While former Gov. Mike Rounds says he was unaware of legal issues arising out of South Dakota's administration of the federal EB-5 program, his brother Dennis Rounds was in charge of overseeing litigation for the governor.
Wait, his brother? Nothing like a little nepotism to sweeten the pot, eh?
The lawsuit:
Six months after Bollen took South Dakota's EB-5 operation for-profit, the state was sued by Darley International. In July 2008, Darley sued the state-run EB-5 office, which remained opened as the South Dakota International Business Institute at NSU.
Darley's owners claimed that SDIBI and a California law firm, Hanul Professional Law Firm, had circumvented and breached a 2007 contract granting Darley the rights to market South Dakota EB-5 projects to foreign investors, especially in China.
Full story
here.
On today's ruling from the arbitration: the state of SD had the legal right to break contract with Darley Intl. and award the same contract to SDIBI.
That's all this suit was about, could the state break contract with one company and award the contract to another company. It has nothing to do with the mess that resulted from breaking that contract.