Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Financial Regulation has signed a contract with Percipient, LLC to de-identify the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) located throughout the estimated 1.5 million pages of Jay Peak records relating to allegations of fraud in the EB-5 program. The de-identification is done in connection with the Expedited Disclosure Plan announced last year by Governor Phil Scott to increase transparency by expediting public disclosure of Jay Peak related records http://www.dfr.vermont.gov/sites/default/files/jaypeak/Disclosure_Plan.pdf . This approach allows the State to make these documents public prior to the conclusion of the case, which is the typical standard for document release.
PII is state and federally protected information about individuals such as names, social security numbers, bank account numbers and drivers license numbers. De-identifying the records is legally required before they can be made publicly available.
“Signing this contract represents a critical step forward in providing transparency to Vermonters regarding the alleged Jay Peak fraud,” said Michael Pieciak, Commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation. “It balances the great public interest in making the Jay Peak records available with the need to protect personal data of innocent investors and business owners.”
Under the contract, Percipient will review and de-identify the Jay Peak related records, beginning with an initial batch of 5,000 pages. Because the documents are subject to the pending state enforcement action against Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger, the State will need to file a motion with the Vermont Superior Court requesting a ruling that the documents are “discoverable” and thus may be made public. If the court approves, Percipient will work on successive batches of records which the Department will post to its website to facilitate public review.
Percipient was one of two bidders in a competitive bidding process for the contract. It is estimated the cost of preparing the first batch of 5,000 pages of records will be $1,500. Other costs under the contract will be incurred as work proceeds.
Link to contract: http://www.dfr.vermont.gov/contract-percipient-llc-de-identification
Source: DFR 1.22.2018