The Times opened up comments on its curious article today on Chinese investment in New York. Almost nobody commented on the EB-5 angle, which seemed shoehorned into the story. My comment again took the Times to task:
Chinese investment via the federal government's dubious EB-5 program does not in any way recall the boom in Japanese investment in the 1980s.
Rather, those immigrant investors are buying green cards for themselves and their families, allowing their children to be educated in America.
The Times reports that "Forest City Ratner Companies has arranged for $249 million in loans from Chinese investors for residential and office towers at Atlantic Yards."
Funny, but potential investors in China were told they were investing in an arena. That's why Forest City sent retired NBA players like Otis Birdsong and Darryl Dawkins to sessions in China.
They also were told their green cards were guaranteed.
That's why Reuters, in an investigative report, got George Olsen, principal in the New York City Regional Center, the investment pool partnering with Forest City, to blame his overseas partners for misleading potential investors.
Reuters didn't go far enough. The New York City Regional Center's own representative in China said the same thing. I have it *on video*, from local webcasts.
And Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, shredding any credibility, claimed in a video made to promote the project, "Brooklyn is 1000 percent--1000 percent, behind Atlantic Yards.
That's also *on video.*
Why won't the Times investigate this? More here:
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2011/08/times-article-on-chinese...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norman-oder/reuters-nails-lies-by-pro_b_80...
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2011/02/fcr-according-to-wall-st...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norman-oder/markowitz-atlantic-yards_b_832...
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