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Explore our coverage of government and politics.

Patrick Leahy: 'I Feel Betrayed' By Jay Peak Developers

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy says recent federal fraud charges have shaken his confidence in what was once praised as the most successful EB-5 project in Vermont.

Leahy has long supported the EB-5 program, which allows foreign investors to gain legal residency after investing at least $500,000 in U.S. development projects.

Now Leahy says Jay Peak resort president Bill Stenger and his partner Ariel Quiros, who allegedly misused investments funds for development projects in the Northeast Kingdom, deceived state officials.

See more of VPR's coverage of the EB-5 scandal here.

“I feel very betrayed by what happened;  I feel terribly betrayed by it, by Stenger and his partner,” Leahy said on Vermont Edition Wednesday. “This is not what it was told to people in past administrations and this administration. It was not the way it was described to them.”

The pair have been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of defrauding foreign investors. But Leahy says the state has benefited from the EB-5 program, including a successful project at the Sugarbush ski resort.

Read the live tweets from Wednesday's Vermont Edition:

[I used to be an embedded Storify. See Editor’s Note below.]

EDITOR’S NOTE: The original version of this post contained social media content embedded by the service Storify. Storify has ceased operation: the post has been updated to remove the Storify embed. The content that was embedded via Storify likely still exists on the original platform, e.g. Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, but it’s no longer curated and embedded in this post with Storify.

John worked for VPR in 2001-2021 as reporter and News Director. Previously, John was a staff writer for the Sunday Times Argus and the Sunday Rutland Herald, responsible for breaking stories and in-depth features on local issues. He has also served as Communications Director for the Vermont Health Care Authority and Bureau Chief for UPI in Montpelier.
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