Chicago hotel and convention center offering raised $158 million from EB-5 investors
Anshoo Sethi, an Illinois developer, and two companies he controlled raised approximately $158 million from close to 300 foreign investors in an EB-5 offering for a hotel and convention center near O'Hare International Airport. The SEC filed suit in February 2013 and froze assets, and a federal court ordered $147 million of frozen principal returned to investors. The defendants settled the SEC's case in March 2014 without admitting or denying its allegations. Sethi separately pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2016 and, according to a February 23, 2017 press report, was sentenced to three years in federal prison and $8.8 million in restitution.
- Year
- 2017
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $11.0 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- EB-5 immigrant investor fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-19
The facts, as recorded
- The SEC's February 2013 complaint alleged that Sethi, A Chicago Convention Center, LLC and Intercontinental Regional Center Trust of Chicago, LLC raised approximately $158 million from close to 300 investors in a fraudulent offering that targeted foreign nationals seeking a pathway to residency through the EB-5 program.
- On April 19, 2013, the court granted the SEC's motion to return to investors the entire $147 million of principal that had been frozen.
- A consent judgment entered on March 17, 2014 imposed joint-and-several liability for over $11.5 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest, permanent injunctions, a 20-year bar on offering securities issued by the defendants, a $1 million civil penalty against Sethi and civil penalties of up to $1.45 million each against the two companies.
- The settlement resolved the disposition of approximately $11 million in administrative fees paid by investors, the only funds remaining to be returned to make investors whole.
- Sethi, A Chicago Convention Center and Intercontinental Regional Center Trust of Chicago neither admitted nor denied the SEC's allegations.
- According to Construction Dive, citing the Chicago Tribune, Sethi pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2016 and was sentenced to three years in federal prison, with an additional $8.8 million in restitution, for deceiving 290 foreign investors out of almost $160 million.
- Construction Dive reported that Sethi had fabricated a marketing package to attract investments from Chinese nationals, that the planned $900 million hotel and convention center never made it past the planning stages, and that he returned $146 million in investor funds after the SEC opened an investigation in 2013.
- The SEC and USCIS later described the case as an alleged $156 million investment fraud in which the defendants spent more than 90 percent of the administrative fees, some for personal use, before USCIS had decided the investors' visa applications.
Why this case matters
This case shows two parts of an EB-5 fraud that the other cases here do not: the administrative fee and the refund promise. The SEC and USCIS describe a promise that investors would get their fees back if their visa applications were denied, and an allegation that the defendants spent more than 90 percent of those fees before USCIS decided the applications. The money investors were told was a safety net was, on that account, already gone.
Two outcomes, two standards
The civil and criminal cases ended differently. The SEC’s March 2014 consent judgment was a settlement in which the defendants neither admitted nor denied the allegations. The criminal case, according to Construction Dive’s report of the Chicago Tribune’s coverage, ended in a guilty plea and a three-year sentence. This page reports the facts about the offering from the SEC’s release and reports the plea and sentence as the press described them, without having read the court’s own records.
The caveat
The SEC’s allegations are allegations, and the defendants settled the civil case without admitting or denying them. The guilty plea and sentence are reported here from a news account of the Tribune’s coverage, and this page has not seen the court’s own records of them. The two sources give slightly different figures, about $158 million from close to 300 investors in the SEC’s release and almost $160 million from 290 investors in the press account. The recorded loss in the data for this page is the approximately $11 million in administrative fees the SEC said remained to be returned in 2014.
Sources
- A Chicago Convention Center, LLC, Anshoo Sethi, and Intercontinental Regional Center Trust of Chicago, LLC (Corrected). US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed 2026-10-19. Supports: The approximately $158 million raised from close to 300 investors, the February 2013 complaint and asset freeze, the $147 million returned to investors, the March 17, 2014 consent judgment and its relief, the approximately $11 million in administrative fees, and the defendants' neither admitting nor denying.
- IL developer sentenced to 3 years in prison for EB-5 fraud. Construction Dive. Accessed 2026-10-19. Supports: The criminal guilty plea in 2016, the three-year sentence and $8.8 million in restitution, the 290 investors and almost $160 million, the fabricated marketing package, the $900 million project that never got past planning and the $146 million returned.
- Investor Alert: Investment Scams Exploit Immigrant Investor Program. US Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, with US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Accessed 2026-10-19. Supports: The SEC and USCIS's description of the Chicago case as an alleged $156 million fraud, the promise to return administrative fees if visas were denied, and the more-than-90-percent spending of administrative fees before USCIS adjudicated the applications.