2nd man sentenced in Vermont visa fraud case
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/04/2022 (1630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The second of four men accused in a failed plan to build a biotechnology plant in Vermont using tens of millions of dollars in foreign investors’ money raised through a special visa program was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to 18 months in prison.
William Kelly, 73, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, also was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $.8.3 million in restitution.
He pleaded guilty last June to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of concealment of material information. As part of the plea deal, eight other charges were dropped and he agreed to cooperative with the government.
Kelly was indicted in 2019 on multiple fraud charges along with Miami businessman Ariel Quiros, the former owner of Jay Peak and Burke Mountain ski resorts in northern Vermont, and former Jay Peak president William Stenger. Kelly was an advisor to Quiros.
The indictment accused the men of conspiring to devise a scheme between 2011 and 2016 to defraud foreign investors in the AnC-Bio project in Newport. The EB-5 visa program encourages foreigners to invest in U.S. projects that create jobs in exchange for a chance to earn permanent U.S. residency.
Prosecutors said the project was designed to raise $110 million from 220 immigrant investors to build and operate a biotechnology facility in Newport, according to court records and proceedings. Approximately 169 investors put in about $85 million between 2012 and 2016, as well as paid about $8 million in administrative fees but the fundraising was never completed and project was never built, prosecutors said.
Stenger was sentenced last week to 18 months in prison, after pleading guilty last August to providing false documents. Quiros faces sentencing later this month. A fourth man, Jong Weon (Alex) Choi, a businessman in South Korea, remains at large, according to the federal court.