How the Boys Run Trump Inc.: With Other People's Money and Some Dubious Partners

[mahatmakanejeeves]

From August 2017.

Last year, @business also did some solid reporting on the revival of @erictrump et al's project in the D.R., with some photos of abandoned, unfinished buildings at the site.

Link to tweet

August 22, 2017, 4:00 AM EDT
How the Boys Run Trump Inc.: With Other People’s Money and Some Dubious Partners

Inside the empire, under new management.

By Peter Robison and Michael Smith

....
Donald Jr., 39, and Eric, 33, present themselves as hard-working, toned-down versions of their father. A partner who negotiated a Trump hotel deal in Rio de Janeiro and got to know Donald Jr. and his wife, Vanessa, was impressed that they took away doggy bags from meals at fine restaurants and that she shared tips on washing baby clothes. “These are people who do their kids’ laundry, so down-to-earth,” says the partner, Paulo Figueiredo Filho. Trump’s sons have each had more than a decade of experience working under their father, however. They’ve repeatedly pursued licensing arrangements in which they attach the family name to projects, generating cash without bearing much risk. They have a seemingly ad hoc, opportunistic style that’s sometimes led to partnerships with questionable characters, including people barred for securities violations or sued for fraud. And they’ve walked away, leaving employees, customers, or business partners with the fallout.

At the moment, they’re doing business with people they once said in court had blatantly ripped them off. Two weeks after his father was sworn in, Eric flew to the Dominican Republic to view a group of oceanside lots promoted 10 years ago on an Apprentice episode. The Trumps had licensed use of their name to a pair of developers, Ricardo and Fernando Hazoury, for a project called Trump Farallon Estates at Cap Cana. The Hazourys’ late father was an endocrinologist who became well-known for his telethons to raise money for diabetes treatments and for opening a teaching hospital in Santo Domingo. In the early 2000s his sons bought a swath of undeveloped land, twice the size of Manhattan, along the eastern Caribbean coast and named it Cap Cana. The Trump estates were to be part of a vast resort. Much of it—golf courses, hotels, condominiums, and a big marina—was built, but where the Trumps promised an exclusive community, little has happened, despite $350 million in sales of lots to people from around the world.

None of that seemed to matter in February, when Eric sat over plates of grouper and beef tenderloin with the people he once called frauds in court and discussed a new plan, according to a person the Hazourys briefed on the visit. It’s likely to involve at least three more projects at Cap Cana, says the person, who didn’t want to be identified discussing confidential information. “This relationship remains incredibly strong, especially with Eric,” the Hazourys said in a blog post that included a photo of Eric smiling with them.

In the U.S., Donald Jr. and Eric are courting their father’s staunchest political supporters, taking their luxury brand downmarket with a plan to establish a chain of three-star hotels called American Idea, stocked with American flags, Coca-Cola machines, and other signifiers. They’ve also introduced a four-star chain, Scion. So far the only announced partner for either brand is the Chawla brothers in Mississippi.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. If we ever any doubt the Trumps are a crime syndicate family

They are doing exactly what their dad did.
and that behavior involved money laundering via various shady partners.

looks like more fun for AG Eric Schneiderman.