The Trump Organization on Wednesday announced that it has reached a buyout deal to end its management and license agreement regarding its Trump SoHo hotel and apartment building.
The New York Times first reported that the Trump Organization, the President’s former business handed over to his sons to manage while he’s in office, has reached a deal to walk away from the Manhattan property by the end of the year, a little more than a month away.
The Trump Organization said in a release that it has reached an agreement for “the buyout of the remaining term of the management and license agreement of the Trump SoHo Hotel,” which is “anticipated to take place by year-end.”
The project was troubled from the beginning. The SoHo development was also the subject of complaints from private investors who accused the Bayrock Group, a frequent Trump partner, of failing to disclose fraud convictions of two Bayrock partners. The New York Times reported that the development also took “financing from questionable sources in Russia and Kazakhstan.”
Buyers in the development were angry that the Trumps allegedly inflated claims of the project’s success, and the Trump Organization ultimately settled a civil suit in 2011, admitting no wrongdoing and agreeing to refund much of buyers’ deposits.
ProPublica, WNYC and The New Yorker reported in October that the Manhattan district attorney’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau had opened an investigation into Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., the President’s eldest children, in 2010.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr’s team reportedly acquired emails in which the Trump siblings discussed how to coordinate misleading information to give to people interested in condo units.
Marc Kasowitz, one of Trump’s longtime personal attorneys, donated $25,000 to Vance Jr.’s reelection campaign in 2012. According to the report, Vance Jr. returned the donation. He dropped the case against the elder Trump children several months later, and Kasowitz reportedly helped raise an additional $50,000 for his campaign.
So, since Bayrock and other investors are Russian or tied to the Russians… Trump is getting more money from the Russians for the buy-out?
Sure. No problem there. Nothing to see here Move along.
Flat out bribery or a (cough) simple property deal.
Place your bets!
I think this is a “please let us take your name off the building and show your people to the door.” Does it affect the lawsuits?
Too. Much. Winning.
So transparent.
BUT, I would rather he just walk away from our country and live in that cozy place in Moscow.