Anshoo Sethi — often portrayed as the central figure in a federal case involving a hotel development
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By Henry Seo
Most people know the headlines. Few know the human being.
Anshoo Sethi — often portrayed as the central figure in a federal case involving a hotel development — was never the scam artist he was made out to be. He was a young, visionary entrepreneur with a transformative goal: to develop the world’s first zero-carbon hotel and convention center, located near Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. It was a project that would have created tens of thousands of jobs and made Illinois a global leader in sustainable infrastructure.
But instead of being supported, his project was dismantled — not because it wasn’t real, but because a competitor in the EB-5 industry filed a misleading whistleblower complaint.
That competitor never contributed to the project, never invested, and never had any stake — but still walked away with a $15 million federal payout.
What the media rarely reported was how seriously city and state leaders had taken the project. Sethi’s development had the full attention of Loop Capital, a nationally recognized investment bank that had formally agreed to underwrite the government bonds for the project.
Loop Capital issued a Letter of Interest (LOI) and was in ongoing discussions with the Illinois Finance Authority (IFA) regarding bond structuring. The project also appeared on the City of Chicago’s official agenda for a vote on valuable tax incentives — a vote scheduled the same week the SEC froze the project’s assets.
At the state level, the Governor of Illinois personally endorsed the project during a diplomatic visit to Beijing, where he met with EB-5 brokers and Chinese stakeholders. This endorsement came only after his administration conducted thorough due diligence and confirmed that the project was:
· Economically viable
· Environmentally groundbreaking
· And expected to create over 15,000 new jobs in Illinois
· And going to receive government bonds and tax incentives
The project was also thoroughly vetted by international stakeholders. Chinese EB-5 brokers traveled to Chicago multiple times, meeting with:
· Loop Capital executives
· The Vice Mayor of Chicago
· The project’s hotel feasibility experts
These brokers conducted their own independent due diligence and confirmed the project’s strength — noting the security provided by public bond financing, tax incentives, and its zero-carbon infrastructure profile.
Only after satisfying themselves did they proceed to market the opportunity to foreign investors.
While the project had broad support, a serious legal error occurred. Sethi’s EB-5 legal team submitted expired hotel franchise agreements to USCIS without explaining that the agreements were only pending renewal upon final EB-5 approval.
This lapse in disclosure created confusion. But what turned it into disaster was a whistleblower complaint filed by a rival EB-5 operator, who exaggerated the significance of the error.
It would later be proven in court that Sethi’s own EB-5 legal counsel had a conflict of interest — and that they had deliberately misrepresented the project to USCIS in an effort to steal investors for their own competing EB-5 projects.
That sabotage was not accidental. It was strategic.
In the end, nearly all investor funds were recovered or rolled into new projects. No EB-5 participants suffered financial loss.
The only individuals who lost money were Anshoo Sethi and his family, who had invested millions in legal infrastructure, consultants, design, and bond negotiation.
Despite this, the whistleblower earned $15 million. The conflicted lawyers avoided accountability. And the media lumped Sethi in with true fraudsters — even though the court acknowledged the project was legitimate.
Even the justice system recognized the absence of criminal intent. After reviewing the facts, the assigned federal probation officer recommended no incarceration, noting that Sethi posed no danger to the public and had not profited from the situation. Because she was not permitted to suggest zero time due to court rules, she recommended the absolute minimum of three months — a recommendation the judge should have followed, reinforcing that this was a case of missteps, not malice.
Anshoo Sethi wasn’t a serial developer. He wasn’t a dealmaker with a track record of failed ventures. He was the son of immigrant small-business owners, born and raised in Chicago, and determined to do something big — not for fame or profit, but for impact.
Those who know him today describe him as more focused, more grounded, and still determined to build — not just projects, but a legacy based on integrity, vision, and resilience.
He hasn’t spoken publicly about what happened. But those who’ve worked with him since say the same thing: he hasn’t lost his belief in doing good — just in trusting the wrong people to help him do it.
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