Vermont Public is independent, community-supported media, serving Vermont with trusted, relevant and essential information. We share stories that bring people together, from every corner of our region. New to Vermont Public? Start here.

© 2024 Vermont Public | 365 Troy Ave. Colchester, VT 05446

Public Files:
WVTI · WOXM · WVBA · WVNK · WVTQ · WVTX
WVPR · WRVT · WOXR · WNCH · WVPA
WVPS · WVXR · WETK · WVTB · WVER
WVER-FM · WVLR-FM · WBTN-FM

For assistance accessing our public files, please contact hello@vermontpublic.org or call 802-655-9451.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Explore our coverage of government and politics.

EB-5 Development: 4 Named In Criminal Indictment Filed In Federal Court Over NEK Project

A sign for PeakCM construction with an illustration of a proposed AnC bio building.
Angela Evancie
/
VPR File
The site of the proposed AnC Bio facility, pictured in 2016. The EB-5 project was stalled after allegations of fraud.

A federal grand jury has filed criminal charges against former Jay Peak developers Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger and two other men, more three years after regulators unmasked their "Ponzi-like" investment scheme.

The 14-count, 33-page indictment also names Quiros advisor William Kelly and Jong Weon Choi, a South Korean businessman, as defendants. 

The indictment focuses on the scheme to develop a biotech facility, AnC Bio, in Newport, as part of a sprawling series of projects the men undertook under the federal EB-5 investor program.

The men raised $93 million from approximately 169 investors for the project, which was never built, despite repeated private and public assurances that the project was viable. According the indictment, final designs were never even completed. Instead, most of the money was embezzled or used to pay off other debts, according to the indictment.

More on the indictment and the AnC Bio project further down in this post.

Kelly, Stenger and Quiros were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Wednesday. In quick succession, each pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Judge John Conroy. All three men were released after brief hearings.

Stenger and Quiros entered the courtroom in handcuffs. After the hearing, Stenger’s attorney, Brooks McArthur, told reporters: “We unequivocally and with very strong language want you to know that Bill Stenger did not commit any criminal conduct."

Kelly was ordered to surrender his passport and avoid contact with the co-defendants. Kelly described himself as a “consultant” during his court appearance.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Van de Graaf told Conroy that discovery in the case is "significant, voluminous, and complex."

While Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan said last summer that a federal criminal investigation into Quiros was under way, federal authorities haven't confirmed or denied the existence of a criminal federal investigation until now.

U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan stands at a podium outside.
Credit Liam Elder-Connors / VPR
/
VPR
U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan talked talked about the recent indictment at a press conference in Newport, Vt. on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors held a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Newport in front of the infamous "hole" in downtown. The vacant lot was slated to be where one of the EB-5 projects developed was built, but it’s sat empty in the years since the alleged fraud came to light.

U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan told reporters the AnC Vermont project was touted by the developers as a way to bring “much-needed jobs to the Northeast Kingdom.”

“But the defendant lied and they cheated,” Nolan said. “According to the grand jury’s indictment, the AnC Vermont project was not in fact designed to create the number of jobs or the amount revenue for the Northeast Kingdom that the defendants claimed. Rather, the project was designed to siphon millions of dollars to Quiros and Choi.”

Nolan said the investigation began in 2015. The case involved more than a million pages of evidence and a “Korean angle” which added hurdles to evidence collection, Nolan said.

Choi – the South Korean businessman named in the indictment – is currently at-large, according to Nolan.

While there were several other projects supported by EB-5 funds, Nolan said her office chose to focus on AnC Vermont because it “was the culmination of the rest and also the project that was the undoing of the criminal enterprise, or when the undoing began.”

Nolan declined to comment when asked whether there are other investigations.

A small crowd of city residents gathered behind the gaggle of reporters to watch Wednesdays's press conference, including Newport Mayor Paul Monette. Speaking after the press conference, Monette said the indictments bring a sense of relief and healing to the community.

“Knowing that justice is happening, albeit slowly, but it is happening,” Monette said. “For the community members that think you can get away with things, I think it shows you can’t.”

Monette said he’s not sure what’s going to happen with the empty lot – it’s currently owned by a court-appointed receiver.

“We don’t own it one bit," he said. “And I wish we did, because then maybe we could have our own destiny.”

The hole in Newport
Credit Liam Elder-Connors / VPR
/
VPR
Federal prosecutors held a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Newport in front of the infamous "hole" in downtown.
The AnC Bio Project

While the developers are best known for projects at Jay Peak and Burke Mountain, the charges announced Wednesday are based on a later project that never got off the ground.

The plan, as described to investors and the public, was to open a state-of-the art biotechnology center in the outskirts of Newport. AnC Bio was to be an offshoot of AnC Korea, an outfit run by Choi.

