Quiros defense mulls motion to move criminal case out of Vermont

BURLINGTON — The attorney for the man federal prosecutors termed the mastermind of a scheme to defraud investors in a Northeast Kingdom project says he is weighing a request to move the trial out of Vermont, in part due to high-profile officials’ connections to the case.

Those top officials include two former governors and the three members of Vermont’s congressional delegation, according to attorney Seth Levine, a lawyer with Levine Lee LLP based in New York City and representing Jay Peak’s former owner Ariel Quiros.

Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., had been backers of EB-5 projects that have now landed the developers of them in a criminal courtroom. The links of those top officials to the state’s legal system and judiciary could taint Quiros’ ability to obtain a fair trial in Vermont, his attorney contends.

Levine said he believed there are “a lot of issues” about trying his client in Vermont. And, the defense attorney said, there has been “suffocating publicity about the case” for several years.

Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2019/07/12/quiros-defense-mulls-motion-to-move-criminal-case-out-of-vermont/