Tag: Trump finances

The Money Behind Trump’s Money

New York Times logoOne Day in early 2017, Mike Offit went to the Yale Club in Manhattan for a lunch hosted by a group called Business Executives for National Security. Offit, who has a craggy face and shoulder-­length hair, had spent much of his career in banking, but that had ended nearly two decades earlier. Since then, he had puttered around the outskirts of finance, dabbled in journalism and even published a novel about a pair of murders at a fictional German-­owned Wall Street bank that bore a striking resemblance to the one that he worked for until 1998: ­Deutsche Bank.

These days, Offit had time on his hands, which is how he found himself at the Yale Club that afternoon. Slanting winter sunlight illuminated the white-­columned walls of the club’s dining room. Offit was chatting with an American military officer about weaponry when his iPhone buzzed. He saw an email from the White House Executive Office of the President. How strange, Offit thought.

The message contained a PDF file: a scanned printout of an email he had sent Donald Trump several months earlier, in the waning days of the presidential campaign. Offit had known Trump for decades. At ­Deutsche Bank, he had lined up huge loans to finance Trump’s construction and renovation of landmark Manhattan skyscrapers, at a time when the default-­prone real estate developer and casino magnate was no longer able to get loans from most mainstream financial institutions. The two men stayed in touch afterward. Offit’s 2014 book, “Nothing Personal,” even featured a blurb from Trump: “Michael Offit offers a colorful insight into how the big money is made — and/or taken — on Wall Street.” Continue reading.

Coalition of major media outlets moves to unseal redactions on Trump-related Deutsche Bank document

AlterNet logoFrom Barack Obama to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton to George W. Bush, every U.S. president elected after the 1970s has publicly released their tax returns — every one except Donald Trump, who has said he will do so after an IRS audit is completed. Journalists, seeking information about Trump’s tax returns, have been pursuing Trump’s Deutsche Bank records — and on Wednesday, a coalition of major media organizations filed a motion in federal court to unseal redacted names on documents having to do with his taxes.

The motion was submitted by attorneys representing a who’s-who of mainstream media outlets, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Associated Press (AP), CNN and Politico. And in their motion, they argued that the American public has a right to know what is in those documents.

The motion asserted, “Deutsche Bank recently informed the court that it has tax returns relating to some of the Trump-related entities or individuals, but redacted the names of these entities and/or individuals from its submission to the court. Through this motion, (the coalition) seek to enforce the public’s First Amendment and common law rights of access to judicial proceedings and the records therein — specifically, to unseal the redacted names so as to be able to inform the public which persons’ or entities’ tax returns are at issue in this litigation.”

View the complete September 12 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

The Trump Secrets Hiding Inside Deutsche Bank

New York Times logoThe president’s longtime lender has extensive documents related to Mr. Trump’s personal and business finances. Here’s what they could reveal.

Deutsche Bank’s disclosure on Tuesday that it has tax returns related to President Trump’s family or business set off a frenzy of speculation about what those materials might reveal.

But a trove of other data and documents that his longtime lender is sitting on might prove more revelatory to investigators digging into Mr. Trump’s finances. That includes records of how Mr. Trump made his money, whom he has partnered with, the terms of his extensive borrowings and what transactions he has engaged in with Russians or other foreign nationals.

For nearly two decades, Deutsche Bank was the only mainstream financial institution consistently willing to do business with Mr. Trump, who had a long record of defaulting on loans. The bank over the years collected reams of his personal and corporate information.

View the complete August 28 article by David Enrich on The New York Times website here.

Banks just handed over documents that may be related to Trump’s financial ties to Russia

The companies complying with subpoenas for the documents include Deutsche Bank, which has financed the Trump Organization.

A number of major Wall Street banks have handed over thousands of documents to congressional committees pertaining to Russian figures who may have had links to President Donald Trump, his family, or the the Trump Organization, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The firms, including Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase, passed along the documents subpoenaed by investigators with both the House Finance Committee and House Intelligence Committee. The banks are complying with subpoenas sent to them in April.

The specific details of the documents remain scarce, as do the identities of the Russian figures or entities specifically mentioned in the material.

View the complete August 8 article by Casey Michael on the ThinkProgress website here.

Trump’s accounting firm emerges as the most unlikely hero of democracy

Time is no longer on Trump’s side.

When the president goes to war with Congress over a subpoena, time is typically on the president’s side.

In most cases, Congress seeks information held by the president himself, or by one of the president’s allies within the executive branch. Thus, until a court specifically orders the executive to turn over that information, the president can resist the subpoena simply by doing nothing. During the Obama administration, for example, Congress sought Justice Department documents in a 2011 subpoena. Though Congress eventually won the court fight to uncover those documents, the first court decision ordering the administration to comply with the subpoena didn’t come until 2016.

Which brings us to Trump v. Committee on Oversight and Reform — and, specifically, the role of the accounting firm Mazars USA in that case. Mazars is not the hero America deserves, but it may be the hero we need. And it could become this hero simply by refusing to play along with President Donald Trump’s massive resistance to congressional oversight.

View the complete May 10 article by Ian Millhiser on the ThinkProgress website here.

Dems digging into Trump finances post-Mueller

Democrats are pressing forward with their investigations into President Trump‘s personal finances well beyond the boundaries of the special counsel probe.

Robert Mueller‘s investigation focused on questions of collusion in the 2016 election and potential obstruction of justice. But Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff of California, who chair the House Financial Services and Intelligence committees, respectively, are taking a deeper look at Trump’s business empire, including potential dealings with Russian nationals, for any evidence of financial crimes.

Trump’s attorneys have sought to prevent House Democratic investigators from obtaining his financial records. And Republican lawmakers have dismissed the probe as a partisan fishing expedition to undermine the president.

View the complete April 21 article by Sylvan Lane on The Hill website here.

House Intelligence chairman voices concern that Mueller’s scrutiny of Trump’s finances isn’t adequate

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff at the Capitol on Wednesday. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite, AP

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee expressed concern Sunday that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has not adequately scrutinized President Trump’s finances and said House investigators plan to probe Trump’s relationship with a bank implicated in Russian money laundering.

“We are not interested in our committee in whether he’s a tax cheat or not worth what he says he is,” Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “What we are interested in is, does the president have business dealings with Russia such that it compromises the United States?”

In particular, Schiff said the House panel plans to investigate Trump’s two-decade relationship with Deutsche Bank, a German institution that has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties in recent years after admitting its role in a $10 billion money laundering scheme that allowed clients in Russia to move vast sums overseas.

View the complete February 10 article by Greg Miller on The Washington Post website here.