According to the indictment:

  • Quiros controlled the money and made the final decisions
  • Kelly was a “key advisor” to Quiros
  • Choi was a hidden partner who formulated the business plan for the Vermont facility
  • Stenger served as the public face, to win over investors and politicians, and in doing that work “presented a variety of false and fraudulent statements” to investors and regulators

The plan was a total fraud, according to the indictment, and involved embezzling investor money and lying about the revenue and number of jobs the project would create.
For example, the indictment notes that materials to investors listed a $40 million cost for “construction fit out and equipment,” but that $12 million of that went directly to Quiros and Choi. Those two also personally took $10 million of $16 million listed for “working capital,” according to the indictment.

In this 2014 file photo, Bill Kelly, left, stands with architect Joe Greene and civil engineer Debra Bell before drawings of the proposed Anc Bio facility.
Credit Charlotte Albright / VPR File
/
VPR File
In this 2014 file photo, William Kelly, left, stands with architect Joe Greene and civil engineer Debra Bell before plans of the proposed Anc Bio facility in Newport. Kelly was named a defendant in a federal indictment Wednesday related to the AnC Bio project, which was never built.

Kelly was to receive $4 million as part of the scheme, the indictment says, and Stenger was to get a $1 million “management fee.”  

By the middle of 2013, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Stenger and Quiros. But the indictment say the defendants engaged in financial crimes well after federal and state authorities began asking questions.

In May 2014, Quiros was questioned by the SEC about using AnC money to repay other loans. But he continued to misuse AnC money months after, according to the indictment.

More from VPR — Newport Residents Question Developers Of Bio-Med Facility [July 22, 2014]

In June 2014, the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center — the state outfit tasked with regulating EB-5 projects — ordered the defendants to suspend work on the project and to provide more details of their financial plans. But the indictment says that by April 2015, the regional center allowed the defendants to raise more money for the project.

All along, according to the indictment, the defendants hid the fact that they weren’t prepared to begin construction, let alone generate revenue.

In addition to financial crimes, the indictment says the defendants also misled investors about how many jobs the project would create. In order to win government approval for the AnC project, they needed to demonstrate a plan to create at least 2,200 jobs — however the indictment says they exaggerated the economic impact of both building the theoretical facility and operating it.

The defendants claimed the facility would manufacture and sell three different artificial organs, including an artificial heart, kidney and liver. But the artificial heart needed to be redesigned and “had no commercial market,” and the kidney and liver hadn’t been developed, according to the indictment. None had obtained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Since 2016: An EB-5 Refresher

In 2016, Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger were accused of running a "Ponzi-like" scheme that defrauded more than $200 million from foreign investors through the federal EB-5 program, which offers a path to citizenship for immigrant investors who agree to put at least $500,000 into approved projects in economically depressed regions of the United States and generate a certain number of jobs.

The money was intended for development projects in the Northeast Kingdom, including Jay Peak Ski Resort and a proposed biomedical facility in Newport. State officials, like Gov. Peter Shumlin, Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch were boosters for the project before the alleged fraud was revealed.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Quiros misappropriated millions of dollars and used investor funds for personal expenses, including paying off personal debt and a $2.2 million luxury condo in Trump Place in New York City.

More from VPR — State Releases Nearly Half Million Jay Peak EB-5 Records [March 28]

Stengersettled a lawsuit with the SEC in 2016, and then early last year Quiros paid tens of millions of dollars to settle a federal lawsuit.

In July 2018, it was announced that the state of Vermont had also settled civil suits with both Quiros and Stenger.

Last year the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ordered the shutdown of the state-run regional center that oversees EB-5 projects in Vermont. The feds said the regional center didn’t provide enough oversight or management of its projects — which, the feds say, might have allowed the alleged fraud to flourish. The state said it would appeal the federal decision.

A thin grey line.

Update 5:16 p.m. This post was updated with reporting from the press conference in Newport.

Update 4:02 p.m. This post was updated with more information from the indictment. Headline was also updated to clarify it is a single indictment filed (with 14 counts).

Update 1:18 p.m. This post was updated following Wednesday's arraignments.

Liam is Vermont Public’s public safety reporter, focusing on law enforcement, courts and the prison system.
Emily Corwin reported investigative stories for VPR until August 2020. In 2019, Emily was part of a two-newsroom team which revealed that patterns of inadequate care at Vermont's eldercare facilities had led to indignities, injuries, and deaths. The consequent series, "Worse for Care," won a national Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting, and placed second for a 2019 IRE Award. Her work editing VPR's podcast JOLTED, about an averted school shooting, and reporting NHPR's podcast Supervision, about one man's transition home from prison, made her a finalist for a Livingston Award in 2019 and 2020. Emily was also a regular reporter and producer on Brave Little State, helping the podcast earn a National Edward R. Murrow Award for its work in 2020. When she's not working, she enjoys cross country skiing and biking.
Mark Davis has spent more than a decade working as a reporter in Vermont, focusing on both daily and long-form stories. Prior joining Vermont Public as assistant news director, he worked for five years at Seven Days, the alt-weekly in Burlington, where he won national awards for his criminal justice reporting. Before that, he spent nine years at the Valley News, where won state and national awards for his coverage of the criminal justice system, Topical Storm Irene, and other topics. He has also served as a producer and editor for the Rumblestrip podcast. He graduated from the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
Latest Stories