Discrepancies in a $48 Million Loan Involving Trump and His Chicago Tower Should be Criminally Investigated: Legal Experts

by TheMessengerNews

18 comments

  1. The mystery surrounding a purported eight-figure loan involving an entity tied to Donald Trump’s Chicago skyscraper merits criminal investigation, despite the explanation provided by the former president’s attorney, three legal experts tell The Messenger.

    For nearly a decade, financial journalists have puzzled over a loan between Trump and an entity Chicago Unit Acquisition LLC, linked to the former president’s 92-story Chicago tower. Trump disclosed the loan annually while president on sworn documents to the federal government’s Office of Government Ethics (OGE), indicating that he owed upwards of $50 million to his own limited liability company.

    In the latest development of the former president’s civil fraud case, everything about the Chicago loan remains in dispute — including its size, the parties to the agreement, or whether it even exists.

    On Friday, the court-appointed monitor overseeing Trump’s business empire contended the longstanding controversy may amount to little more than a mirage.

    In a footnote of a 12-page report summarizing years of oversight of The Trump Organization, former federal judge Barbara Jones said she was informed that the loan “never existed” and there are “no loan agreements that memorialize” it.

    After Jones’ report went public, The Daily Beast quoted legal experts arguing that the apparent discrepancy appears to show evidence that Trump was lying on sworn statements — and could support a previously reported theory of “tax evasion.” Fortress, one of the financial firms backing Trump’s Chicago Hotel and Tower, agreed to cancel roughly half of a $100 million loan to him in 2012, two sources previously told Mother Jones. If so, the canceled funds would have been reportable, taxable income.

    The Daily Beast suggested that Trump may have avoided having to pay by making it appear as if that loan had been purchased rather than canceled, citing Trump’s remarks to The New York Times that he bought the loan back from a group of banks.

  2. It would take more than one presidential term with Democrats holding supermajorities in both houses and the presidency to unravel barely 4 years of Trump’s crimes.

  4. Trump standard headline:

    Discrepancies in “X” involving Trump and “Y” might be illegal. Trump has avoided “X’ and it seems will not be prosecuted.

  5. It’ll go trial, he’ll stall, get someone else to pay the bills, claim a miss trail and walk free and clear. This is our country people.

  6. Trump: “Go ahead! Witch hunt me! I don’t care. I only do it for my followers. And you can be one of them, too. Just send $200 or whatever other small amount to Make Suckers Pay Again.com! God bless you all. Except the liberals. And the…”

  8. Republicans are against college loan forgiveness, but Trump just refusing to repay loans until the banks just cave and forgive most of it, well that’s just smart business!

  9. You know, if I tried to avoid making payment on my mortgage, filed papers saying I have a loan from a company I control to myself, and that, at the end of the day, wow it just disappeared, I would be in jail faster than you could say Jack Robinson.

  10. Interesting that Trump’s lawyer (Tacopina) left just before this story became public.

  11. Remember that Trump did this *after* there was a court monitor embedded in the Trump Organization, looking for signs of additional financial misconduct.

    Most people would take care to be squeaky clean in that situation, but Trump’s gotta Trump, I guess?

    What was he doing *before* his financial records were open to the courts and there was a watchdog in his company?

    And why on earth did he get away with this shit for so long? Is every real estate developer this corrupt and we only caught Trump because he became too (in)famous to ignore?

  13. Trump’s LLC (Chicago Unit Acquisition, LLC) had $96m loan owed to Fortress on his Chicago tower. It was during the financial crisis (~’08) and he was threatening bankruptcy, so Fortress agreed to accept half ($48m) and forgive the other half.

    The $48m forgiven is considered income and he’s required to pay taxes on it (~$18m tax owed).

    What he did *on paper*, which is likely fraud, is claim that he paid $48m and purchased the remaining $48m [Fortress↔️LLC] loan and now it was a loan between [Trump Personal↔️Trump LLC] for the remaining $48m and he did “debt parking”.

    This allows him to say his Chicago building is in the hole $48m AND not pay taxes on the $48m he got forgiven. Double cheat.

    Flat out fraud. He didn’t buy the loan it was forgiven.

  14. Well yeah… it’s pretty strong evidence of tax fraud.

  17. Weird timing and all with all these lawsuits and him coincidentally running for president. This definitely is not politically motivated though.

Leave a Reply