Two months ago, the mastermind behind the Northeast Kingdom EB-5 scandal, Ariel Quiros, got sentenced to five years in prison. With the sentencing completed for the participants in the scandal, the people of the Northeast Kingdom, along with the outside world, are shifting their focus as to what comes next.
The EB-5 situation helped grow Jay Peak into a powerhouse with multiple hotels and other amenities and helped grow Burke Mountain as well. Unfortunately, Ariel Quiros and others were involved in a situation identical to a Ponzi scheme, leading to excessive money wasting and starting some projects that would never see the light of day. The feds came in to take away their properties in 2016, and Jay Peak and Burke Mountain have been in a federal receivership since.
Over the past couple of months, convictions have been given to the numerous people behind the scandal. Quiros got five years, his business partner, William Kelly, got eighteen months behind bars, and former Jay Peak President Bill Stenger got eighteen months for falsifying documents and statements to government agencies. Surprisingly, federal prosecutors dropped ten federal charges aimed at the fourth defendant: Alex Choi. According to Vermont Biz, he was convicted of fraud in South Korea in 2016. Investigators were unable to locate Choi, who remained at large after being charged in 2019, and couldn’t obtain critical evidence.
In early June, VPR spoke with Bill Stenger, who received an eighteen-month prison…
