Last week, one of the EB-5 program’s biggest players announced that they were stopping payments due to EB-5 investors because of volatility caused by the pandemic. Citing “extremely challenging conditions” in the residential condo market, that was that, leaving its investors wondering about their investments, their EB-5 process, and a lot more. While we see no need to name this giant company, they are hardly alone: hundreds of US developers relying on EB-5 capital raised via fraudulent TEAs are lurching as the economy falters and the house of cards they have built with EB-5 investor funds comes tumbling down.
This should hardly be a surprise. AVS Regional Center realized when we were first approved by the USCIS that the ONLY way to protect our investors was by creating a partnership between their EB-5 capital, the most robust and well-funded US operating partner….and a General Partner whose neck is on the line. For that reason, AVSRC has ONLY ever offered our investors projects underwritten by the same Forbes family we’ve been working with for decades…the ONLY such player in all of EB-5. Moreover, with AVSRC as the General Partner in our EB-5 limited partnerships, there are no “easy outs”…we are in this until our last investor concludes their I-829, period.
Contrast that to the common EB-5 structural model used by the aforementioned “giant” and the rest of the industry: instead of protecting EB-5 investors via solid mechanisms, complex corporate structures are created which fully insulate the big brand name from the project…if the project fails, there are entities built to break, like the weakest link in a chain. Hardly a surprise these links are breaking and EB-5 investors in these projects face great uncertainty with both their investment capital and, more importantly, their long-awaited US residency.
American Venture Solutions Regional Center wrapped up our Lake Point EB-5 project late last year and soon we will be launching our newest offering, new-construction residential complex secured by the very same Forbes group who have kept their promises to 100% of AVS EB-5 investors since Day One, creating jobs, procuring permanent residency approval, and divesting 100% of our initial phase of Lake Point investors…each of whom received their $500,000 capital investment back in full and who are all permanent residents of the United States, as we promised. (And if all that isn’t enough, one of those folks just became AVS EB-5s first US Citizen!! Congratulations!
We’ve been quiet about EB-5 since last November, when decades of TEA fraud ground to a halt. Soon, AVS EB-5 will be launching the best capitalized, most intelligent, and most reliable EB-5 loan based project ever created. And in #1 position will be our EB-5 investors. No bank loans, no house of cards, no phony baloney fees, charges or TEAS. Just another great project in a true TEA creating jobs – and US residents – like we’ve been doing for 9 years. Stay tuned!
Attorney José E. Latour
Attorney José E. Latour
