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Re: The PRESIDENT Donald Trump Appreciation Thread
Did Forbes make sure to use the set of books that Trump shows when he's applying to loans and not the ones when he's getting his property appraised to pay taxes? You pay more taxes on property when the government thinks the value of the property is greater, thus is makes financial sense to trick the government into thinking your property is worth less than it actually is. Though these artificially reduced values shouldn't be used when appraising his net worth. Forbes should be using the set of books Trump uses when applying for loans.
Amen!
Trump’s businesses are full of dirty Russian money. The scandal is that it’s legal.
Let’s go back to 1984, when David Bogatin, an alleged Russian gangster who arrived in the United States a few years earlier with $3 in his pocket, sat down with Trump and bought not one but five condos, for a total of $6 million — about $15 million in today’s dollars. What was most striking about the transaction was that at the time, according to David Cay Johnston’s “The Making of Donald Trump,” Trump Tower was one of only two major buildings in New York City that sold condos to buyers who used shell companies that allowed them to purchase real estate while concealing their identities. Thus, according to the New York state attorney general’s office, when Trump closed the deal with Bogatin, whether he knew it or not, he had just helped launder money for the Russian Mafia.
And so began a 35-year relationship between Trump and Russian organized crime. Mind you, this was a period during which the disintegration of the Soviet Union had opened a fire-hose-like torrent of hundreds of billions of dollars in flight capital from oligarchs, wealthy apparatchiks and mobsters in Russia and its satellites. And who better to launder so much money for the Russians than Trump — selling them multimillion-dollar condos at top dollar, with little or no apparent scrutiny of who was buying them.
The Trump Organization has dismissed money laundering charges as unsubstantiated, and because it is so difficult to penetrate the shell companies that purchased these condos, it is almost impossible for reporters — or, for that matter, anyone without subpoena power — to determine how much money laundering by Russians went through Trump-branded properties. But Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist, put it this way to me: “Early on, Trump came to the conclusion that it is better to do business with crooks than with honest people. Crooks have two big advantages. First, they’re prepared to pay more money than honest people. And second, they will always lose if you sue them because they are known to be crooks.”
Trump is a brilliant business man. He knew that if Russians were laundering their money they would be willing to pay far more than market rate for apartments in Trump Towers than the typical buyer using legitimately earned money, since other locations in that area wouldn't allow them to spend their laundered money. He also knew that he wouldn't be caught. It's very doubtful Forbes calculates properties at the amount Trump will sell them for after factoring in his slick negotiating and deal making.
A story today released from the miami herald about how money laundering in real estate is now more common than anywhere else. These wannabes are playing catchup with Trump who has known about it for decades.
New documents show Trump kept 2 sets of books for his biggest property in Manhattan, pointing to potential financial fraud
Originally posted by Johny Joe Hold
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Trump’s businesses are full of dirty Russian money. The scandal is that it’s legal.
Let’s go back to 1984, when David Bogatin, an alleged Russian gangster who arrived in the United States a few years earlier with $3 in his pocket, sat down with Trump and bought not one but five condos, for a total of $6 million — about $15 million in today’s dollars. What was most striking about the transaction was that at the time, according to David Cay Johnston’s “The Making of Donald Trump,” Trump Tower was one of only two major buildings in New York City that sold condos to buyers who used shell companies that allowed them to purchase real estate while concealing their identities. Thus, according to the New York state attorney general’s office, when Trump closed the deal with Bogatin, whether he knew it or not, he had just helped launder money for the Russian Mafia.
And so began a 35-year relationship between Trump and Russian organized crime. Mind you, this was a period during which the disintegration of the Soviet Union had opened a fire-hose-like torrent of hundreds of billions of dollars in flight capital from oligarchs, wealthy apparatchiks and mobsters in Russia and its satellites. And who better to launder so much money for the Russians than Trump — selling them multimillion-dollar condos at top dollar, with little or no apparent scrutiny of who was buying them.
The Trump Organization has dismissed money laundering charges as unsubstantiated, and because it is so difficult to penetrate the shell companies that purchased these condos, it is almost impossible for reporters — or, for that matter, anyone without subpoena power — to determine how much money laundering by Russians went through Trump-branded properties. But Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist, put it this way to me: “Early on, Trump came to the conclusion that it is better to do business with crooks than with honest people. Crooks have two big advantages. First, they’re prepared to pay more money than honest people. And second, they will always lose if you sue them because they are known to be crooks.”
Money laundering more prevalent in real estate than anywhere else
A story today released from the miami herald about how money laundering in real estate is now more common than anywhere else. These wannabes are playing catchup with Trump who has known about it for decades.
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