Trump’s 10 Troubling Deals with Foreign Power-Players

By Derek Kravitz and Al Shaw, ProPublica, and John Kelly, USA Today, January 19, 2017
From ProPublica

President Donald Trump’s business deals span the globe. Trump-branded skyscrapers, golf courses and hotels stretch from Dubai to Azerbaijan to the Philippines.

Government ethics experts have strongly criticized Trump’s refusal to divest ownership of any of his businesses. But they point to his ongoing foreign deals with those connected to power as the most troubling.

“These foreign deals are fertile ground for corruption,” Norman Eisen, the White House chief ethics lawyer under President Obama, told ProPublica. “When there’s a pre-existing relationship, there can be wink, wink, nod, nod, or even a private whisper that turns into a quid pro quo.”

“He has to get rid of his foreign deals,” said Matthew T. Sanderson, an attorney at Caplin & Drysdale who has served as legal counsel on three Republican presidential campaigns.

Trump’s Byzantine business structures and his lack of disclosures — he has released neither his tax returns nor details of his foreign deals — make it difficult to get a full picture of the incoming president’s business relationships. But using government records, Trump’s own local disclosures and press reports, we’ve identified 10 Trump deals in which he has partnered with power players abroad. Click on image to enlarge

We asked the Trump Organization about each of these deals. We’ve included the responses they gave.

If you have information or tips to share on Trump’s businesses, email [email protected] or visit our “Leak to us” page.

One of Trump’s partners for his Mumbai tower is a top official with India’s ruling political party

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called DT Marks Worli LLC, which was incorporated on May, 21, 2013 in Delaware.

That company has ownership in a holding company called DT Marks Worli Member Corp. Tap icon which has a licensing deal with a company in India called Lodha Developers Private Ltd. Lodha That company is run by Mangal Prabhat Lodha Bjp whose chairman and founder is a vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party in India’s national parliament.
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Lodha Group, India’s largest real-estate developer, licensed the new president’s name in 2011 for the Trump Tower Mumbai, a 75-story luxury apartment complex in the southern part of Mumbai. Lodha Group’s chairman and founder, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, is a vice president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a member of the legislative assembly representing southern Mumbai.

(Continued dealings with state-owned enterprises or foreign leaders may violate the U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments Clause.)

In a statement to ProPublica, the Trump Organization said its partnership with the Lodha Group would continue: The “developments will proceed as planned. They will remain under the Trump brand.”

(Photo: Hindustan Times/Getty Images)
Among Trump’s other partners in India are two brothers who are big players in the country’s progressive political party

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called DT Marks Pune LLC, which was incorporated on January, 9, 2012 in Delaware.

That company has ownership in a holding company called DT Marks Pune Managing Member Corp. Tap icon which has a licensing deal with a company in India called Premsagar Hotels Private Limited. Chordia That company is run by Atul Chordia (pictured) and Sagar Chordia Ncp who are active members in the Nationalist Congress Party, a centrist political party in India.
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The Trump Towers Pune is a branding partnership started in 2012 with Panchshil Realty and its co-founders, brothers Atul and Sagar Chordia (left and right, respectively, of Trump in the accompanying photo). The two 23-story towers in Pune, an industrial city in western India, were completed in 2015.

The brothers are active in the Nationalist Congress Party and their family business has partnered with prominent members of the party.

Trump received between $100,000 and $1 million in royalties in 2015 from the project, according to his federal financial disclosures. He received no royalties from the project in 2016.

The Trump Organization was “involved quite keenly” in the project and given monthly progress reports during construction, according to the Times of India.The project was being investigated by police and the state government last fall for building permit issues. The status of that investigation isn’t clear. Referring to its work in India generally, the Trump Organization told ProPublica, “We are incredibly proud of the projects in Pune and Mumbai.”

(Photo: Douglas Gorenstein)
Another one of Trump’s India partners is the brother-in-law of a leader of India’s ruling political party

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called DT Tower Gurgaon LLC, which was incorporated on March, 9, 2015 in Delaware.

Tap icon That company has ownership in a holding company called TTTT Venture LLC. Tap icon which has a licensing deal with a company in India called IREO Private Ltd. Goyal That company is run by Lalit Goyal Bjp who is related by marriage to a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party in India’s national parliament.
India’s largest private-equity firm, IREO, licensed Trump’s name in April 2016 for an office tower in the city of Gurgaon. IREO’s vice chairman and managing director, Lalit Goyal, is the brother-in-law of Sudhanshu Mittal, one of the leaders of India’s ruling BJP.

In 2010, the offices of IREO and Mittal were raided as part of a government probe into offshore tax havens; Mittal said the inquiry was politically motivated.

Trump’s Indonesian partner started his own political party and plans to run for president

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Tap icon Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called DT Bali Technical Services Manager LLC, which was incorporated on June, 23, 2015 in Delaware.

That company has ownership in a holding company called DT Bali Technical Services Manager Member Corp. Tap icon which has a management deal with a company in Indonesia called PT Bali Nirwana Resort. Tanoesoedibjo That company is run by Hary Tanoe­soedibjo Partai perindo who ran for vice president in 2014 and started Partai Perindo, a new political party in Indonesia, for a possible future presidential run.
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Trump partnered with Indonesian billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibjo on management and branding deals for a resort and residential complex in Bali and a 1,700-acre resort in West Java.

