NEWPORT, William Kelly, 73, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was sentenced April 21 to 18 months in federal prison for his role in a multi-year wire fraud scheme involving the EB-5 immigrant investor program. He was also ordered to pay $8,338,600 in restitution.
Kelly pleaded guilty in June 2021 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and concealing material facts from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The charges stem from the AnC Vermont project, which aimed to raise $110 million from 220 investors to build a biotechnology facility in Newport. From 2012 to 2016, about 169 investors put in roughly $85 million, plus $8 million in fees. The facility was never built.
Court records show Kelly and co-defendants Ariel Quiros, Jong Weon (Alex) Choi, and William Stenger misled investors about how funds would be used, job creation numbers, and timelines. They knew the project needed to show at least 2,200 jobs for USCIS approval, but no assessment was made of whether the financial projections were reasonable. Between 2013 and 2014, over $47 million in investor funds was paid to a Quiros-controlled company, Jay Construction Management (JCM), with less than $6 million forwarded to Choi’s Korean company. Quiros used about $21 million of that to pay off a loan unrelated to the AnC project.
As part of his plea agreement, Kelly cooperated with the government. Co-defendant Quiros pleaded guilty in August 2020 and is scheduled for sentencing April 29. Stenger was sentenced to 18 months and ordered to pay $250,000. Choi remains at large.
NEK will be looking into the status of the restitution payments and any public records regarding the $52 million JCM pass-through.
Photo: Artaxerxes (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0). Photo is illustrative and not from the scene.
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