Vermont
State will pay $16.5M to settle lawsuits by foreign investors in fraudulent ski developments
The state of Vermont has agreed to pay $16.5 million to settle all pending and potential lawsuits from foreign investors in development projects at the Jay Peak resort, the ski area that was shaken by a massive fraud case involving its former owner and president, officials said Wednesday.
In 2016, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission and the state alleged that former Jay Peak owner Ariel Quiros and former president William Stenger took part in a “massive eight-year fraudulent scheme.” The civil allegations involved misusing more than $200 million of about $400 million raised for various ski area developments from foreign investors through a visa program. The EB-5 program encourages foreigners to invest in job-creating ventures in the U.S. in exchange for a chance to earn permanent residency.
Quiros and Stenger settled civil charges with the SEC, with Quiros surrendering more than $80 million in assets, including the two resorts.
In 2019, Quiros, Stenger and Quiros’ adviser William Kelly were indicted over the failed plan to build a biotechnology plant using tens of millions of dollars in foreign investors’ money. Quiros was sentenced last year to five years in prison; Stenger served just over nine months in prison; and William Kelly was sentenced to a year and a half.
Foreign investors sued the state and its immigrant investor regional center, accusing it of inadequately supervising the projects.
The settlement announced Wednesday, if approved by the court, “will resolve all pending and potential lawsuits against the State that have been brought or could be brought by the approximately 850 investors in the Jay Peak EB-5 projects,” Attorney General Charity Clark said in a news release. The state will also continue to support investors’ pursuit of green cards. If that is successful, the overall settlement payment will be reduced by $4 million, Clark said.
“As I’ve said before, Vermonters, investors, and the State of Vermont were all deceived by the fraud of Ariel Quiros, Bill Stenger, and William Kelly,” Clark added. “This civil settlement will bring a global resolution to the State’s involvement in this matter, which will protect the State from additional EB-5 lawsuits, preventing further financial harm to Vermont.”
The $16.5 million will be paid over three years into the Jay Peak Receivership, which will distribute the funds. The investors paid over $400 million to the eight Jay Peak EB-5 projects.
Last month, the state agreed to a $750,000 payment to settle claims from eight Jay Peak investors.
Florida
Trump valet Walt Nauta pleads not guilty in classified documents case
MIAMI (AP) — Donald Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he helped the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities, appearing with a new Florida-based lawyer to represent him as the case moves forward.
Nauta was charged alongside Trump in June in a 38-count indictment alleging the mishandling of classified documents. His arraignment was to have happened twice before, but he had struggled to retain a lawyer licensed in Florida and one appearance was postponed because of his travel troubles.
Ahead of his arraignment, Nauta hired Sasha Dadan, a criminal defense attorney and former public defender whose main law office is in Fort Pierce, where the judge who would be handling the trial is based. She appeared in court with Nauta, alongside his Washington lawyer, Stanley Woodward, who entered the not guilty plea on his behalf.
Nauta answered, “Yes, Your Honor,” when he was asked whether he had reviewed the indictment during the brief court appearance. He and his lawyers exited the courthouse after the arraignment and entered a Black Mercedes-Benz sedan without answering questions from reporters.
Trump pleaded not guilty during his June 13 arraignment to charges including willful retention of national defense information. But Nauta’s arraignment was postponed that day because of the lawyer situation and then was pushed back again last week when a flight from New Jersey he was to have taken was canceled.
The indictment filed by special counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors accuses Nauta of conspiring with Trump to conceal records that the former president had taken with him from the White House after his term ended in January 2021.
Prosecutors allege that Nauta, at the former president’s direction, moved boxes of documents bearing classification markings so they would not be found by a Trump lawyer who was tasked with searching the home for classified records to be returned to the government.
That, prosecutors said, resulted in a false claim to the Justice Department that a “diligent search” for classified documents had been done and that all documents responsive to a subpoena had been returned.
The relocation of the boxes was captured on surveillance camera footage that the Justice Department had subpoenaed, and agents and prosecutors cited those actions as a basis for probable cause that a crime had been committed in their August warrant application to search Mar-a-Lago, according to newly unsealed information from the application.
Prosecutors say Nauta also misled the FBI during an interview with agents last year when he said he was unaware of boxes of documents having been brought to Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago.
Nauta is a Navy veteran who fetched Trump’s Diet Cokes as his valet at the White House before joining him as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago. He is regularly by Trump’s side, including traveling in Trump’s motorcade to the Miami courthouse for their appearance earlier this month and accompanying him afterward to a stop at the city’s famed Cuban restaurant Versailles, where he helped usher supporters eager to take selfies with the former president.
