When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
– Frédéric Bastiat
I’ve written about the EB-5 visa program previously, something I consider a total racket that allows wealthy foreigners to buy their way into U.S. residency while funding real estate catering to, you guessed it, wealthy Americans. It’s more or less a system by which really rich people abuse a government program simply to help out other really rich people. What a country.
This wasn’t always the case. In fact the EB-5 visa program was originally meant to connect wealthy foreigners with projects to help the less fortunate here at home. Naturally, the entire thing has been completely corrupted.
As I noted in the 2015 post, More American Cronyism – U.S. Government Selling Visas to Fund Luxury Apartment Buildings:
Merging, on paper, the affluent midtown neighborhood and the struggling one uptown placed Hudson Yards in a community with an overall high unemployment rate, positioning developer Related Cos. to gain low-cost financing from foreigners seeking green cards.
The program through which that happens, known as EB-5, enables foreign nationals to obtain U.S. permanent-resident status by putting up money for new business ventures that create American jobs. It gives ventures in high-unemployment and rural areas a special status to encourage investment. But as the program’s popularity has soared in recent years, the bulk of immigrant investment is going to projects that are located, like $20 billion Hudson Yards, in prosperous urban neighborhoods.
At least 80% of EB-5 money is going to projects that wouldn’t qualify as being in Targeted Employment Areas without “some form of gerrymandering,” estimates Michael Gibson, managing director of USAdvisors.org, which evaluates projects for foreign investors.
Increasingly, the money appears to be flowing to the flashiest projects, which the investors often see as safest, EB-5 professionals say. Among those getting EB-5 money are an office building set to host Facebook Inc. near Amazon.com Inc.’s Seattle headquarters, a boutique hotel in high-end Miami Beach, and a slim Four Seasons condo-hotel in lower Manhattan that sports a penthouse with an asking price above $60 million. In all of them, geographic districts were crafted to include higher-unemployment areas.
The Kushner Companies have been taking advantage of this program for years, and continue to do so despite Donald Trump being the current U.S. President.
As reported by The Washington Post:
Over several hours of slide shows and presentations, representatives from the Kushner family business urged Chinese citizens gathered at a Ritz-Carlton hotel to consider investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a New Jersey luxury apartment complex that would help them secure what’s known as an investor visa.
The tagline on a brochure for the event: “Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States.”
And the highlight of the afternoon was Meyer, a principal for the company, who was introduced in promotional materials as Jared’s sister.
The event underscores the extent to which Kushner’s private business interests have the potential to collide with his powerful role as a top official in his father-in-law’s White House, particularly when it comes to China, where Kushner has become a crucial diplomatic channel between Beijing and the new administration.
The EB-5 immigrant investor visa program that Meyer discussed Saturday allows rich foreign investors who are willing to plunk down large investments in U.S. projects that create jobs to apply to immigrate to the United States.
Bloomberg News reported in March 2016 that the program has been used to the benefit both the Trump and Kushner family businesses. Before joining the White House, as chief executive of his family’s real estate company, Jared Kushner raised $50 millionfrom Chinese EB-5 applicants for a Trump-branded apartment building in Jersey City, according to the report.
The EB-5 program has been criticized by members of Congress from both parties who have said the program in essence sells visas to the wealthiest foreigners.
The program has been extremely popular among rich Chinese, who call it the “golden visa” and are eager to get their families — and their wealth — out of the country. The fact that some use it to move their money out illegally, however, has made the program unpopular with the Chinese authorities.
The program was launched with the goal of securing investment and creating jobs. But instead, in recent years, many real estate developers have used the program as a source of cheap financing by using foreign investors, especially from China, for flashy projects in Manhattan and other city centers.
A Government Accountability Office report in 2015 found the EB-5 program carried a high risk of fraud, was rife with counterfeit documentation and had “no reliable method to verify the source of the funds of petitioners.”
The program, however, is especially popular in China, with estimates in recent years showing that more than 80 percent of EB-5 visas were issued to Chinese investors.
Saturday’s event in Beijing was hosted by the Chinese company Qiaowai, which connects U.S. companies with Chinese investors. Qiaowai is working with the Kushner company to secure funding for Kushner 1, the New Jersey project presented to investors, also known as One Journal Square. Promotional materials tout the buildings’ proximity to Manhattan and note that the project will create more than 6,000 jobs.
At Saturday’s event, attendee Wang Yun, a Chinese investor, said the Kushner family’s ties to Trump were an obvious part of the project’s appeal.
“Even though this is the project of the son-in-law’s family, of course it is still affiliated,” Wang said.
Although the event was publicly advertised in Beijing, the hosts were exceptionally anxious about the presence of reporters.
At one point, organizers grabbed a reporter’s phone and backpack to try to force that person to leave. Later, as investors started leaving the ballroom, organizers physically surrounded attendees to prevent them from giving interviews.
The day after the above described Beijing event, the Kushner Companies held another in Shanghai.
