Miami businessman pleads guilty in Vermont ski fraud case

Burlington, August 14

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A Miami businessman accused of being the mastermind behind the largest fraud case in Vermont’s history pleaded guilty on Friday over a failed plan to build a biotechnology plant using tens of millions of dollars in foreign investors’ money.

Ariel Quiros, 64, the former owner of Jay Peak and Burke Mountain ski resorts in northern Vermont, changed his plea to guilty on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and the concealment of material information. Nine other charges were dropped.

Quiros pleaded guilty via video conference to the three separate charges, one at a time, after being asked by US District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford.

Quiros, of Key Biscayne, Florida, and three others were indicted over a failed plan to build a biotechnology plant in Newport, Vermont, using millions raised through the EB-5 visa program, which encourages foreigners to invest in US projects that create jobs in exchange for a chance to earn permanent US residency.

Quiros pleaded not guilty in May 2019 to 12 felony charges. He signed the plea deal on August 5.

Quiros could serve up to eight years in prison, but the federal judge could sentence him to less.

The plea agreement states that Quiros would be sentenced after two other defendants, former Jay Peak president William Stenger and William Kelly, an adviser to Quiros, are sentenced if convicted. Stenger and Kelly have pleaded not guilty.

A fourth defendant remains at large.

Stenger’s lawyers have objected to any delay in sentencing.

The federal Securities and Exchange Commission and the state of Vermont first accused Quiros and Stenger in 2016 of a “ massive eight-year fraudulent scheme “ that involved misusing more than USD 200 million of about $400 million raised from foreign investors “in Ponzi-like fashion.”               The indictment alleges that by 2011, Quiros and a codefendant persuaded about 169 investors to give a total of $93 million for the biotechnology project.

Their plans brought the promise of jobs to a remote area of northern Vermont that has some of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

There were eight separate projects in northeastern Vermont that used EB-5 funds, including the biotechnology project that was never built, Vermont Department of Financial Regulation Commissioner Michael Pieciak said in an email Thursday before the hearing.

The seven projects other than the biotechnology plant were largely completed, Pieciak said.

Among the projects that were completed include the Jay Peak Hotel, an indoor water park, ice arena and golf course. AP