Former South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds Says He Didn’t Know Details of EB-5 Revamp

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds says he was aware in 2007 that a state investment-for-green card program was being privatized but he wasn't aware of specifics.

Rounds tells the Argus Leader he wasn't aware that EB-5 investment program leader Joop Bollen had founded the private company that two years later would take over the state-run program, with Bollen as its president.

South Dakota Democrats have tried to link problems with the EB-5 program to Republican Rounds, who is running for an open Senate seat that could be important to the national fight for control of the U.S. Senate.

Rounds says the emphasis of 2007 briefings he received on the privatization efforts was on what South Dakota needed to do to compete with other programs around the country.

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