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• Benda, as economic development director under Rounds, actively promoted South Dakota opportunities to those investors through what's known as the federal EB-5 program.
• Benda's sister, Dorothy Hallman, of Kimball, said she doesn't believe Jackley's findings, and also doubts the ruling of suicide in her brother's death.
• "I don't believe he did anything wrong in his affairs," Hallman said. "He was always an honest guy, upright."
• In January 2011, Benda had just left his state cabinet position to become loan monitor for SDRC Inc., a private company contracted to handle EB-5 investments in South Dakota. The foreign investment helped fund Northern Beef Packers and other large projects.
• Rounds, who was Benda's boss from 2006-2010, offered some additional detail. The former governor told AP that Benda went to Northern Beef to deliver the check but demanded that plant officials prepay $550,000 to SDRC for loan monitoring fees.
• "In delivering the check, he also expected to get an advance payment on the loan fees rather than getting them on a monthly basis," Rounds said.
• Jackley said his office would continue to assist the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice in their investigation of the EB-5 program. He added that no further action would be taken on the vouchers because of Benda's death.
• Rep. Kathy Tyler, D-Big Stone City, said Friday that the double-billed vouchers and diverted funds are just the "tip of the iceberg," and every dollar that went through the EB-5 program needs to be tracked.
• Tyler said she's working with the Legislative Research Council to draft a petition to call a special session of the South Dakota Legislature to authorize an independent forensic audit of the EB-5 program in South Dakota.
• "South Dakota taxpayers have invested heavily in these projects only to lose millions of dollars," she said. "We need to know where the taxpayers' money went and how SDRC interacted with state government."
• Daugaard said Friday that federal investigators contacted the Governor's Office of Economic Development last spring and requested certain travel vouchers filed by Benda during his time as a state official.
• "I was not aware of this federal investigation until their request was received, and I still do not know the nature or extent of the federal investigation," Daugaard said in a statement. "I am aware, however, of numerous media reports indicating that there may be an ongoing federal investigation involving Northern Beef Packers and the EB-5 program."
• The South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development for years con

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