Tennessee
Prosecutors seek death penalty against man for kidnapping and killing teacher
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man charged with kidnapping a Memphis, Tennessee, school teacher during an early-morning run and killing her, a district attorney said Thursday.
Cleotha Abston is charged with snatching Eliza Fletcher from a street near the University of Memphis on Sept. 2 and forcing her into an SUV. Her body was found days later near a vacant duplex. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy has filed notice with the court that prosecutors will seek the death penalty if Abston is convicted of first-degree murder, Judge Lee Coffee said. State law says cases that are considered heinous, atrocious and cruel are eligible for the death penalty, Mulroy said outside of court.
“We are alleging that applies in this case,” Mulroy said.
No trial date has been set. Coffee said he would like it to take place this year, but it was not clear if lawyers could meet that timetable.
The killing of Fletcher, a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of two, shocked the Memphis community led to a flood of support for her family. Runners in Memphis and several other cities held an early-morning running event in her honor a week after she was abducted.
Abston, also known as Cleotha Henderson, is also charged with raping a woman in September 2021 — about a year before Fletcher was killed. He was not arrested on the rape charges before Fletcher’s killing because of a long delay in processing the sexual assault kit, authorities have said.
Abston, 39, previously served 20 years in prison for a kidnapping he committed at age 16.
In the Fletcher case, Abston was arrested after police detected his DNA on sandals found near the location where Fletcher was last seen, an arrest affidavit said.
An autopsy report showed Fletcher died of a gunshot wound to the head. She also had injuries to her right leg and jaw fractures.
A massive police search for Fletcher lasted more than three days. Her body was found near an abandoned duplex. Officers noticed vehicle tracks next to the driveway, and they “smelled an odor of decay,” an affidavit said.
Mulroy, the Democratic district attorney, was sworn into office the day before Fletcher disappeared. He has said he has long opposed the death penalty and would vote against it if he were a legislator, but that as district attorney and Memphis’ top prosecutor, he is required to follow the law when it comes to cases that could qualify for capital punishment.
Mulroy previously announced that prosecutors would seek the death penalty in an unrelated first-degree murder case against a man charged with killing three people and wounding three others during a livestreamed shooting rampage shortly after Mulroy took office.
Fletcher’s family was consulted about the decision to seek the death penalty against Abston and supports it, Mulroy said.
Toronto
Man charged in murder of woman found 48 years ago
TORONTO (AP) — A woman found dead in eastern Ontario 48 years ago has been identified as a Tennessee spa owner who disappeared on a trip to Montreal, and a Florida man who knew her has been charged in her murder, police said Wednesday.
The woman had been known for decades only as the “Nation River Lady” after the remains were found on May 3, 1975, floating in the Nation River, a short distance from a highway bridge near Casselman, Ontario.
Technology that uses DNA to find genetic matches led to identifying her as Jewell Parchman Langford, Ontario Provincial Police said at a news conference.
Detective Inspector Daniel Nadeau said the 48-year-old woman was a well-known member of the business community in Jackson, Tennessee, who co-owned a spa with her ex-husband.
She had travelled to Montreal in April 1975 and never returned home.
“At that time, her family in Tennessee had reported her missing,” said Nadeau. “While I cannot get into the specifics that will be entered at trial, I can tell you that the accused and the victim were known to each other.”
Rodney Nichols, 81, of Hollywood, Florida, was charged with murder last year, but the charge was not announced at the time so as to not jeopardize his extradition from the United States. Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported that Nichols has yet to appear in court in connection with the charge and has not entered a plea.
Police say Langford’s case was the first use in Canada of genetic forensic technology to identify a victim.
Other methods of identification, including creating a 3D facial approximation of her in 2017, were tried but had no success.
The Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto obtained a new DNA profile of the victim in 2019. The data was sent to a lab in California where matches were made to two individuals in a family DNA tree.
The DNA Doe Project, which works to identify victims in cold cases, said Ontario police contacted them for help and the victim’s DNA profile was uploaded to genetic genealogy databases in 2020. The organization’s volunteers identified Langford as a likely candidate within a few weeks.
Ontario’s chief coroner, Dr. Dirk Huyer, said the DNA profile was used to help establish possible connections between the victim and others.
DNA samples were then obtained from the surviving relatives of Langford, including her nieces, Huyer said.
Police say Langford’s remains were repatriated to the United States in 2022 and a memorial service and burial were held for her.
