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Trump Threatens to Retake the Panama Canal
Looks like Trump possibly wants to apply pressure and make a "deal" to escape another one of his fraudulent / Russian money laundering "business" entanglements in his "licensed name" hotels - tax evasion and outright business fraud case re Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama, which has been sitting in NY Court for Southern District:
www.newsweek.com - Trump Organization Accused of Tax Evasion in Panama - Dec. 23, 2024
www.reuters.com - Ivanka and the fugitive from Panama | USA-TRUMP/PANAMA - Reuters, Nov 17, 2017
www.nbcnews.com - A Panama tower carries Trump's name and ties to organized crime - NBC, Nov 17, 2017
|------- ... No one asked about the money
In the interview, Ventura admitted that some of his brokers and clients who bought and sold units in the Trump Ocean Club were connected to the Russian mafia and other organized-crime groups, including a convicted money launderer who moved cash for drug cartels.
"I had some customers with questionable backgrounds," he said. "Nobody ever asked me. Banks never asked. Developer didn't ask and (the) Trump Organization didn't ask. Nobody ask, 'Who are the customers, where did the money come from?' No, nobody ask."
The Trump Organization was not the actual developer of the Panama tower. Thanks in large part to the hit NBC television show "The Apprentice," the Trump name was recognized all over the world and the Panama deal was structured to capitalize on that brand. For this deal, the Trump Organization would license its brand, operate the hotel and sell its expertise in managing the building, receiving a cut of every condo sale.
... Panama offered Donald Trump a new way to make money at a time when his businesses were struggling. (The Trump casino empire filed for bankruptcy in 2004.)
... In the mid-2000s Panama was known as a money laundering hotspot. At that time the Trump companies were in dire trouble. He changed his business model to license his name and his brand to other people's developments, and very often they would be inexperienced developers, low-profile people who needed a name to sell their developments. So Trump would go into a licensing deal, which meant he invested nothing, but could make a profit from it."
Ventura says about half of the units he sold at the Trump Ocean Club were to Russians. ...
Ceballos, who says he investigated transactions related to the Trump Ocean Club during his stint as an anti-corruption prosecutor in Panama, describes the building as a magnet for international organized crime, particularly from Russia. ...
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Art of the deal, baby! Art of the Trump deal! "Because when you are a star, they let you do it!"
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