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Palm House Robert Matthews EB-5 Clintons Trump Tony Bennett https://therealdeal.com/miami/issues_articles/lost-paradise-at-th... MHiyoo Hf ~~ "SOUTH FLORIDA REAL ESTATE NEWS Q SUBSCRIBE MY ACCOUNT By the books? To legally get EB-5 investors to put money into his project, Matthews was required to go through a regional center regulated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Department of Homeland Security. So, he tapped Walsh — a South Florida resident who had a specious track record with development projects — to raise the money through SARC. While it’s unclear how the two met, Walsh allegedly lent Matthews more than $5 million of the foreign investors funds to keep his Palm Beach mansion from being foreclosed on. (Click to enlarge) In March 2014, Matthews sent Walsh an email to thank him for “saving [his] house,” according to the SEC complaint. As more developers turned to EB-5 for cheap financing after the financial crisis, more regional centers received approval from the USCIS. From late 2014 to June 2019, the number of regional centers in the U.S. jumped nearly 60 percent to 884, according to USCIS. At the same time, close to 300 regional centers have been shuttered since 2007. That high failure rate among EB-5 regional centers stems from an approval process 5 of 10 6/26/19, 11:57 AM HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029524