Posted on 03/07/2025 5:47:05 PM PST by nickcarraway
Trump administration says ‘gold card’ will replace EB-5 visa program
A 60-year-old former Atherton resident who had a San Jose law practice has been extradited from the Kyrgyz Republic in central Asia to face fraud charges in federal court in San Jose related to a controversial visa program aimed at attracting foreign job creators.
Danhong “Jean” Chen, also known as Maria Sofia Taylor, was indicted by a grand jury in 2019 along with her ex-husband Jianyun “Tony” Ye. The pair were accused of fraud in connection with the federal EB-5 visa program that lets foreign citizens live permanently in the U.S. with a green card if they invest a certain sum — $500,000 to $1 million at the time of the indictment, and currently $800,000 to $1,050,000 — in businesses that create jobs for U.S. workers.
Ye in 2021 pleaded guilty to fraud and obstruction of justice, was sentenced to a year in prison, and has been released, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Chen fled the U.S. immediately after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint in 2018 against her, Ye and two others alleging they improperly solicited investments and broke several laws, the Justice Department said in a news release Friday. Around the same time, the department said, Chen became a naturalized citizen of the tiny Caribbean island nation Dominica, which offered citizenship for payments of $100,000 into a fund, or a $200,000 real estate investment.
Last month, President Donald Trump announced a plan for a $5million “gold card” program that would give a green card to foreign citizens. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the card would replace the EB-5 program, which he described as “full of nonsense, make believe and fraud.”
Trump claimed a million gold cards could be sold, raising $5 trillion.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
“”For those of you in Rio Linda, Atherton is a very expensive area””
That is an understatement!
We grew up in the 1960s with very little money, but we were on the San Francisco Peninsula. We could not afford bicycles, but I eventually gathered enough bike parts to cobble together something. I would ride into Atherton, and ride up to one of the estates with the walls. I would lean the bike on the outside of the wall, stand on the bike, and peer over the wall. The “lawn” was larger than several football fields.
Later on I attended Woodside High School. There were some of the children of Atherton at Woodside. One day after a track meet, one of the cheerleaders invited the track team to her Atherton estate for a pool party. I will never, ever forget the mansion, and the pool house. The pool house was larger than the house I grew up in.
Some of the Atherton students would, on their 16th birthday, drive a Porsche or a Mercedes to school. Others were more level headed.
...there’s nowhere that you can hide these days, might as well straighten up and fly right!
Woodside High School - you have a Super Bowl MVP, many Olympians, a U.S. Attorney General etc. Did you know that psychic prophet guy from there who just died?
Mildly shocked Kyrgiz let us have her.
I am too. I guess they figured he doesn’t really contribute to their country, so it’s time to bank goodwill with the U.S.
Apparently we have what Kyrgyz Republic really needs — vowels.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.