Palm House Robert Matthews EB-5 Clintons Trump Tony Bennett https://therealdeal.com/miami/issues_articles/lost-paradise-at-th... MHy @o in| Q SUBSCRIBE MY ACCOUNT solutions. In turn, regional centers do not have an obligation a | to protect investors’ money ifa development project sours. ) “That’s where the weak link of the chain is — there is no real enforcement of the fiduciary rule to protect investors,’ Latour added. “The regional center says, ‘Hey I’m not responsible.” The USCIS spokesperson said the agency has terminated nearly 220 regional centers since January 2017, due to evidence of foul play. But U.S. legislators have continued to kick the EB-5 program down the road, giving it about 20 short-term extensions with many lasting only six months. And industry lobbyists have aggressively pushed back against any reform. The EB-5 trade group Invest in the USA has spent nearly $1.8 million lobbying on the federal program’s behalf since 2014, while the lobbying group for the Related Companies’ EB-5 business spent more than $500,000 in 2018 alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. “This is not unlike any other industry that can produce a toxic product like the opioid industry or the tobacco industry,’ Gibson said. “There is a powerful interest involved. They don’t want any oversight. They don’t want information about their projects to come public.” Blurry middlemen Unlike Matthews, whose background is well documented in local news, SARC’s Walsh remains something of a mystery. In the Palm House EB-5 marketing brochures, the smiling gray-haired regional center operator claims to have a background in advertising and electrical engineering. He also claims to have launched “several startup computer and graphics firms that he brought to the public markets in the late 1990s and early 2000s.” Walsh could not be reached for comment through his lawyer. 7 of 10 6/26/19, 11:57 AM HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029526