EB-5 Fraud

INVESTMENT FRAUD INVOLVING USCIS EB-5 REGIONAL CENTER PROGRAM

  • Have you been promised permanent residency or guaranteed a green card?
  • Were you offered an opportunity with little to no risk? 
  • Were you told to expect consistently high returns on your investment?
  • Did your investment involve layers of companies run by the same individuals?

If you invested with an EB-5 Regional Center and answered yes to any of the questions above, then you may have been the victim of EB-5 fraud.

 

WE ARE HERE TO REPRESENT YOU

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have warned individual investors about fraudulent investment scams that seek to take advantage of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. Scams using the EB-5 investment program are aimed at foreign nationals who want to become permanent lawful residents of the United States through the Immigrant Investor Program.

 

The SEC has coordinated with USCIS and taken emergency enforcement actions against fraudulent securities offerings conducted by EB-5 Regional Centers. Through its enforcement actions, the SEC has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars from  EB-5 Regional Centers that engaged in fraudulent schemes such as misusing investment funds, misrepresenting material information, and self-dealing. Unfortunately, despite SEC enforcement, the individual investors that fall victim to an EB-5 Regional Center’s fraudulent scheme rarely reclaim the funds they invested.

 

If you believe that you may have been the victim of an EB-5 Regional Center scam, please contact us.

Regional Centers Are Charged With Billions of Dollars In Fraud Scheme Each Year. Don’t Let Them Get Away Without A Fight.

Fraudulent EB-5 schemes

The fraudulent schemes employed by many EB-5 Regional Centers constitute more than just a “bad business practice”, they are illegal. The EB-5 program was not created as a vehicle for wealthy foreigners to buy their way into the United States. Rather, Congress intended the EB-5 program to support the U.S. economy by providing green cards to certain foreign investors that invested capital in a U.S. business and created jobs for U.S. workers. While any investment involves a risk that the underlying business may not be successful, an investment made through an EB-5 Regional Center still entitles the investor to the same legal rights and standards of care that would be owed to any other investor under U.S. law. If you are an EB-5 investor that lost money in an EB-5 investment project speak with an EB-5 securities fraud lawyer to learn how you may be able to recover your investment. We know that immigration law doesn’t stop at the US border, and neither do we. If you need us to help you with things like EB-5 fraud or securities offerings, we’re ready to help you whenever and wherever you need us.

If you are an EB-5 investor that lost money in an EB-5 investment project speak with a securities fraud lawyer to learn how you may recover your losses.

 

 

Who We Are & What We Do

A seasoned veteran in the EB-5 space, Taher Kameli gained substantial insight into the inner workings of EB-5 Regional Centers. Quickly seeing the appeal of the EB-5 immigation program, Mr. Kameli began helping families through the process of immigration by investment in 1996.

Unfortunately, after spending over twenty years in the space and facilitating numerous projects, Mr. Kameli has witnessed just how quickly a good project can turn bad. While many projects fail due to uncontrollable circumstances, an equal amount ends up failing due to regional center malfeasance.

Mr. Kameli has first-hand experience with how a project can quickly run afoul of the strict disclosure and operational requirements with which regional centers must comply. Having spent decades working with regional centers, including seven years fighting the SEC, Mr. Kameli leverages his insider knowledge to help immigrant investors try to recover their funds when regional centers cross the line.

Whether the result of insufficient disclosures, misrepresentations, deviations, or fraud, Taher Kameli has both the experience and drive to help make you whole. 

Recent Cases

  • “In June 2016, the SEC filed a complaint against Xin “Lisa” Wang and Charles C. Liu for misusing investors’ money that was raised for the purpose of building a cancer treatment center. According to the complaint Wang and Woo raised more than $27 million from Chinese EB-5 investors to build a center that would treat cancer through proton beam radiation. After 18 months of raising funds, no construction took place at the proposed site and Liu transferred $11 million of investor funds to firms in China and diverted another $7 million of investor funds to his wife’s personal account.” – https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2016/lr23556.htm

  • “In September 2018, the SEC settled charges with an Illinois-based regional center CMB Export, its CEO Patrick Hogan, and 37 affiliated limited partnerships related to securities issued under the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. Between 2011 and 2015, the entities affiliated with CMB Export LLC offered EB-5 securities in the form of limited partnership interests without registering them with the SEC and without a valid exemption from registration.

    The order found that Hogan paid transaction-based compensation to U.S. individuals and entities for soliciting foreign investors to purchase these securities. The order also requires CMB Export to pay a $5.15 million penalty, Hogan to pay a penalty of $515,000, and each of the 37 CMB limited partnerships to pay a penalty of $160,000, for total monetary relief of $11.585 million” https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-208

  • “Between April 2014 and March 2017, Edwin Shaw LLC solicited foreign nationals to invest in securities issued by a taxi and limousine company based in Queens, New York.  The investments were marketed to investors interested in applying for legal residency through the federal government’s EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which provides a path to legal residency for foreigners who invest directly in a U.S. business or private “regional centers” that promote economic development in specific areas and industries.

    According to the SEC’s order, Edwin Shaw was not registered with the SEC as a broker or dealer when it engaged in the solicitations and otherwise effectuated these securities transactions, thereby violating Section 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  For each successful investment, Edwin Shaw received a fee ranging from $5,000 to $50,000.  More than 30 foreigners invested in the program after solicitations by Edwin Shaw, which improperly used approximately $400,000 of the investor fees on its own expenses and personal expenses of Edwin Shaw’s principal”.- https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-30

  • “The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Chicago-based immigration attorney with defrauding investors participating in the EB-5 immigrant investor program by improperly commingling and misusing a portion of the approximately $88.7 million raised.

    The SEC alleges that Seyed Taher Kameli and his companies, Chicagoland Foreign Investment Group, LLC and American Enterprise Pioneers, Inc., falsely claimed to at least 226 foreign investors that each of their $500,000 investments would be used to help construct a specific senior living project in the Chicago area or Florida and create at least 10 permanent full-time jobs within that project. This would qualify each investor for a potential path to permanent U.S. residency through the EB-5 program.” – https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2017/lr23866.htm

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