NEW YORK – Some companies regret turning to Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen for help, but a Florida immigration firm appears to have gotten nearly everything it wanted.
When Nicholas Mastroianni II hooked up with Cohen last year, his business was threatened by a looming crackdown on a federal program offering foreigners visas if they invest in certain U.S. real estate projects. Cohen connected Mastroianni with a lobbying firm and, hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments later, Mastroianni appears to be in the clear.
Efforts to scale back the visa program collapsed, and Mastroianni’s company – U.S. Immigration Fund – looks set to pocket tens of millions of dollars in fees for a string of ongoing projects.
Mastroianni has raised $3 billion under the so-called EB-5 visa program since 2010.
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