{"id":7107,"date":"2016-06-20T17:08:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T17:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/?p=7107"},"modified":"2019-02-12T13:50:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T18:50:22","slug":"us-developer-accepts-1-2m-fine-eb-5-investments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/us-developer-accepts-1-2m-fine-eb-5-investments\/","title":{"rendered":"US Developer Accepts $1.2m Fine Over EB-5 Investments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One of the major recipients of investment through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/united-states-immigrant-investor-eb-5-program\/\">US EB-5 program<\/a> has been fined more than $1.2 million for facilitating payments using unlicensed advisers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">American Life with a long standing history in the industry has received more than $1 billion in 2,200 separate investments for a range of projects including offices, retail, hotels and industrial in Seattle, Tacoma, Los Angeles and Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"7108\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/us-developer-accepts-1-2m-fine-eb-5-investments\/us-developer\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/US-Developer.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,900\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"US Developer Accepts $1.2m Fine Over EB-5 Investments\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;One of the major recipients of investment through the US EB-5 program has been fined more than $1.2 million for facilitating payments using unlicensed advisers&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/US-Developer-300x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/US-Developer.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7108\" src=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/US-Developer.jpg\" alt=\"US Developer Accepts $1.2m Fine Over EB-5 Investments\" width=\"900\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/US-Developer.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/US-Developer-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/US-Developer-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/US-Developer-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/US-Developer-55x55.jpg 55w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But the Seattle-based developer and president, Henry Liebman, has reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the brokers it used to advise potential investors to channel funds their way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Under the program, foreigners invest up to $1 million in an area that sustains 10 full-time jobs for US workers in exchange for permanent residence.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">EB-5 Investment requirements<\/h3>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>An EB-5 investor must invest in a new commercial enterprise.<\/li>\n<li>The investor must invest at least $1 million when investing in a general area of business or at least $500,000 when investing in a targeted employment area (\u201cRegional Centers\u201d).<\/li>\n<li>Within two years of admission as a Conditional Permanent Resident, the investor must create or preserve at least 10 full-time, direct or indirect jobs belonging to qualified US workers.<\/li>\n<li>See\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/tax-implications-gaining-permanent-residence-us-eb-5-visa\/\" target=\"_blank\">Tax Implications of Gaining Permanent Residence Through US EB-5 Visa<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The program has proven hugely popular with Chinese investors, who represented 80 per cent of the visas issued at the end of 2015.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But the scheme has not been without its problems.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The developer behind a biomedical research facility in Vermont, which benefitted from EB-5 funding, is currently being investigated for misusing the money.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The project had attracted $83 million of investment from 166 foreigners, many of them Chinese, who now risk losing their money.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Developer Ariel Quiros, and several of his associates, stand accused of using the funding to buy a ski resort, a luxury New York condo and to pay tax bills.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Meanwhile, developer Lobsang Dargey was accused of defrauding Chinese investors out of money for a tower in Belltown. Dargey no longer has control of the project and denies any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The SEC says American Life paid brokers to recommend clients invest in their projects. The company was fines $1 million, while Liebman had to pay $240,000. They did not admit or deny guilt.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Liebman said the settlement was reached because the court costs might exceed the fine. He said the SEC found no other issues in a three year investigation and that the company always told investors about the fees paid to brokers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The controversial EB-5 program is currently under review in the US, with a possible increase of investment thresholds thought to be being considered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Further reading<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Permalink to More Americans Choosing to Renounce Citizenship Rather than Pay Taxes\" href=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/more-americans-choosing-to-renounce-citizenship-rather-than-pay-taxes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark\">More Americans Choosing to Renounce Citizenship Rather than Pay Taxes<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Permalink to Rich Americans Renouncing Citizenship to Avoid Taxes\" href=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/rich-americans-renouncing-us-citizenship-to-avoid-taxes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark\">Rich Americans Renouncing Citizenship to Avoid Taxes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the major recipients of investment through the US EB-5 program has been fined more than $1.2 million for facilitating payments using unlicensed advisers. American Life with a long standing history in the industry has received more than $1 billion in 2,200 separate investments for a range of projects including offices, retail, hotels and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[454],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8hnWW-1QD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}