The prize for the largest fraud case in Vermont history (and that covers a lot of years) goes to Ariel Quiros who, ironically, was living in Puerto Rico when arrested. For his troubles, Quiros has been sentenced to five years in jail.
Quiros, once owned two ski resorts: Jay Peak and Burke Mountain. They were taken from him by the government. However, that is not what ultimately brought him down. The 65-year-old entrepreneur hatched a plan to build a state-of-the-art biotechnology plant in an economically depressed region of the state; specifically, Newport, Vermont.
Only sounded noble
The plant was to be built with foreign investment money. Except, there was no biotechnology plant that brought jobs to the region. It was a massive scam, where investment money was pulled in by four fraudsters. Allegedly, of the $37 million that was raised, Quiros kept $30 million. The lead prosecutor characterized it as such:
“This project was a fiction from beginning to end.”
Said the U.S. Attorneys:
“The crimes could not have occurred without the toxic mix of these three men’s strong personalities.”
The case has taken a while to reach a conclusion. Quiros and the others were indicted in Quiros pled guilty in August 2020 to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and the concealment of material information. One of the other co-defendants in this case, a Korean national, has allegedly disappeared.
The fraud artists attracted powerful people that according to a Reuters report that “Uses millions of dollars raised through a visa program that encourages foreigners to invest in job-creating ventures in the U.S. in exchange for a chance to earn permanent residency.”
It is a kind of quid pro quo of you help us, we’ll help you.
Quiros admitted that he and the scam artists misled foreign investors with false information about the status of the project and how the funds were being used. The two other co-conspirators were each sentenced to 18 months in jail along with fines.
The fate of Quiros’ sentence is unknown at this time. The prosecution wants him to serve as much as 8 years in jail. He received a shorter sentence “based on his cooperation and acceptance of responsibility.”
Not Quiros’ first dance
Allegedly, the SEC had already been investigating Quiros and his partners for another scheme, described as Ponzi-like, to raise up to $400 million from foreign investors for ski resort development. After they settled with the SEC, Jay Peak and Burke Mountain were taken from him. The Reuters release stated that “about 170 investors put in at least $500,000 each for a total of about $85 million between 2012 and 2016.”
Instead of stopping their unethical behaviors, they plunged right back into the biotechnology plant scam.
Of the fraudsters-in-crime, Quiros was the master manipulator. He surrounded himself with fund-raisers and marketers who never ran out of interested parties willing to trade their wealth for visas. What the investors never realized was that the scam was all built on greed; there would have been no profits, no building, and no visas leading to citizenship.
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