Tag Archives: Trump Organization

US

Judge Says Real Estate Giant Cushman and Wakefield Broke Rules for Donald Trump

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A New York judge has determined that Cushman & Wakefield, one of the world’s largest real estate firms, broke its own rules to appease the Trump Organization and the former American president’s chronic practice of inflating the value of his properties.

Judge Arthur F. Engoron’s surprising assertions were included in his court order on Wednesday, in which he formally directed Cushman & Wakefield to turn over documents to the New York attorney general’s office.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the Trump Organization over what prosecutors have determined to be a long-running pattern of hyping the value of golf resorts and buildings in California and New York, as part of a scheme to commit bank and insurance fraud.

In his order, the judge indicated he has personally reviewed sensitive documents in the privacy of his court chambers that indicate Cushman & Wakefield employees played along—a damning revelation that could open the global corporation to accusations of conspiring along with the Trump Organization.

“This court has reviewed numerous documents in camera demonstrating that C&W was not consistent in adhering to its internal quality control practices when conducting appraisals on behalf of the Trump Organization,” he wrote.

By enforcing the AG’s subpoenas, Engoron’s court order adds key support to the New York investigation, which is heating up in what could be the final phases of the probe. When the investigation concludes, James will be able to sue the Trump Organization and others for violations of the state’s business laws—and seek to shut them down permanently and seek monetary damages.

“It is within the OAG’s purview to investigate C&W’s appraisals to determine if C&W has appropriately and accurately disclosed to regulators and other governmental authority whether its internal quality controls were followed,” Engoron added.

Sawnie A. McEntire, a Texas lawyer representing the real estate services firm, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In its multi-year investigation, the AG’s office has already amassed hundreds of thousands of documents that describe how Trump valued his Trump Tower skyscraper on New York City’s Fifth Avenue, his private golf club and forested Seven Springs estate north of the city, and his other golf club near Los Angeles.

Some of the evidence made public by James in January revealed the ridiculous lengths which Trump went to inflate the value of his properties, including one instance in which he lied by simply tripling the size of his already humongous three-story penthouse at Trump Tower. The twice-impeached former president’s company repeatedly turned to Cushman & Wakefield to assess the value of those properties.

Investigators contend they need additional evidence from Cushman & Wakefield to see if the firm played fast and loose with other clients. The firm has been pushing back, claiming that handing over that kind of proprietary data to law enforcement would violate the corporation’s rights to keep them secret.

In court on Monday, the AG’s attorneys detailed how their investigators had caught Cushman & Wakefield employees lying in ways that would benefit the Trump Organization.

Assistant attorney general Austin Thompson laid out how the firm’s appraisers routinely abdicated their responsibilities and just defaulted to whatever the Trump company and its outside lawyer, Sheri Dillon, wanted from them. He cited two instances in Los Angeles and Seven Springs when appraisers claimed they created value assessments that factored in planned real estate development timelines—except the appraisers just filled in the blanks as they were told.

“In both instances, a Cushman appraiser appears to have crafted the development timeline and falsely attributed it to somebody else,” Thompson said in court on Monday.

Thompson said that when investigators sought necessary records from the company, it responded in a way that was “intransigent and incalcitrant”—handing over documents without any explanation or context, leaving attorneys without a clue how to sort through the evidence.

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Business

Trump Left Off Forbes List Of Richest Americans For First Time In 25 Years

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Former President Donald Trump was left off Forbes’ 2021 list of the wealthiest 400 Americans, the business and finance publication announced Tuesday, marking the first time in 25 years Trump has not been on the list.

The former president is reportedly still a billionaire. Forbes estimates his wealth to be $2.5 billion, or the same as it was last year, when he stood at No. 339 on the list.

But the publication says the former president has slipped down the ranks due to his reliance on real estate holdings and his refusal to divest from them.

