Guest Column from Attorney General Marty Jackley: EB-5 Prosecution: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Pat Powers

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

EB-5 Prosecution: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good: The EB-5 Investment Program has contributed to economic development across South Dakota from electric power generation to wind energy to the Dakota Provisions Turkey Plant. These are important jobs that provide income and health care for families across South Dakota.

The Bad: The program has necessitated investigation into misuses of security interests and state grant funds, resulting in a felony conviction. While monies from the charges have all been returned, it was wrong and a crime to have taken them. The sentencing law that required probation tied the hands of prosecutors and the judge in this matter. This law needs to be revisited.

The Ugly: The loss of a father and former S.D. Secretary of Tourism and State Development. In addition, tactics by federal investigators out of D.C. during the prior administration’s investigation reflected poorly on local and state law enforcement that were cooperating in an effective investigation. These federal investigators used overly aggressive tactics like telling witnesses they could not contact an attorney, serving subpoenas on cooperating witnesses at their places of employment, and disclosing information about ongoing investigations that just happened to make its way into political ads. These tactics unnecessarily politicized the issue, as seen in a recent press release by a political party suggesting that state prosecutors should have refused a felony plea and conviction, and the Court should have ignored the law requiring probation. Fortunately, both Democrat and Republican prosecutors in this State do not conduct the people’s business in such a fashion.

The Future: Both Republicans and Democrats in the South Dakota Legislature are working to strengthen public integrity laws. The State Senate unanimously passed a bill sponsored by the Attorney General to counteract criminal self-dealings and conflicts of interest. This important legislation provides whistleblower protections for employees who report crimes, and removes the required probation that has limited the sentencing discretion for both prosecutors and courts in EB-5 and other financial crime cases.

Marty Jackley
South Dakota Attorney General (2009-Present)
United States Attorney for South Dakota (2006-2009)
President National Association of Attorneys General (2016)

70 thoughts on “Guest Column from Attorney General Marty Jackley: EB-5 Prosecution: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”

  1. There has been so much misinformation about EB5- much of it fueled by political motives. It is nice to see some clarification. But it is such a complicated issue which makes it easy to use to attack people- and that will likely continue.

    1. I think more of the issue is that the kid that stole the flag received a $1500 fine.

      Annette Bosworth had her medical license revoked and countless felony charges against her.

      But when it comes to Joop Bollen, Rounds buddy, he was charged with multiple felonies and only received a $2,000 fine no felonies and his file will be sealed.

    2. I really hope that Matt Michael’s runs. He has a great story that I think will resonate well with South Dakota voters. I think he’s getting the executive experience needed to run our state the next few years look like they’re going to be rough financially and I want somebody competent at the helm.

      1. Learn to spell his name first. Matt Michels is a great guy and would probably make a great governor, but I really don’t think he wants to run.

  2. I think the ugly also includes EB-5 is a program for raising money to be invested in businesses and administered by the Custom’s Department (what do they know about investing in business) and the securities were exempt by federal law from Securities & Exchange Commission supervision and rules and state securities regulation.

    Talk about an “invitation” for abuse.

  3. “The sentencing law that required probation tied the hands of prosecutors and the judge in this matter. This law needs to be revisited.”

    That would be SB 70 which Marty supported and is a bad law for our state…
    next, who made the deal to allow Joop to plead to a Class 6 felony.(marty) which then tied the Judge’s hands…Marty’s hands were not tied, except by himself in making the deal…

    I find his sentence very misleading

    1. I added to it down below Joop Bollen’s Record will be sealed as long as he completes his probation. What a joke

      1. Who is running for AG? I hear Ravnsborg has all the votes locked up and is already getting measured for a tux. He’s ready to take the oath and be the nest AG.

        1. I would like to see what he thinks of the current AG and how he has proceeded with the current cases?

          Jason do you care to respond?

    2. I think Jackley can come out against SB 70 now. I would have thought Tom Wollmann or an AG candidate would have done so by now. That would help end or fix that law sooner rather than later.

  4. Marty Capone decided to author an article in the Jackley Journal, the criticism must be getting to him. He has a paid state employee staffer who’s job is to write press releases. Sara Rabern salary $68,744.82.

    1. The good – Marty’s going to get beat in the primary.

      The bad – how Marty has handled everything.

      The ugly – how Marty will behave during the primary.

        1. He already had a lot of dirt on Mark Mickelson so I’m sure he’s ready to get into the mud with Noem.

    2. The Appropriations Committee confirmed that the state budget is $24 million short and Marty spends almost $70,000 on a person to write press releases for him, he has no conservative.

      2. Does Noem have a press person? I think she has two. A comms director and a press secretary and I think they each make more than $68k.

