Showing posts with label Trump Foundation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trump Foundation. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Will Deutsche Bank be Trump's nemesis?


The culprit
It is pathetic that a bank would have an "anti-money laundering" department but in my naive moment there is the realization that these are the times and all we can do is cope with it. Deutsche Bank employees in that section reportedly...
"recommended turning over information about transactions by entities owned by President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to a government watchdog in 2016 and 2017, but the bank's executives apparently declined to do so."
It had to do with transactions connected to the now-dissolved Trump Foundation, discovered by the bank's computer system, designed to reveal illegal activity. Five current and former employees were involved, which led to a later report they thought should be sent to the Treasury Department for investigation. It wasn't. The transactions weren't spelled out...
"some of them involved money going between the entities and foreign companies or individuals."
The NYT says it ain't necessarily true because "sometimes complete large cash transactions that can cause a review to be triggered without any actual wrongdoing." Thus, the reason for no report. Apparently Deutsche Bank treads lightly on this kind of issue according to Tammy McFadden, a former Deutsche Bank employee who looked into some of the transactions. She continued, “It’s the D.B. way. They are prone to discounting everything.”

The Hill reported...
"McFadden told the Times that she was fired after she questioned the bank's practices and has since filed complaints to regulators about what she sees as its lack of enforcement."
Well now, that doesn't seem kosher, and is it just another example of the shady deals of the Trump family? The Hill also says...
"Deutsche Bank has loaned billions of dollars to the Trump and Kushner companies. Federal and state authorities are currently reviewing the bank's relationship with President Trump."
The NYT also revealed the...
"staff of Deutsche Bank were hired especially for their expertise of money-laundering."
Now doesn't that beat all. Trump biographer David Cay Johnston said...
“We know for a fact that Donald Trump has been involved in money laundering in the past, fined for it. We know that Deutsche Bank is fined over $600 million just for laundering money for Russian oligarchs and are nondenial denials. The Trump Organization said we never heard of this. Why would you? It was locked up in the bank. The bank said we didn’t stop anyone. The story makes it clear.”
Finally, from the Times...
“So, in addition, The Times has a pregnant line in it. It says that is there are other, ‘politically connected people’ who also were swept up,” Johnston said. 'It’s clear that David Enrich, a very good reporter at The New York Times has seen these documents and other people whose money laundering suspicion of money laundering activities were also apparently quashed by the people at the private banking unit of Deutsche Bank in New York. This is for Donald Trump a really serious problem.'”
We can only hope that David Cay Johnston's assessment is correct.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Trump crooked foundation revisited


There are accusations that...
"there’s a good chance that the Trump Foundation is only the grimy tip of the iceberg, when it comes to self-dealing and other dubious activities at small family foundations."
That's a great opening to introduce an organization 100% owned and controlled by the President of the United States. Slate also says...
"In 2015, 109,550 private foundations filed tax returns with the IRS, and almost none of them will ever be investigated by their state’s attorney general."
"Is Trump-style self-dealing abnormal for the Gates Foundation or the Ford Foundation? Absolutely."
New York attorney general, Barbara Underwood, said, "Mr Trump had illegally instructed the foundation to provide support to his presidential campaign by using the foundation's name and funds it raised to promote the campaign." Her petition also claims, "that Mr Trump used charitable assets to pay off legal obligations, to promote his own businesses and to purchase personal items, including a painting of himself." It was found that the Trump organization used Foundation funds to buy a $5,000 ad for Trump International Hotels in the DC Preservation League charity event programs.

The New York attorney general, in its 41-page complaint, said "The Trump Foundation was a Trump Organization slush fund; it wasn’t a genuinely charitable endeavor." The "Trump Foundation handed over some $2.82 million directly to Trump campaign staff, for them to disburse as they saw fit; those donations were specifically targeted to states with upcoming primaries where Trump was running as a candidate." The NYAG says that's illegal; Charitable foundations are not allowed to engage in political activities, period." Sounds like the legal advice was either faulty or Trump just didn't care.

It would appear that "in Trump’s mind, the Trump Foundation was never really a charitable foundation, created for acts of selfless generosity. Instead, it was little more than a money-laundering machine: Donors with their own ulterior motives could give tax-deductible donations to the foundation, and then in turn the foundation would be used whenever Trump wanted to funnel money to a nonprofit." And in that scenario you have the makings of a crook.

Who is to blame for Brian Thompson's murder?

Police closing in on Brian Thompson shooter   First up would be the shooter, whom authorities believe they have found . You might think that...