resort opened for skiing. In 1968 Weyerhaeuser invested $300,000 in the predecessor organization, Jay Peak, Inc., and loaned it $2.2 million. A 48-room hotel was built in the mid-1970s. In 1978 Mont Saint-Sauveur International, a Canadian firm, bought the resort. In 2006, the resort employed 550 people in the winter, 100 in the summer. The following year, the resort agreed to pay the State of Vermont $105,000 for violating stormwater rules in polluting a stream while building a new golf course. Despite a drop in skier visits statewide during the 2006–2007 season, Jay Peak saw a record year with skier visits up 7%. In 2007–2008, the resort reported a record 320,000 skiers for the winter. In 2008, it was the second biggest employer in the area. In 2008, the resort was valued by the town of Jay at slightly over $12 million. EB-5 fraud; water park, ice arena, hotel and other improvements By 2008, the resort's owner, Mount Saint-Sauveur, began an EB-5 visa program to finance development. That year, a group headed by Miami businessman Ariel Quiros and the resort's CEO, Bill Stenger, purchased the resort. Before the purchase of Jay, Quiros claimed that he needed to verify the existence of the $18 million already raised by Mount Saint-Sauveur through the EB-5 program. He persuaded the sellers to put the funds into an account at Raymond James Financial, which employed his son-in-law, who helped to retitle the accounts in Quiros' name immediately before the closing of the sale of Jay. They transferred the funds to other accounts, misusing the EB-5 funds to pay part of the purchase price; they used more EB-5 funds raised later to complete the payments owed to Mount Saint-Sauveur. The new resort company's plan was to invest $100 million in capital improvements for the resort over the next few years. The resort company raised $250 million by 2010, for improvements at Jay and other nearby projects and purchases, including Burke Mountain Ski Area from 250 investors from 43 companies through the incentive of the federal EB-5 visa. Under this visa, every $500,000 invested in the U.S. that results in ten new jobs gains the investor permanent residence. A three-way swap was made with the State of Vermont in 2010. The State deeded to the resort; the resort relinquished its lease to a parcel of nearby undeveloped forest back to the state; and the resort sold to