Six months of Argus Leader EB-5 coverage

At least once a week these days, I get an email berating me for not looking into the scandal surrounding the EB-5 visa program in South Dakota.

This post is for you, people who have not been reading the Argus Leader closely over the past six months as we have covered this story extensively. Here's all 23 reports on the subject we've put together over the past six months -- though I may have missed some, and none of this counts Associated Press reports on the subject that we have also run on our website and in our paper:

• Oct. 23, 2013: Former secretary of tourism Richard Benda found dead with gunshot wound: The announcement that started it all.
• Oct. 31, 2013: State, federal officials investigate SD office of economic development: Gov. Dennis Daugaard reveals investigations related to EB-5
• Nov. 3, 2013: Questions go beyond beef plant: Delving into court documents and talking with key players including Mike Rounds, we reveal the intertwined role of state and private interests in the bankrupt Northern Beef plant, including Richard Benda and Joop Bollen moving directly from supervising EB-5 spending as state employees to profiting from it as private individuals. (This story also revealed that there were two different funds of Chinese EB-5 investors in the Northern Beef plant, the 70 investors in SDIF LP 6 and the 50 in LP 9, contrary to some people's belief that this was uncovered in April 2014.)
• Nov. 4, 2013: Loan for S.D. beef plant relied on secret, offshore investors: We reported on the secretive Cayman Islands firm formed for the sole purpose of lending Northern Beef $30 million at extremely high interest rates -- and how the state banking commission cleared the way for this loan by concluding this lending company wasn't subject to banking regulations.
• Nov. 5, 2013: Investment recruiter took cut of money: We uncovered the astounding amounts of money flowing to SDRC Inc., the Bollen-controlled company created to run the privatized EB-5 program in South Dakota -- potentially millions of dollars per year. This article also disclosed all the money put into the "indemnification funds" and an "expense fund" set up by SDRC's contract with South Dakota.
• Nov. 6, 2013: Recruiter didn't seek state approval: Gov. Dennis Daugaard's development commissioner Pat Costello talks about his relationship to EB-5 program -- from knowing almost nothing about it when he took office to gradually becoming suspicious, imposing new controls over it and finally cancelling the state's contract with SDRC.
• Nov. 7, 2013: South Dakota's visa-investment program not unusual: National context about EB-5 programs. An expert says most EB-5 regional centers in the country operated in a manner similar to South Dakota's, rather than SDRC Inc. being some sort of exception to the rule.
• Nov. 9, 2013: EB-5 can work in state hands: I looked at the experience of Vermont, the only state with a government-run EB-5 program like South Dakota's was before Rounds privatized it. Officials there say it works well.
• Nov. 10, 2013: EB-5 results mixed in S.D.: A summary of other South Dakota projects funded with EB-5 investors.
• Nov. 22, 2013: Benda death ruled a suicide: Attorney General Marty Jackley, after almost a month, concludes Benda committed suicide.
• Nov. 23, 2013: State payment used improperly: A report on Jackey's investigation concluding Benda improperly steered a grant to Northern Beef to pay loan monitoring fees -- that is, to pay his salary as a loan monitor -- and that Benda double-billed for some overseas EB-5 travel.
• Nov. 24, 2013: Benda was 'in a hurry ... but he had nowhere to go': Jonathan Ellis profiles Benda and discovers a tumultuous private life, including a messy divorce that included allegations of an out-of-control gambling problem.
• Nov. 24, 2013: Three others with Benda heavily involved in EB-5: A brief look into three of Benda's associates at SDRC, Inc., including the former federal EB-5 chief and a Georgia businessman with close ties to Bollen.
• Dec. 5, 2013: Today's sale will help few creditors: A report on the imminent Northern Beef bankruptcy auction, and how most of the foreign EB-5 investors would lose their money in the process. (Yet another news item some people seem to have discovered this month.)
• Dec. 17, 2013: Legislative audit of EB-5 rejected: A Democratic lawmakers call for an immediate legislative review of the EB-5 program is rejected.
• Dec. 22, 2013: Aberdeen beef plant defies trend, maybe wisdom: Ellis examines the economics of the beef plant and finds that few experts outside South Dakota considered Northern Beef to be a sensible idea.
• Jan. 16, 2014: Daugaard says he isn't withholding info on beef plant scandal: To many people's surprise, Daugaard says he doesn't have any information on the beef plant scandal other than what has been released to the public.
• Jan. 31, 2014: Two state inquiries find little to fault on EB-5, beef plant oversight: A summary of the initial beef plant audits and reviews, which found minor mistakes on the part of the state economic development office but little new information.
• Feb. 11, 2013: Democratic bid to probe EB-5 visa program fails: Report on the party-line defeat of a bill seeking more investigations of the EB-5 program.
• Feb. 14, 2014: Conflict of interest with Benda: The state audit finds Benda had a conflict of interest in his final weeks as development secretary, a time when he steered state aid to Northern Beef even as he was lining up a job connected to the beef plant.
• March 7, 2014: In wake of EB-5, feds want more information from GOED: A tidbit from the Legislature's EB-5 hearing in which Costello discloses that federal agencies are seeking more information from the economic development office after the EB-5 disclosures.
• March 7, 2014: Long-awaited legislative EB-5 probe turns up little new: A summary of the first Government Operations and Audit Committee hearing on EB-5.
• April 20, 2014: Documents link state-sponsored company, Keystone XL: A scoop by Ellis that Bollen worked with TransCanada to try to secure EB-5 funding for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.

And there is more coming. Stay tuned.