The New York Times reported:
Kushner Companies’ China roadshow, promoting $500,000 investments in New Jersey real estate as the path to a residency card in the United States, moved to Shanghai on Sunday after a similar pitch on Saturday in Beijing. Security was tighter in Shanghai than it had been in Beijing, where reporters for The New York Times and The Washington Post briefly attended the event before being kicked out.
At the event in Beijing, Mr. Kushner’s sister, Nicole Meyer, cited her brother’s service to the company, which he led as chief executive until January. She said the project in Jersey City “means a lot to me and my entire family.”
But some who attended described an investor pitch similar to the one in Beijing, and Mr. Trump’s political power was palpable at the Shanghai event even if his name went unsaid. As on Saturday in Beijing, one slide that was presented to the Shanghai audience, describing who will decide the future of the visa program for foreign investors, included a photograph of Mr. Trump, as shown by a snapshot taken by an audience member.
Although the program was created as a way to finance projects in economically troubled neighborhoods, it has instead turned into a form of cheap financing for luxury real estate developers. Applicants are primarily seeking the visa, so they typically do not seek a significant return on their investment.
The United States Government Accountability Office, the investigative branch of Congress, has criticized the visa program for its lax safeguards against illicit sources of money.
Many people in China worry that the window for obtaining an EB-5 visa may be closing. Although Mr. Trump has softened his language considerably in recent weeks, he was a vociferous critic of China during his presidential campaign. He has said he will take a tough line on immigration, although he did not take aim at investors in real estate projects.
The Kushner project promoted to Chinese investors, called Kushner 1, includes two towers and nearly 1,500 luxury apartments, with construction to begin early next year.
Like so much else in this fake economy, the EB-5 visa program is an unethical racket that uses a government program originally designed to help struggling communities to further help the already wealthy by funneling cheap financing to luxury property development. It’s just another example of how screwed up our incentives are as a nation, and how completely corrupt the American Banana Republic has become.
For more on the topic, see the following article published by Bloomberg earlier this year: Rich Chinese Race to Apply for a U.S. Golden Visa.
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In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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A LINK THAT NO ONE WANTS TO MISS, AND IN FACT CRUCIAL THAT EVERYONE RECEIVE THIS LINK:
https://bythebloodofthelamb.wordpress.com/2017/05/08/donald-trump-just-submitted-to-pope-francis-one-world-religion-agenda-2017/
This is a fine example of what business does with government programs or legislation. The ‘sharp pencils’ always quickly figure out how to make it work for themselves with an “I’m all right Jack” screw everyone else attitude.All western nations have similar programs and outcomes so the natural question is who designed the program and the accompanying legislation in the first place?
The further up the food chain one is the greater the proceeds of the position until we finally get to the banking class which have extorted for themselves blanket immunity from All law for ANY of their actions while engaged in ANY banking activity. Basically inferring the ‘Divine Right of Kings’ upon themselves as the as under law the ‘King can do no wrong.’
I agree with everything you wrote about this Michael. And I agree with what you wrote, BRF, as well. What I cannot yet understand is who is actually running things. I’m going to mention just two oddities here: DNI Clapper has said there was not Russian interference in the election. Sally Yates says, oh yes there was but I can’t mention it because it’s classified. If it’s classified, why didn’t Clapper give the same answer as Yates? He does have access to classified information. In fact, he would have been approving her getting it in the first place. Then there’s this stunning information:
BREAKING: Foreign Heads Of State Still Calling @JoeBiden on Foreign Policy Instead of @VP @Mike_Pence
http://linkis.com/0Fi4A
Does anyone know of a place to find some explanation of who is really in charge of what in the US? It’s obviously not our (s)elected officials.
Again, I will state that I see only one way out of this mess and this is the banding together of ordinary people for the purpose of working on projects which will make our lives better and let us not be beholding to psychopaths!
Addition: I meant “beholden” above. As to my link at gotnews.com I just wanted to say it seems to have varied writers. there is a lot of ugly stuff on it and some interesting information.
(If this comment posted twice, I’m sorry.) On my computer, my comment just disappeared.
I understand what you are writing about with all the confusing signals emanating from the various Continuity of Agenda agencies and the WH. The Russians have stated that the USA is not ‘agreement capable’ referring to this same situation. We just had Comey saying it was the DoJ that foiled any FBI investigation into the Clinton’s criminality. If Comey Is passing the buck you would think he would do it without implicating corruption in another allied department? Definitely something is going on where the normal seamless coordination and cooperation between the top people running these agencies has broken down to some extent in regards to foreign affairs, intelligence and the military. What the reason is for this situation or if there is a motive behind this, meaning a plan, is difficult to say with a backing of evidence, so speculation in abundance is the order of the day as to the who, what and why? Internal revolt is one and division with the plutocracy as to strategy going forward is another.Anyway the Wall Street representatives in this administration seem to have their act together in getting what they want done but the rather bizarre occurrences elsewhere points I believe to a breakdown in the command and control structure regarding these departments. It feels somewhat like all these rats are getting ready to turn on each other.
