It tolls for the guy on Mayor Murray's right, onetime Tibetan monk Lobsang Dargey. Ten years in the pokey he's facing according to federal indictments handed down today. Previous coverage here, and here, and here, all within months of the high-profile groundbreaking for the Portala Tower project in Belltown, barely 18 months ago.
Behind it all, Dargey's scheme to raise money from would-be Green Card immigrants through a company called Path America, also under indictment. (But you know those Tibetan monks; some of them, I'm sure, are nice people.) According to the Seattle Times, Dargey is expected to plead guilty Wednesday to charges he fraudulently collected $150 million from Asian "investors."
And this may be just the beginning. Similar "cash for Green Card" schemes are behind $2 billion worth of local construction, not to mention a rash of failed or stalled projects across the Southwest. Way to Make America Great Again, selling Green Cards.
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