Why did the North American High Rail Group delete page about negotiations with XpressWest?

After reading our update yesterday to an earlier post, Not going to live & die in Vegas: no North American High Speed Rail Group proposal in, Citizens Concerned About Rail Line (CCARL) member and organizer Barb Stussy contacted us with a note about contact she had had in October with a legal representative of the Marnell Companies.

In her email, she writes in part:

I spoke with Nevada attorney Greg Gilbert ([redacted] cell) who represents Marnell Companies back on 10/14/15 regarding North American High Speed Rails Group’s website that indicated that NAHSRG had “submitted a proposal” and that “President/CEO Joe Sperber and Chairman Mr. Joseph Wang” had “met with the Marnell Companies regarding XpressWest High Speed Rail Corridor project.” (See PrintScan of the NAHSR website on 9/28/15 below.)

Once I contacted Mr. Gilbert, he indicated that the situation had been “rectified.” He said to check the NAHSR website, and “any reference to XpressWest should have been taken down.” Immediately, following the call on 10/14/15, I did check the NAHSR website, and the connection to XpressWest has been removed and continues to be removed. . . .

After a POST BULLETIN article, “Rochester mayor urges governor to move rail project ahead” (10/21/15 appended), in which both Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede and NAHSRG spokeswoman Wendy Meadley indicated that NAHSRG was still in negotiations with XpressWest regarding the Los Angeles-Las Vegas high-speed rail line, I attempted to call Mr. Gilbert again. He has not returned my phone call.

Actually, Meadley did not specify in the article with whom her firm was negotiating. Rather, the Post Bulletin article linked to the September 26 article, Private rail company seeks to build high-speed rail across U.S. In this article. Meadley claimed at the time:

The private company seeking to build a high-speed rail line from Rochester to the Twin Cities is also vying for the right to build four other corridors, including a proposed line from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

North American High Speed Rail Group spokeswoman Wendy Meadley said the company is competing for the chance to build the L.A. to Vegas rail line. Last week, the L.A. Times reported that officials from XpressWest announced they had partnered with China Railway International USA to finance part of the L.A. to Vegas project. That group is a consortium led by China Railway, which is the People's Republic of China's national railroad. The Chinese group pledged it would provide $100 million in initial capital for the project.

Meadley said despite the announcement, no deal has been finalized. The Minnesota-based rail group is still in the running to build the train. She noted that the cost of the entire project is likely $4 billion to $12 billion.

Competing with XpressWest? In talks with them? Whatever the case the material was removed from the site. In the latest iteration, here's what Meadley's telling the Bulletin:

Meadley said in an interview that was never the company's plan. Instead, she said the company is negotiating with the owners of the XpressWest proposal for the chance to build and operate the corridor. XpressWest is owned by Marnell Cos. and was one of four companies to apply for the franchise rights. Marnell Cos. did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

So "competing with" really meant "negotiating with." Or maybe not, since that claim on the NAHSRG website had been removed and the situation "rectified," according to the lawyer for Marnell.

Stussy pointed out that much has been removed from the site. Visiting it this morning, we noticed that the leadership team is no longer online, nor is the picture at the top of this post. Meadley has registered as a state lobbyist for the group; the CEO for the association is Chuck Jones. (Update: Stussy tells us that Meadley told Heather Carlson at the Post Bulletin that this is a typo and Jones is Chief Operating Officer or COO).

An earlier report in the Post Bulletin noted a different CEO for the group:

It turns out key leaders in the North American High Speed Rail Group are also behind a new EB-5 regional center. Rail group CEO Joe Sperber and Chairman Joseph Wang are co-owners of Liberty Minnesota Regional Center, which won approval from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in April.

Sperber is also listed as the manager and the registered agent for the North American High Speed Rail Company LLC at the Minnesota Secretary of State's business records database. Who is Chuck Jones? Who knows?

Back in March in Who's got a ticket to ride on private Zip Rail?, we had looked at group's leadership that had briefly flourished on the company's website before being removed.

Bluestem has put in a call to Gilbert and will post his explanation should he choose to return our call. We're also waiting for MNDOT to send some documents requested in a data practices query. Given that MNDOT has already fulfilled earlier media requests for the documents, we don't imagine that should take much time. Perhaps we'll learn the identity of the mysterious Mr. Jones.

Images: A vision of a high speed train, now missing from the NAHSRG's website (above); screenshot from September, now also removed (below).

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