Addition: I mean “beholden” above.
Also, as to gotnews.com where my link goes to–the writers on the site vary. I found it through kimdotcom. There is a lot of ugly things there and some genuinely interesting information.
BRF,
You make many good points above. There is definitely something going on. I also agree the banking people seem to have pulled together at this time. Just looking at Macron and how the govt. and press pulled everything together to quash the leaks from his campaign was truly amazing and scary. Certainly, in the US and elsewhere, GS, is sticking together with swamp mud! And of course the business scams such as those described here move along quite well!
The thing is, the bankers need the other groups just as the other groups need the bankers. If the other groups go down, eventually the bankers will too.
The money masters don’t appear to too alarmed by the disarray, at least on the surface, with the going ons within their enforcement agencies in government, both domestic and foreign, with the legislative branch ineffectual investigations, accusations and counter accusations by department heads and the incoherence and lack of defined policy. Some of this may be due to the lack of a strong figure to give overall direction within the executive establishment. Clinton and certainly Cheney where strong. Obama held it together until late in his administration when the Pentagon acted against what Kerry was doing in Foreign Affairs while Kerry himself was doing flip flops in his dealings with Russia. The reality with Trump could well be he is not strong enough to control his department heads and the hangover from the election accusations regarding hacking, illegal election manipulations and Russian or other said influences on personnel engendering disarray in achieving policy consensus. Whether this is just a spell of political mayhem or a planned orchestration with an ulterior motive is the question?
The cartel bankers are of course beyond any law.
My comment where I tried to explain things keeps disappearing. I don’t know why it won’t post.
Hi Jill, it seems your comment posted just fine. The one about Clapper and Biden?
SAME THING HAPPENS TO ME ON OTHER POSTS, SELDOM YET FROM TIME TO TIME. CONSIDER THE CENSORSHIP, THEY ARE WATCHING US. DO NOT (NOT SAYING YOU DO) BLAME MICHAEL, IT MAY BE FAR BEYOND HIS REACH, BUT HE DOES TRY.
Hi Michael,
I see that comment. I was writing a follow up comment that disappeared. I was trying to explain about the site I had linked to called, gotnews. It has a lot of ugly things on it as well as some useful information. I had hoped to let people know about the ugly stuff so they would be forewarned. I learned of the site at kimdotcom. This info on Biden was so interesting that I wanted to put it out there for people to read. However, there is a lot of hatred towards immigrants and other awful things on the site. Evidently, it has different writers and this likely accounts for the differing content. That comment disappeared twice.
Hi Jill and thank you for brining this issue to my attention. The comments you referred to were for some reason automatically sent to the spam folder. I have moved them back into the regular public comments where they belong.
As I looked into your case, I noticed many other legitimate comments were suddenly being pushed into spam, something that had never happened with such frequency before. We are looking into this and how to fix it. Let me know if you continue to have this issue.
Michael,
Thank you for checking into this. I appreciate it. I’m happy you were able to recover the missing comments from everyone!
Michael, I was going to say you are clearly an idiot. But I won’t. What I’d like to know is why are you really upset that America is giving residency visas – not Citizenship – to a relatively small number of rich foreign business people that are prepared to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, and most likely a lot more, in projects that create jobs?
In fact, who cares if these investments creates jobs or not because the money will still benefit America. It will allow American businesses to grow, it will be spent and re-spent to purchase other good & services of other American businesses. And, guess what? This money will be taxed. Its a net gain for America.
Or would you prefer that America turn away entrepreneurs with money (god forbid we want immigrants who actually won’t be a drain on welfare and parasites to social security system!), and just keep giving residency to millions of 3rd world immigrants who have no money and no cultural connection with American and who probably will never pay any net taxes to the country during their whole lives ?
If the EB-5 visa is a racket, then the whole damn immigration system in America is a racket, so why are do you single this one out? Perhaps you’re just jealous people are making money through a perfectly legal system that has been in place for many years before Trump came to office.
BTW, as a Libertarian, it offends me that you use the term with your site. May I suggest Anti-Libertarian a more appropriate term.
Who cares? Anyone who earns money legitimately and doesn’t want to compete with laundered money, perhaps?
Congcong Zhang Retweeted Emily Rauhala
I was threatened, harassed and forced to delete recordings and photos of The Kushner family recruiting Chinese investors in US Green cards.
https://twitter.com/daphnewelkin5/status/860880539170951169
Isn’t transparency the best disinfectant or is that just for the little people?
“In fact, who cares if these investments creates jobs or not because the money will still benefit America.” – Dean Mitchell
If Pablo Escobar was still alive, he would agree with you 100%, Dean.
BTW, you clearly are an idiot. Just to make it worse, you’re also a crooked idiot.