        1. This is the government waste that we need to get rid of. Having two staffers make $140,000 is ridiculous. There’s a reason the United States is in debt in the state of South Dakota is now in debt. We need to cut government waste.

        2. This post about having press staffers is proof to me that these ridiculous attacks are not coming from Noem’s team. They wouldn’t attack Jackley for having staff positions that Kristi also has.

          Also, since when is having a staff a bad thing? It’s one thing to argue that staff is acting inappropriately but simply having staff is not something to ridicule. All major elected offices come with a staff to assist with carrying out the duties. We should want our elected officials to be surrounding themselves with competent professionals.

  5. Joop Bollen used state funds to buy Egyptian artifacts and for that he received $2,000 fine no jail time, and if he completes his probation he will not receive a felony conviction on his record and his record will be sealed.

      1. So if I take $167,000 of the state’s money got to Vegas and win as long as I pay it back I’ll only have to pay a $2,000 fine? That’s better than bank rates.

        1. It’s an outrageous, awful loophole and should be strengthened, but, that will never happen. Virtually all cases of misusing assets subject to a security interest arise from farmers and small businesses. Banks have fought for years to toughen the law, but, the legislature has always sided with “‘ol Joe who just got in a tough spot and made a bad decision. Nobody got hurt, right?”

          Hopefully, this unintended consequence of going easy on felons will cause the Legislature the heartburn it deserves.

  7. I’m sure the Chinese investors that each contributed $500,000 would not be satisfied with this deal. How about we extradite Bollen and see if the Chinese government treats this criminal?

    1. This Chinese investors knew their investment was extremely high risk. Their investment built one of the world’s most state of the art beef processing facilities. It went bankrupt, but now it is open again and ramping up. That beef plant is good for South Dakota and our cattle producers.

      1. except you skipped a step…$120M to build it, a few months later it is already in bankruptcy where it was sold for $40M…but only an $80M loss

  8. Jackley knows this is a problem for him and his bid for Governor. He’s trying to say he did everything he could but his hands were tied.

    But he didn’t have a problem throwing the book at Annette Bosworth.

    It’s good to be friends with Mike Rounds, but don’t run against him. Crony capitalism at its finest!

    1. and that desperate criminal that stole the state flag…didn’t he get a fine of around $1,500….

      1. Jackley just hasn’t been tough enough on crime. Ithink he’s a bad candidate for Governor and if he makes it through the primary the GOP is going to get beat up by the Democrats.

  10. There is one more ugly, the dairy industry expansion that is not mention by Mr Jackley. The EB-5 programs says that for each 500k green card that is issued, 10 new American jobs have to be created. The dairy industry in SD as well as the turkey plant have a lot of undocumented workers working at them. Those are not Americans.

    President Trump has hired 30,000 new ICE agents and this week they will be starting their raids on undocumented workers, commonly called illegal immigrants here in SD. So in addition to looking the other way as these undocumented workers were/are hired, the State of SD and the county and local governments will do absolutely nothing to protect these workers from the ICE raids. These people have been used as pawns in a wedge issue political game for far too long, Either SD should be defending them and working through our representatives in Washington to get a path to citizenship started, or get off the pot and quit hiring them in the first place. Oh wait a minute, then we could not have economic development, because we already can’t fill all the jobs that are available.

  11. Should we be expecting additional articles about
    1. GearUp
    2. Marsy’s Law his campaign manager and him writing ballot measure opinions
    3. using state employees as the person to RSVP to for fundraisers.
    4. How we wasn’t involved in Mark Mickelson’s anticorruption bill but then cried about it not being strong enough.

    1. Why does Jackley have a state employee that’s paid $70,000 to do nothing but write press releases for him what a waste of state funds. Sara Rabern $67k.

      1. AG Jackley asked for additional employees and additional funds when he met with the Appropriations Committee.

        Paying someone $70,000 to write your press releases is a waste of taxpayer funds and the reason the state budget has grown so large and out of control.

      2. Making any office open to the media is crucial. The public has a right to know what is going on. Ask the governors office, Noem, Thune, rounds.

      3. AG Jackley asked for additional employees and additional funds when he met with the Appropriations Committee.

        Paying someone a state employee $70,000 to write your press releases is a waste of taxpayer funds and the reason the state budget has grown so large and out of control.

  12. The Good – Matt Michels could run.

    The Bad – Marty giving Joop Bollen $2,000 fine.

    The Ugly – The crony capitalism Marty’s been involved in.

    1. I agree this poor guy is struggling to make it look like he’s not floundering. He needs to hire some political advisors to help him with press releases and decision-making, I think he can still turn the campaign around but he need some serious help.

    3. It screams that his people read a blog that 73 people who are political junkies who already have an opinion comment on. He shouldn’t read blogs.

  14. The good – none

    The bad – Marty letting Joop Bollen off easy.

