Trump’s name already appears on another New Jersey residential tower, Trump Bay Street, built with the help of EB-5 funding. And one month before the November election, an ad appeared on a Chinese website catering to foreigners seeking a “white American to join our team” for a new project: “A 200 million dollar hotel developed by The Trump Organization in Austin.” A brochure posted online described Trump as the “king of real estate” and included a photo of him giving a speech.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer this month said Kushner would follow government policies on potential conflicts of interest, and that Trump and Congress would review “all the various visa programs and whether or not they are serving the purpose that they were intended to.”
The AP obtained data from officials in 13 countries on how many Chinese have used their investor programs since 2007. To estimate money spent, the AP multiplied the numbers of Chinese investors in each country by the minimum investment required, making the figures an undercount.
The market leader is the United States’ EB-5 program, which gives green cards to anyone who invests $500,000 in a business that creates or saves at least 10 jobs. Several others market themselves as cheaper or quicker alternatives.
Portugal has drawn at least $1.7 billion over four years from Chinese investors willing to buy property to support its faltering real estate market. Spain and Greece offer similar programs. Chinese have bought the most visas in all three countries.
Five Caribbean nations offer passports for as little as $100,000. Chinese are the top buyers in Antigua and Barbuda, according to government statistics.
Australia goes the more expensive route, requiring an investment of 5 million Australian dollars (nearly $3.7 million). Despite a price nearly eight times as high as the EB-5 program, Australia is estimated to have attracted more than $6 billion in Chinese investment in just four years.
But problems in the industry worldwide are rife.
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FRAUGHT WITH RISK
The U.S.’s EB-5 program has been heavily criticized by government watchdogs and targeted by lawmakers of both parties in Congress, who say it promotes fraud and helps developers building megaprojects more than struggling communities. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who has introduced legislation to end the program, has called EB-5 a “Ponzi scheme.” Her Republican counterpart, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, has said EB-5 “poses significant national security risks” and “may be facilitating terrorist travel, economic espionage, money laundering and investment fraud.”
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