The coronavirus pandemic is delaying the sale of the Jay Peak ski resort, with the man in charge of overseeing that process not sure when it will move forward again.
Michael Goldberg, a court-appointed receiver managing the ski resort and others assets at the center of a massive alleged investor fraud scandal, wrote in an update filed in court this week that the process of selling the resort “has ground to a halt” amid the Covid-19 crisis.
“The Receiver is hopeful it will begin again once business returns to normal,” Goldberg wrote in the filing.
He added, “The Receiver is unsure when a transaction will close.”
No bids have yet been submitted for the Northeast Kingdom ski area, according to the filing.
The proceeds from the sale, which at one point was expected to take place this summer, are set to go to EB-5 immigrant investors who lost money due to the alleged fraud of the resort’s former owner, Ariel Quiros.
The resort has been on the market since early 2019.
Quiros and his former business partner, Bill Stenger, Jay Peak’s former CEO and president, have settled civil lawsuits brought by state and federal regulators. Those lawsuits accused the two men of misusing $200 million of the money the developers raised through the EB-5 investment program for massive upgrade projects at the ski area.
Quiros and Stenger, and two of their other business associates, are now also facing federal criminal charges tied to a later failed EB-5 financed project they headed to build a $110 million biomedical research facility, AnC Bio Vermont, in Newport.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Jay Peak sale process ‘ground to a halt’ due to Covid-19 pandemic.