The stock market has thrived during the coronavirus pandemic, meaning that America’s richest people have been able to reach new heights of wealth as many of the workers who power their fortunes have suffered in the COVID-19 era. Some property owners like Trump, however, have struggled in part because more people have gotten by working from home.

A $100 million loan to Trump’s flagship tower in Midtown Manhattan, for example, was placed on a “watch list” by Wells Fargo last month over decreasing occupancy rates.

Trump’s refusal to divest from his business ventures throughout his presidency earned him a torrent of criticism from ethics experts, including former Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub.

Had he done so and reinvested in other sectors of the economy, Forbes reported, Trump would likely still be able to count himself among the richest 400 Americans.

Meanwhile, the Trump Organization remains in the crosshairs of New York prosecutors, who charged its former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, with a bevy of crimes over the summer.

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Business

$100 Million Trump Tower Loan Placed On Bank ‘Watch List’ Over Vacancies

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A $100 million loan to Donald Trump’s flagship Trump Tower in Manhattan has been placed on a “watch list” by Wells Fargo Bank because of troubling “lower than average occupancy” in the building.

Occupancy has dropped from 85.9% at the end of last year to 78.9% currently, according to Wells Fargo, the “master servicer” of the loan, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Property revenue was $33.7 million in 2020 and $7.5 million in the first quarter of this year, according to the loan documents, Bloomberg noted.

Some key tenants have either quit the building or fallen far behind on their hefty rents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company that once manufactured footwear for former first daughter Ivanka Trump, for example, was $1.4 million in arrears, according to a lawsuit filed by the Trump Organization earlier this year. Marc Fisher Footwear used to occupy the entire 22nd Floor and part of the 23rd Floor in the formerly trendy Fifth Avenue high-rise that used to be Trump’s primary residence and the setting for his “Apprentice” reality TV series.

A shady “business school” once chaired by Kardashian mom-ager Kris Jenner owed nearly $200,000 in back rent by October 2020, according to another Trump Organization suit. 

One steadfast tenant making up some of the shortfall: Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC is paying an eye-popping $37,561 monthly rent in the building for office space for just three employees — who often work from home.

“This may not be the most efficient use of donors’ money,” quipped The Washington Post, which first reported on the sparsely peopled space. The newspaper noted that the 5,490-square-foot space on Trump Tower’s 15th Floor could comfortably accommodate 30 workers.

Trump has a reputation with many Americans as a hugely successful businessman, a profile cultivated in his “Apprentice” reality series. But he has declared bankruptcy a number of times and has been hit with multiple lawsuits over his debts. 

Bloomberg reported that key Trump lender Deutsche Bank AG severed ties with him after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

Trump has a $125 million loan from Deutsche Bank for his golf resort in Doral, Florida, that matures in 2023, according to Bloomberg. He’s also more than $150 million in debt for the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. The Trump Organization may be close to selling its leasing rights to that building.

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US

Trump Organization and CFO Allen Weisselberg Expected to Be Charged Thursday

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The Manhattan district attorney’s office is expected to charge the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with tax-related crimes on Thursday, people familiar with the matter said, which would mark the first criminal charges against the former president’s company since prosecutors began investigating it three years ago.

The charges against the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg, the company’s longtime chief financial officer, are a blow to former President Donald Trump, who has fended off multiple criminal and civil probes during and after his presidency. Mr. Trump himself isn’t expected to be charged, his lawyer said. Mr. Weisselberg has rejected prosecutors’ attempts at gaining his cooperation, according to people familiar with the matter.

The defendants are expected to appear in court on Thursday afternoon, the people said.

The Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg are expected to face charges related to allegedly evading taxes on fringe benefits, the people said. For months, the Manhattan district attorney’s office and New York state attorney general’s office have been investigating whether Mr. Weisselberg and other employees illegally avoided paying taxes on perks—such as cars, apartments and private-school tuition—that they received from the Trump Organization.

If prosecutors could show the Trump Organization and its executives systematically avoided paying taxes, they could file more serious charges alleging a scheme, lawyers said.

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