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House Dems Investigating Trump Loans for Russian Connections

by ShelbyNorthcott Posted on May 24, 2017

Mother Jones

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Since Donald Trump became a presidential candidate, journalists and investigators looking at his business holdings have wondered if there are any Russian connections to the complicated and opaque finances of his real estate empire. So far, no solid evidence of a Moscow link has emerged. But on Wednesday a group of House Democrats took a significant step on this front. They sent a letter to German banking giant Deutsche Bank asking for information regarding the four large loans Trump has received from the bank. In particular, the lawmakers are looking for information indicating whether the Russian government guaranteed any of the Trump loans or if these transactions “were in any way connected to Russia.”

According to financial disclosures made by Trump during the campaign, he owes more than $714 million to several banks. But his biggest lender—by far—is Deutsche Bank, which has provided Trump at least $364 million in financing. Deutsche Bank has regularly clashed with US regulators in recent years, and it is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for its role in a 2011 scheme to allegedly launder money out of Russia using a complex system of what are known as “mirror trades.” Given that Trump now oversees the Department of Justice, his loans with the German bank are one of his most glaring conflicts of interest.

In February, the Guardian reported that sometime after Trump launched his bid for the presidency, Deutsche Bank undertook a review of Trump’s business with the bank. The review, which has not been made public, reportedly did not find a link to Russia. But the Democrats want to see that review to make sure. Their letter, which was sent to Deutsche Bank’s American CEO, asks for a copy of the review and related documents.

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In the 1990s, as Trump struggled with assorted bankruptcies, his relationship with many Wall Street banks deteriorated. Deutsche Bank remained one of the few major banks willing to lend him money. In 2005, he borrowed $640 million from Deutsche Bank to fund the construction of his Chicago tower, but when the 2008 financial crisis hit, this partnership turned rocky. In November 2008, just as he was about to miss a payment on the loan, Trump sued Deutsche Bank for more than $3 billion, arguing that the bank’s actions on the world market had led to the financial collapse that had hurt Trump’s real estate business. The bank, in turn, counter-sued, demanding that Trump pay back the $40 million he had personally guaranteed on the loan. The dispute lingered in court for several years before finally being settled. Oddly, Trump subsequently worked out four new hefty loans with Deutsche Bank: one for that Chicago tower; two loans totaling $125 million to finance his purchase of the Doral National golf course in Miami; and a $170 million loan for renovating Trump’s new hotel in Washington, DC. The loan for the Washington hotel was issued in August 2015, a couple months after Trump entered the presidential race.

“At a time when nearly all other financial institutions refused to lend to Trump after his businesses repeatedly declared bankruptcy, Deutsche Bank continued to do so—even after the President sued the Bank and defaulted on a prior loan from the Bank—to the point where his companies now owe your institution an estimated $340 million,” the Democratic lawmakers stated in their letter to Deutsche Bank. “Only with full disclosure can the American public determine the extent of the President’s financial ties to Russia and any impact such ties may have on his policy decisions.”

Last fall, a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman confirmed to Mother Jones that all of Trump’s loans from Deutsche Bank came from its “private bank,” a division that caters to high net-worth individuals who typically maintain large personal or brokerage accounts with the bank. According to Trump’s personal financial disclosure, he had at least two brokerage accounts with Deutsche Bank. Additionally, a failed concrete manufacturing business started by Donald Trump Jr. received a loan from Deutsche Bank, and Jared Kushner and his mother jointly have a loan from Deutsche Bank. (Trump eventually purchased from Deutsche Bank the loan it had made to his son’s failed business.)

In the letter, the House Democrats also asked for the bank’s records regarding a 2011 internal investigation of its “mirror trading” operation in Moscow. According to a New Yorker report last summer, between 2011 and 2015, Deutsche Bank employees in Moscow used a complicated trading procedure to help move as much as $10 billion out of Russia, possibly to help wealthy Russians evade sanctions imposed on the Putin regime.

The five Democrats who signed the letter are Reps. Maxine Waters (Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services committee, Daniel Kildee (Mich.), Gwen Moore (Wis.), Al Green (Texas), and Ed Perlmutter (Colo.). A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank did not respond to a request for comment regarding the Democrats’ inquiry.

A full copy of the letter is below.

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Ltr Fsc to John Cryan Deutsche Bank Mirror Trade and Trump Accounts 5 23 17 (PDF)

Ltr Fsc to John Cryan Deutsche Bank Mirror Trade and Trump Accounts 5 23 17 (Text)

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House Dems Investigating Trump Loans for Russian Connections

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Trump’s Biggest Lender Wants New Terms

by KristinWatters Posted on December 22, 2016

Mother Jones

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Donald Trump’s biggest creditor, Deutsche Bank, is seeking to restructure some of the president-elect’s debt, Bloomberg reports. Trump’s companies owe the German lender at least $364 million, more than half of his total $713 million debt load, and his loans with the bank—a potential source of leverage over the incoming commander-in-chief—pose a significant conflict of interest.

