GreenTech Automotive At Heart of IG's Investigation of DHS Nominee

TTAC Staff
by TTAC Staff

Neighborhood EV startup GreenTech Automotive and it’s sister company, Gulf Coast Funds Management, which are the subjects of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into how they solicited foreign investors seeking EB-5 visas, are also at the heart of a Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s investigation of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas. The USCIS-IG is examining Mayrokas’ role in helping those firms secure a job-creating investor’s visa for a Chinese executive. Mayorkas has been nominated by Pres. Obama for the number two position at DHS and would be acting director until the president names Janet Napolitano’s replacement as secretary of Homeland Security. GreenTech/Gulf Coast has been the largest beneficiary of the EB-5 program since 2009, with almost 100 approved and more pending.

A email sent to members of Congress from the IG’s office said that its investigation of the EB-5 visa program began last year after a referral from the FBI’s counter intelligence unit. The EB-5 program allows those who are not U.S. citizens to get a citizenship-tracked permanent residency visa to this country if they invest $500,000 to $1 million in a manner that is considered job creating. The email said that Mayorkas was alleged to have helped Gulf Coast, run by Anthony Rodham, the brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, get a particular Chinese investor in GreenTech, co-founded by Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, a visa, though both the original application and an appeal were denied. The Washington Post has reported that Clinton, McAuliffe and other GreenTech and Gulf Coast personnel had a dozen email and phone contacts with Mayorkas and other high level Homeland Security officials regarding the investor’s visa.

According to the Inspector General’s email, there are also allegations that officials in the USCIS Office of General Counsel obstructed a Securities and Exchange Commission audit of the EB-5 program that took place before the current SEC investigation. The FBI has been looking into the EB-5 program and other foreign funded projects since at least March of 2012, according to emails the Associated Press obtained. National security concerns prompted the look into Chinese investments in American technology and infrastructure.

TTAC Staff
TTAC Staff

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  • Pig_Iron Pig_Iron on Aug 07, 2013

    "National security concerns prompted the look into Chinese investments in American technology and infrastructure." Horses that are already out, meet gate that was left open.

  • Tekdemon Tekdemon on Aug 07, 2013

    The whole point of these programs is to attract rich foreigners to give us money, so at least the way this is written I'm not sure what the scandalous part is, half the new immigrants in Canada come in via something like this and in Canada your investment doesn't even have to be quite this fancy, you're allowed to give the government there a 0% interest loan for six years and it'll count. Where exactly is the scandal? Unless the exec was some Chinese spy none of this crap is scandalous.

  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
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