Important Offshore Tax Update from Cantor & Webb

Steve Cantor of Cantor & Webb just sent me an important notice I need to share with you.  Steve is an old friend and among the best international tax experts in the U.S. I’m pasting his message in below, but here’s who needs to read this carefully!: U.S. tax residents abroad — meaning anyone who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident — who lives and works overseas and has not reported foreign income or assets as required by the IRS AND U.S. tax residents in the U.S. — meaning not only citizens and residents but even a TOURIST whose physical presence in the U.S. has been sufficient under IRS definitions to render their assets on a worldwide basis. Whether you are one or the other, it looks like Uncle Sam is giving you a tax Mulligan, as in a “get out of jail free” card, provided y…

SEC Scrutiny of EB-5: Proactivity by the Commission Continues

The SEC’s first truly proactive enforcement effort against an EB-5 project began a little over a year ago (February 6, 2013) when the Commission sought and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against Anshoo R. Sethi, A Chicago Convention Center, LLC (ACCC) and Intercontinental Regional Center Trust of Chicago, LLC (IRCTC) for their roles in raising approximately $158 million dollars from close to 300 EB-5 investors as part of a fraudulent offering. On April 19, 2013, the Court granted the Commission’s motion to return to investors the entire $147 million of principal that had been frozen pursuant to the SEC’s motions.  The only remaining dispute involved some $11 million in “administrative fees” paid by the investors, which were the only funds remaining to be returned …

Lake Point EB-5 Sees 1st Six Month I-526 Approval!

Congratulations to our newest Lake Point Capital Partners EB-5 investor from Vietnam, whose I-526 was approved by USCIS in a blazing six months (no RFE, of course.)  USCIS EB-5 team: you rock and we are very grateful for your efforts, aware as we are of the extraordinary workload pressures you continue to face. Late last summer, when our first I-526 petition was finally approved after languishing at USCIS for over 18 months, “jubilation” hardly begins to express what we felt here at Team Lake Point.  I can only imagine what those first approvals felt like for our pioneer Limited Partners, who patiently watched 8 months turn to 12 turn to 18…talk about blind faith!  These days, it seems a new Lake Point EB-5 approval arrives almost weekly, but it never gets old nor is the joy dim…

Canada Kills Immigrant Investor Program, Refunding Pending Cases

It looks like the U.S. EB-5 Program is getting an unintentional boost from our neighbors to the North: Canada has just announced that it is ending its Investor Visa program, which has been extremely popular in China and proved an insurmountable adversary to the more encumbered, complex EB-5 investor visa offered by the United States.  Calling the program a failure, Canada announced the closure of the program without much fanfare, stating as follows: “To eliminate the existing backlog, which is diverting resources away from better performing economic immigration streams, the Government intends to return applications and refund associated fees paid by certain federal Immigrant Investor Program and Entrepreneur Program applicants…” According to our Asia teams, this will represent a flood o…

Another Lake Point Investor EB-5 Investor from Vietnam Approved

Although Lake Point’s stream of steady I-526 approvals is established and is no longer a “news flash”, seeing the dream of U.S. residency realized for each of our investors never gets old.  It is particularly gratifying when one of our Vietnamese investor petitions gets approved without any USCIS questions or queries, and this further cements our commitment to becoming Vietnam’s most reliable and proven EB-5 offering. As we place investors in the final slots of Lake Point Capital Partners, the second and final tranche of Lake Point EB-5, our “Asia only” family of limited partners is seeing an influx of investors from Latin America, specifically from Brazil and Mexico.  We are thrilled with the cross section of entrepreneurs, professionals, and legacy investors from around the world who h…