According to Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank is seeking to limit the conflict by removing Trump’s personal guarantee from the loans, meaning that the president-elect would not be personally on the hook if the loans go bad. Trump has also personally guaranteed loans to his second-biggest lender, Ladder Capital Finance, to which he owes $282 million.

Bloomberg cited unnamed sources who indicated that the bank was the party seeking the changes and that delicate restructuring talks are underway. Trump’s personal guarantees have helped him secure low interest rates, and if the guarantees are removed, the bank could compensate by raising the interest on Trump’s loans or asking for other assets to serve as collateral.

Mother Jones reviewed all of Trump’s publicly listed debts earlier this month and found that Trump has four loans with Deutsche Bank: two mortgages on his Miami Doral golf course, a loan on his Chicago tower, and a $170 million loan tied to his brand-new Washington, DC, hotel. All four loans were made through Deutsche Bank’s private bank, a division that caters to high-net-worth individuals and has the flexibility to make loans that the commercial lending side of the firm might balk at.

Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Ladder Capital show that Trump has guaranteed $8 million of his $100 million mortgage on Trump Tower and $26 million of the $160 million mortgage on the 40 Wall Street office tower.

Since his election, Trump has repeatedly faced questions about the unprecedented conflicts of interest posed by his business empire. So far, the president-elect has done little to allay concerns about his business interests. Trump canceled a scheduled press conference earlier this month at which he said he would discuss how he would separate himself from his business, but he also indicated that his solution did not involve divesting himself from his assets. Instead, he suggested he would step back from daily operations. That would do little to insulate himself from conflicts, and it would do nothing to solve the ethical issues created by his loan guarantees, which make him personally responsible if the bank ever deems the terms of the loans to have been broken. Even if he does divorce himself from his business, he can’t separate himself from the guarantees that put his own money on the line—or from the leverage his lenders have over him.

Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank when he enters the White House is particularly fraught because the German firm is currently in the midst of a regulatory tussle with the Justice Department. In 2015, the bank paid American and European regulators $2.5 billion in a settlement for its role in helping to rig the interest rate market. Now the bank is negotiating with the Justice Department on an even bigger potential settlement—as much as $14 billion—for its role in the creation and sale of bad mortgage products in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

Separately, Reuters recently reported that Ladder Capital may be exploring putting itself up for sale, opening the possibility that Trump’s second-largest lender could wind up in the hands of interests that aren’t necessarily aligned with America’s.

The potential conflicts of interest over the Deutsche Bank loans are separate from concerns that ethics experts have expressed about a possible violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits government officials from receiving beneficial treatment from foreign governments. Those concerns stem from a $920 million loan from the state-owned Bank of China and a coalition of lenders (that also includes Deutsche Bank) to a real estate partnership that Trump is part of.

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Trump’s Biggest Lender Wants New Terms

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Elizabeth Warren Slams Donald Trump’s "Huge Conflicts of Interest"

by RollandPardo Posted on June 3, 2016

Mother Jones

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Earlier this week, Mother Jones reported that Donald Trump’s loans from the German-based Deutsche Bank—totaling at least $100 million and possibly much more—would pose a significant conflict of interest, should Trump, the GOP’s presumptive nominee, become president. After all, the bank was recently caught manipulating markets around the world (and had to pay $2.5 billion in fines), and it has has tried to evade US laws aimed at curtailing risky financial shenanigans and has attempted to influence the US government via lobbying.

Richard Painter, an attorney who teaches at the University of Minnesota and who was the chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007, noted that Trump’s relationship with the overseas financial giant was disturbing: “having a president who owes a lot of money to banks, particularly when it’s on negotiable terms—it puts them at the mercy of the banks and the banks are at the mercy of regulators.” He added, “that is a potentially very troublesome business model for someone in public office.”

In response to the article, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says that Trump’s dealings with Deutsche Bank—and his connections with other major financial institutions—could indeed pose trouble, were he to win the White House. In a statement to Mother Jones, the senator slammed Trump’s relationship with the bank:

The job of the President is to enforce the law fairly. If a serial lawbreaker like Deutsche Bank is caught manipulating markets again, how would Trump hold it accountable knowing that the bank had the power to pull the plug on his own businesses? That’s a question that should worry every American. These financial entanglements—along with many of his other ongoing business concerns and arrangements—present huge conflicts of interest.

