilty plea Friday. Prosecutors can ask for a prison sentence

vtdigger.org

Any guesses on how much jail time Stenger will actually get? It seems like he made a mistake by letting Quiros cooperate first.

 

[thetrailboss]

Watch and let us know your reaction to Bill's comments:

Former Jay Peak president pleads guilty in ‘Kingdom Con’ case

Former Jay Peak President Bill Stenger on Friday pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to government officials in connection with the state’s largest-ever fraud case.

www.wcax.com

 

[VTKilarney]

Watch and let us know your reaction to Bill's comments:

Former Jay Peak president pleads guilty in ‘Kingdom Con’ case

Former Jay Peak President Bill Stenger on Friday pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to government officials in connection with the state’s largest-ever fraud case.

www.wcax.com

Pick one:
1) He was either the world's worst executive; or
2) He knew that a fraud was being perpetuated.

I feel sorry that he got roped into this. If, however, at some point he realized that there was fraudulent activity and he enabled it, it's awfully hard to feel sorry for him. Good people can make bad mistakes. If Stenger truly made a mistake, I wish that he would own up to it. But he has a sentencing hearing ahead of him - so I can appreciate that his attorney has advised him to be cautious about what he says at this point in time. It will be interesting to see what he actually says at the sentencing hearing. The judge may not be impressed if he fails to admit to playing a role in the fraud. If he plays the innocent victim he will be playing with fire - especially with the sentencing guideline factors.

I would not read too much into the charge that he plead to and the charges that were dismissed. The feds do this sort of horse trading with charges all of the time. It seems like they came up with a plea agreement that does not treat Stenger as the principal wrongdoer (at least as far as the spoils of the fraud are concerned), but will provide some degree of punishment. The feds are less concerned with how the get to the finish line than they are with the actual result.

To be honest... I can see why Quiros did what he did. This is not to say that it was right, but Quiros at least had the temptation and motive since he was the one who allegedly pocketed the proceeds from the fraud. Stenger apparently did not wind up with a windfall. Which makes Stenger's role in this seem that much more inexplicable.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Stenger apparently did not wind up with a windfall. Which makes Stenger's role in this seem that much more inexplicable.

This many year saga will finally end in October/November when we learn much more about the secrets we do not currently know. His role has always been a mystery, for him to truly be innocent you'd have to believe that Stenger is a total moron. Seems a far cry from the guy people previously called a brilliant ski executive. And just WHAT did he lie to government officials about? That's still a mystery. Could he have been weak-kneed & Quiros simply said "do this or you're fired", and Stenger went along with it to keep his high-paid CEO job? It could be that simple, but my guess is another bombshell will drop. We'll finally know about 3 months from now.

What we wont know, and likely will never know, is State of Vermont & Vermont government's complicity in this fraud. Much of the evidence has likely already been destroyed. LOL @ how Senator Leahy went from Mr. EB-5 saving Vermont's economy, to, what is that EB-5 thing about, I've heard the term but dont know what it is. It's a good thing when you control which direction the sharpened end of the bayonets get pointed.

 

[VTKilarney]

The Caledonian Record’s article has some details about what Stenger lied about:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole P. Cate said Stenger specifically submitted a letter representing that a third party had analyzed the sales projections for the Jay Peak Biomedical Research Park (also called the AnC Vermont project) when the third party had never looked at them. Stenger also submitted a timeline about product commercialization that omitted uncertainty about the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process, Cate said.

 

[kbroderick]

The Caledonian Record’s article has some details about what Stenger lied about:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole P. Cate said Stenger specifically submitted a letter representing that a third party had analyzed the sales projections for the Jay Peak Biomedical Research Park (also called the AnC Vermont project) when the third party had never looked at them. Stenger also submitted a timeline about product commercialization that omitted uncertainty about the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process, Cate said.

That's what he admitted to lying about. I strongly suspect that differs from the totality of what he lied about, as I'm in the "he doesn't seem to be a moron, so he must've known something was afoot" camp. I wouldn't be shocked if he got really excited about and focused on the project upside and by the time it was clear what Quiros was up to, he was already in the middle of a cluster and just trying to keep things moving forward in some fashion.

But then again, I'm mostly just here to watch for more details and eat popcorn, so take that with a shaker of salt.

 

[mister moose]

There is what Stenger lied about, both admitted and total. There also has to be what Quiros lied to Stenger about, and what Stenger suspected but chose not to see.

 

[BenedictGomez]

My main interest in this in the final innings lies with State of Vermont's guilt, but intentionally, nobody is looking into that.

I feel like the guy in the famous Twilight Zone episode who's the only one who sees the gremlin tearing apart the port side airplane wing. Vermont was 100% complicit in this fraud, no ifs and or buts, and everyone involved is just pretending that isnt the case.

 

[jimmywilson69]

While not as vocal as you BG I too think the state was in on it. They could not have known on at least some level that this scam was going down.

I also agree with kbroderick as I think Stenger the ever positive guy didn't realize until it was too late that he was a major player in a scam that was going to come crashing down at some point. I could be totally wrong but hope I'm not. My guess is Bill was just hoping at some point this thing would get off the ground in some capacity to save face and it didn't.

Waiting for sentencing where hopefully more details emerge.

In the meantime Jay Peak, which was Bill's true love, is left with a lot of nice amenities yet no one wants to buy it. Which basically proves the whole scam as I'm guessing the traffic doesn't support all of those shiny toys they have

 

[JimG.]

I feel like the guy in the famous Twilight Zone episode who's the only one who sees the gremlin tearing apart the port side airplane wing.

One of William Shatner's most memorable overacting roles.

 

[BenedictGomez]

One of William Shatner's most memorable overacting roles.

You know, I've seen that episode at least twice, but he was so young that I had no idea it was him!

 

[dblskifanatic]

You know, I've seen that episode at least twice, but he was so young that I had no idea it was him!

I never made that connection either! LOL