EB-5 Figure Joop Bollen Added as Respondent in Federal Case

Joop Bollen has been added to Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth's pre-complaint petition concerning the EB-5 matter.

Barth’s attorney, Rich Engels of Hartford, a former Democratic state legislator, filed a new petition Thursday in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls.

The new petition adds Bollen, the former director of the state of South Dakota’s EB-5 program, as a respondent. Former Gov. Mike Rounds, Aberdeen attorney Jeff Sveen and former South Dakota Board of Regents executive director Tad Perry are still named in the new petition.

Rounds is the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate

.
The original filing, Barth v. Rounds, et al, was filed Sept. 22 and was assigned case number 4:14-mc-00118-KES and assigned to Judge Karen E. Schreier. Schreier is the former chair of the South Dakota Democratic Party.

The new case is 4:14-mc-00125-LLP and is assigned to Judge Lawrence Piersol. Piersol was a Democratic state legislator from Sioux Falls in the 1970s.

Democratic President Bill Clinton appointed both Piersol and Schreier.

The original case has an order from Schreier setting a hearing on the original petition for 3 p.m., Friday, Oct. 16 at the federal courthouse in Sioux Falls. The new filing does not have a similar order in the case docket report.

Under the federal rules of civil procedure, the court cannot hold a hearing on the matter until at least 21 days after service on the respondents. So, it is likely the Oct. 16 hearing will be moved to a later date under the new filing.

According to federal court records, no respondents have been served in either matter yet.