In recent months, Warren has repeatedly challenged Trump. In a string of tweets in March, she listed all the ways Trump has been a “loser” (Trump University, bankruptcies, attacks on women, narcissism, bullying). On Stephen Colbert’s show, she declared, “The truth is that Trump inherited a fortune from his father, he kept it going by cheating and defrauding people, and then he takes his creditors through Chapter 11.” In a speech two weeks ago, she denounced the mogul for having said he was delighted to have made money off the 2008 economic crash: “Let’s face it: Donald Trump cares about exactly one thing—Donald Trump. It’s time for some accountability because these statements disqualify Donald Trump from ever becoming president. The free ride is over.” Trump has retorted by calling Warren “Pocahontas” and deriding her as “a woman that’s been very ineffective other than she’s got a big mouth.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for a comment regarding Warren’s remarks about his Deutsche Bank loans—or what Trump would do about his financial relationships if elected president.

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Elizabeth Warren Slams Donald Trump’s "Huge Conflicts of Interest"

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Trumpapalooza for May 23, 2016

by StevieF65vjg Posted on May 24, 2016

Mother Jones

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A while back I asked how to handle the fire hose of Donald Trump news, and one suggestion was to ignore it during the day and then put all of it into a single end-of-the-day roundup. I’m not sure this is a viable long-term solution, but let’s give it a try. Here’s the Trumpapalooza for May 23, 2016:

Global Warming

Publicly, Trump has made it clear that he thinks global warming is a hoax. But when it comes to building a sea wall to protect one of his golf courses, it turns out he’s a true believer: “If the predictions of an increase in sea level rise as a result of global warming prove correct,” his company says in a letter, “it could reasonably be expected that the rate of sea level rise might become twice of that presently occurring….As a result, we would expect the rate of dune recession to increase.”

Wall Street

Trump apparently isn’t quite as plugged into the world of the rich and powerful as he thinks:

If there were any prevailing doubts of his stature on Wall Street, Mr. Trump said the chief executive at Deutsche Bank could easily allay it. “Why don’t you call the head of Deutsche Bank? Her name is Rosemary Vrablic,” he said in the recent interview. “She is the boss.”

Ms. Vrablic is a private wealth manager at Deutsche Bank in New York. She is not the company’s chief executive; John Cryan holds that role. Both declined to comment on Mr. Trump.

Energy Policy

Trump recently met with Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy, and had a question for him:

During the meeting, Murray said Trump had asked him about numerous facets of U.S. energy policy. At one point, Murray said he would suggest lifting obstacles to opening liquefied natural gas, or LNG, export facilities to reduce the supply glut of natural gas in the country.

He said that Trump was agreeable with the idea, but then had a question. “What’s LNG?” Murray said Trump asked.

Rape

Josh Marshall says that if Trump is going to dredge up groundless old rape accusations against Bill Clinton, it’s time to ask him some questions about his own past sexual conduct:

Trump’s former wife Ivana said Trump raped her in a sworn deposition. Given how central a role rape accusations have played in Trump’s campaign — against Mexicans, political opponents, etc. it is clearly a highly germane question, as frankly it would be for any presidential candidate.

The details surrounding the alleged rape are bizarrely novelistic even by Trumpian standards. According to Ivana, Trump was driven to freakish rage by a failed anti-baldness surgery — a so-called ‘scalp reduction’. But the actions are very clear cut. According to her deposition, Trump flew into a rage, attacked her, held her down and began pulling hair out of her head to mimic his pain and then forcibly penetrated her….This was a pretty concrete and specific accusation. And the author of the book that first surfaced the deposition said he’d found numerous friends of Ivana’s who she had confided the incident to at the time.

Vince Foster

The right-wing fever swamp has long believed that Vince Foster, a deputy White House counsel in the Clinton administration, didn’t commit suicide on July 20, 1993. Rather, Hillary Clinton had him murdered and then ordered his body dragged to Fort Marcy Park, where he was found the next day. Even by conservative standards this is both fantastical and repulsive (Foster was a good friend of Hillary’s). Naturally, that didn’t stop Trump:

When asked in an interview last week about the Foster case, Trump dealt with it as he has with many edgy topics — raising doubts about the official version of events even as he says he does not plan to talk about it on the campaign trail. He called theories of possible foul play “very serious” and the circumstances of Foster’s death “very fishy.”

“He had intimate knowledge of what was going on,” Trump said, speaking of Foster’s relationship with the Clintons at the time. “He knew everything that was going on, and then all of a sudden he committed suicide.” He added, “I don’t bring Foster’s death up because I don’t know enough to really discuss it. I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don’t do that because I don’t think it’s fair.”

There was also some polling news, but who cares about polls in May?

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Trumpapalooza for May 23, 2016

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