Real estate project in Seattle becomes draw for personal greed.
By Raif Karerat
A Seattle-area real estate developer who once was a Tibetan Buddhist monk has been named in a lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and stands accused of defrauding Chinese investors and seeking U.S. residency through a controversial visa program.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday filed a complaint in U.S. District Court alleging that Lobsang Dargey defrauded investors—mostly Chinese nationals who funded Dargey’s projects in hopes of getting Green Cards for permanent residency in the US, according to Bloomberg.
According to the litigation, Lobsang Dargey raised $125 million from 250 investors to develop a 40-story skyscraper in downtown Seattle, as well as a mixed-use building in nearby Everett, Wash.
The SEC claimed that Dargey — who immigrated in 1997 — sold investors on the two projects by telling them that their investments would help them gain U.S. residency through the EB-5 Program, which bestows Green Cards to foreign investors who put at least $500,000 into job-creating projects.
Instead of putting investors’ money towards efforts that might aid them in gaining residency, Bloomberg reported that Dargey used $14.7 million of that money to fund other real estate projects, the complaint stated.
Dargey is also alleged to have used $2.5 million in investors’ money to buy a home in Bellevue, Wash., and is accused of withdrawing more than $200,000 of investor’s money from casinos in the U.S. and Canada.
Dargey’s real estate company, Path America, puts the EB-5 program front and center on its website according to the Seattle Globalist, touting the advantages of immigrating under the program, including an expedited green card process and a path to residency that is open to retirees, who often are ineligible for U.S. residency under other work programs.
The EB-5 program has been castigated for failing to attract capital to rural areas. Meanwhile, earlier this month the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, which runs the EB-5 program, improve its fraud prevention efforts.
1 Comment
What about Washington State Lt Governor’s trip to China paid for by Lobsang Dargey Path America.
If you read his speech, available on his speech archives page, in May 2014 he told them that 41 story Potala Tower was to open in the summer of 2014. Yet the property was just dirt with not even a shoring or excavation permit.