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Immigrant investor program under fresh scrutiny as Chinese president visits US
Source: The Guardian
Immigrant investor program under fresh scrutiny as Chinese president visits US
FBI raided Chinese-focused cash-for-residency scheme linked to EB-5
visa that has been used by developers such as Jared Kushner before
Trump met Xi Jinping
Edward Helmore in New York
Friday 7 April 2017 09.00 BST
The timing could not have been worse – or better, depending on whose side you are on. On Wednesday, the day before Donald Trump met Chinese president Xi Jinping at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago estate, law enforcement swooped on a Chinese-focused cash-for-residency scheme that highlights a controversial business investment used by the president’s son-in-law.
The FBI raids, conducted on a series of locations in the San Gabriel Valley in California, were focused on California Investment Immigration Fund, a business allegedly connected to abuses of the controversial EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program that has in recent years fueled a high-end US residential boom and has been widely used by developers including the president’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.
Almost 85% of EB-5 allocations come from China – the programme has ballooned in recent years as the wealth of China’s middle class has grown. In 2005 just 350 visas were granted under EB-5; by 2015 the number was 9,500, according to figures cited by the FBI.
The money has been used to finance some high-profile developments. One of the largest projects to take EB-5 cash is the $4.9bn Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, renamed Pacific Park in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Shanghai Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 residential towers under development.
But the explosion of the programme’s popularity – the number of applicants vying for the annual allotment of 10,667 visas roughly doubles year-on-year – comes with repeated warnings that the programme has grown far beyond its intended use and should be cancelled.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
FBI raided Chinese-focused cash-for-residency scheme linked to EB-5
visa that has been used by developers such as Jared Kushner before
Trump met Xi Jinping
Edward Helmore in New York
Friday 7 April 2017 09.00 BST
The timing could not have been worse – or better, depending on whose side you are on. On Wednesday, the day before Donald Trump met Chinese president Xi Jinping at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago estate, law enforcement swooped on a Chinese-focused cash-for-residency scheme that highlights a controversial business investment used by the president’s son-in-law.
The FBI raids, conducted on a series of locations in the San Gabriel Valley in California, were focused on California Investment Immigration Fund, a business allegedly connected to abuses of the controversial EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program that has in recent years fueled a high-end US residential boom and has been widely used by developers including the president’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.
Almost 85% of EB-5 allocations come from China – the programme has ballooned in recent years as the wealth of China’s middle class has grown. In 2005 just 350 visas were granted under EB-5; by 2015 the number was 9,500, according to figures cited by the FBI.
The money has been used to finance some high-profile developments. One of the largest projects to take EB-5 cash is the $4.9bn Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, renamed Pacific Park in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Shanghai Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 residential towers under development.
But the explosion of the programme’s popularity – the number of applicants vying for the annual allotment of 10,667 visas roughly doubles year-on-year – comes with repeated warnings that the programme has grown far beyond its intended use and should be cancelled.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/07/immigrant-investor-program-eb-5-trump-xi-jinping-meeting
1 replies
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