Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) A group of Chinese investors is suing Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and other important figures at GreenTech Automotive, accusing them of luring them into a scam by promising green cards and a return on investment, both of which never came.
McAuliffe, Anthony Rodham, and Charles Wang are named in the suit, which claims McAuliffe and Rodham, Hillary Clinton’s brother, claimed their close political ties would expedite the green card process under the EB-5 immigration program. EB-5 gives permanent green card status to foreigners that create American jobs.
Not only did the 32 investors never receive green cards, but they never came “remotely” close to getting their money back, attorney Scott Abeles told WMAL. The suit claims some of the investors will soon be deported and will need to uproot their families after not receiving the promised green cards.
“Whether it was going to be an electric car company, as it turned out to be, or some other kind of company, what these folks were investing in were these individuals, not so much the companies,” Abeles said. “They were essentially the central figures in the marketing of the company.”
The group gave out all kinds of falsehoods, Abeles said, including claiming Greentech was a Department of Defense contractor, that it used “advanced technology,” and that it had customers lined up.
“It was one misrepresentation after another from these individuals to these investors,” Abeles said. “It was a scam.”
McAuliffe divested from the company before running for governor. A spokeswoman for McAuliffe called the lawsuit “baseless,” and said the lawsuit came from a “lawyer with conservative ties.”
Abeles disputed that, saying he is “not a political person” and neither is anyone else involved in handling the case.
“That’s just a misdirection,” he said.
GreenTech has since run into problems. After receiving public money on a promise to create 350 jobs in Mississippi, officials there recently asked for the state’s $6.4 million back.
McAuliffe’s legal team has yet to respond to the suit.
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