A Olusanjo Omoniyi
Immigration AttorneyGenerally, the terms of your investment agreement should have spelt out how you could address this situation. All regional centers are required to manage the deposited money according to the terms of their agreements. In most cases, the money is usually deposited in an escrow account and it cannot be put into use or spent until the I-526 petition is approved. Unfortunately though, fraudulent intent is difficult to prevent if the operator of a regional center chooses to engage in such activity. It is also equally hard for the investor to guard against such occurrence, even if the terms of the agreement specifically state it should not be done. Knowing as much as you can about a regional center through due diligence may help in guarding against some of the fraudulent intents out there but total prevention is virtually impossible to guarantee. The industry though is populated by a lot of honest people and operators with good intentions and very good records who will abide with the terms of their agreements.