    The Ugly- The current state of Marty’s campaign

  15. Has Noem hired political staff yet?

    I’ve heard that Marty has Jason Glodt and obviously Russ Janklow. Not sure who else is involved?

    I don’t understand why he is struggling so much if the rest of his campaign continues like this he doesn’t have a chance.

    1. I’ll be curious to see what happens between Marty and Lederman as Glodt worked very hard for Pam. I’ve also heard that Noem was upset that she was listed as a supporter of Pam’s when she was not asked and was not told that Lederman was running.

  16. This article sounds like Marty’s blaming everybody for him not being able to charge Joop Bollen with more serious charges. I say stand up and do your job and quit blaming others.

  17. The race hasn’t even started yet and Marty is on the defense things do not look good for team Jackley. He’s putting out articles himself trying to do damage control. Career politicians accumulate too much baggage and I think Trump prove that.

  18. The people of South Dakota pasted term limits to stop politicians from staying in office too long not to encourage them to jump from one office to another it’s time for a change. If a politician has to write an article about the good the bad and the ugly about his own dealings he should seriously rethink running for office.

  19. I feel bad for Marty is that no one’s coming to his rescue not even his paid staff. Has he lost the loyalty to the people he pays?

  20. Marty’s getting desperate it’s time to get your check books out and write checks to Kristi Noem. We need a real conservative another career politician to run for governor. We don’t need a guy that’s writing articles say the good the bad and the ugly of how he is handling court proceedings. Marty’s looking desperate.

  21. If you illuminate The good and just leave the bad and the ugly that pretty much sums up Marty Jackley.

  22. I don’t know how any good conservatives can get behind Jackley he’s just another Dennis Dauggard. He is no conservative just a tax and spend liberal we’ve had enough of this and it’s taking us down a bad road. We are $24,000,000 in debt for one quarter. We need competent advisers we cannot continue down this road. It’s time for a change.

  23. MHS,

    Great point on how week our laws are with regard to conversion of assets. It made the cards dealt to Jackley a ton harder to play.

    I admit as of today Marty is not my first choice in the primary but so many of these attacks are unfair and at best based on half-truths. Let Marty, Kristi and Matt (if he gets in) make there case. We don’t have to drive people out a year before most voters start paying attention and the real campaign starts.

  24. Troy I disagree with you. I think Marty is going to damage the GOP’s image in the primary. He should withdraw from the race.

    The winner of the primary, whoever it may be, will have to answer for what they will call corruption in the GOP. If Jackley stays in all of this will be highlighted.

  25. When it was Mick v. Marty we never saw the rapid-fire blast attacks against Marty on this blog like we have seen since Noem got in. Her campaign is clearly behind these anonymous attacks that are ruining this blog. It is extremely disappointing how her campaign is acting already.

    1. Said Jason Glodt because he can’t defend AG Jackley’s actions. So you change the subject and blame it on Noem trolls. Again, I support Matt Michels.

      1. For crying out loud, you’re all getting to be a bit too much. Stop the negativity and support the candidates of your choice without running down the other Republican.

        That’s what we have democrats for.

        1. I do have to admit that it is very suspicious as to why there are so many Jackley attacks these days. It makes me wonder if 2018 will be one of those races where we don’t want to vote for anyone.

  26. The Pierre insiders all new Glodt was going to be Marty’s campaign manager while he was still working on Marcy’s law.

    1. When the State Bar unanimously rejected it and asked Marty to also join them he refused.

      Marsy’s Law was not needed and it’s costing our State an unknown amount of dollars but probably close to millions.

      Glodt did this for the $$$ he’s no conservative.

    2. Did Glodt really take sides against Lederman in the SD GOP Chair race? This is a rampant rumor I have heard for a couple of weeks. I’m not sure why he would do that if Lederman and Jackley get along. If Lederman lost then he might be upset with Marty for his campaign manager opposing him. If he won he might be upset with Marty for his campaign manager opposing him. I find it hard to believe he really cared one way or the other.

  28. “… tactics by federal investigators out of D.C. during the prior administration’s investigation reflected poorly on local and state law enforcement that were cooperating in an effective investigation.”

    That which reflected poorly on local and state law enforcement has been a general lack of investigational and prosecutorial curiosity in this and other cases.

    BTW, gotta’ love the faux acknowledgment of an effective investigation.

  29. “These federal investigators used overly aggressive tactics like telling witnesses they could not contact an attorney, serving subpoenas on cooperating witnesses at their places of employment, and disclosing information about ongoing investigations..”

    Eagerly awaiting discussion during the primary season of the tactics of the DCI agents under this candidate’s purview [those situations in Aberdeen], as well as the obfuscation of results of investigations which occurred during this candidate’s tenure as South Dakota’s Top Cop [Flandreau Police Dept].

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