Hary Tanoe, as he’s known locally, has his sights set on becoming Indonesia’s president. He launched his own political party in 2015, proclaiming he was “ready to fix Indonesia so that it can be better.” Hary (right of Trump in the accompanying photo) has been active in opposition parties against President Joko Widodo. He lost a vice presidential bid in 2014.

As the New York Times has detailed, Hary has introduced Trump to several prominent Indonesian politicians, including the deputy speaker of the country’s parliament and another who is at the center of a corruption scandal.

Trump’s deals with Hary also involve Chinese and South Korean state-controlled companies.

Sinosure, a Chinese state company, is putting $425 million into the West Java project. The funding is for a theme park, which will be built by a Chinese state-owned company. Part of the development will also be a “smart city,” which will be funded in part by a South Korean state-owned firm.

(Photo: Trump Hotel Collection)
Trump’s deal in the Philippines is with President Duterte’s new U.S. trade envoy

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called Trump Marks Philippines LLC, which was incorporated on February, 29, 2008 in Delaware.

That company has ownership in a holding company called Trump Marks Philippines Corp. Tap icon which has a licensing deal with a company in the Philippines called Century City Development Corp. Antonio That company is run by Jose E.B. Antonio Duterte who was appointed as U.S. trade envoy by Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines.

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The Trump Tower at Century City in Manila is a $150 million, 57-story apartment building, which opened in November after years of delays. The developer of the Manila tower is Century City Properties Group, whose chairman, Jose E.B. Antonio, was named as an informal, unpaid economic envoy to the U.S. by President Rodrigo Duterte shortly before Election Day.

Antonio (left of Trump in the accompanying photo) visited New York City’s Trump Tower after the election, but he didn’t meet with the president-elect. Antonio told Bloomberg that he viewed his role as helping “enlarge the relationship between the two countries.” He said his business ties to Trump would be an “asset.”

Century City officials told ProPublica in a statement that Antonio will serve as a liaison between U.S.and Philippine companies, and not on behalf of the respective countries’ governments. They also said no new deals are being brokered.

(Photo: Lifestyleasia)
Trump’s Dubai partner works closely with the Emirati government

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called DT Dubai Golf Manager LLC, which was incorporated on March, 20, 2013 in Delaware.

That company has ownership in a holding company called DT Dubai Golf Manager Member Corp. Tap icon which has a management deal with a company in the United Arab Emirates called DAMAC Crescent Properties LLC. Sajwani That company is run by Hussain Ali Sajwani Uae who regularly works on land deals with the government of the United Arab Emirates.
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In 2013, Trump began working with billionaire developer Hussain Ali Sajwani. Among their projects: the 18-hole Trump International Golf Club billed in promotional materials as the “Beverly Hills of Dubai” and branding for a $6 billion development in Dubai, with villas selling for as much as $9.5 million each.

A second golf course, designed by Tiger Woods and named the Trump World Golf Club Dubai, is set for completion in 2018. Sajwani has engaged in several controversial land deals with senior government officials in the United Arab Emirates. The Emirati government owns most of the land in Dubai and land sales are a key source of revenue.

During Trump’s recent press conference, he said Sajwani (left of Trump in the accompanying photo) had offered him $2 billion worth of development deals in Dubai, which the President-elect turned down. Officials at Sajwani’s firm, DAMAC Properties, confirmed such an offer had been made.

(Photo: trumpgolfdubai.com)
A partner of Trump’s in Istanbul is an (uneasy) ally of Turkish President Erdoğan

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called Trump Marks Istanbul II LLC, which was incorporated on March, 19, 2008 in Delaware.

That company has ownership in a holding company called Trump Marks Istanbul II Corp. which has a licensing deal with a company in Turkey called Ortadogu Otomotiv Ticaret AS. Dogan That company is run by Aydın Doğan Ak parti who is an uneasy ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Yalcindag 420
Trump Towers Istanbul opened in 2012 after a branding deal between Trump and Turkey’s largest media magnate, Aydın Doğan.

Dogan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have clashed at times. In 2009, Doğan’s company was fined $2.5 billion in a tax case, and Erdoğan called for his supporters to boycott the company’s television stations and newspapers. But they’ve recently enjoyed a detente. The Turkish government praised Doğan’s media group for helping Erdoğan broadcast a message to the Turkish people during last year’s failed military coup.

Trump worked on the tower deal with Doğan’s son-in-law Mehmet Ali Yalçındağ. In a post-Election Day phone call with Erdoğan, Trump reportedly referred to Yalçındağ (left of Trump in the accompanying photo) as a “close friend” and told Erdoğan that Yalcindag is “your great admirer.”

(Photo: PRNewsFoto/The Trump Organization)
Trump’s Argentina partner is the brother-in-law of the country’s finance minister

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called Trump Marks Punta del Este LLC, which was incorporated on January, 5, 2012 in Delaware.

That company has ownership in a holding company called Trump Marks Punta del Este Manager Corp. Tap icon which has a licensing deal with a company in Argentina called YY Development Group. Cugliandolo That company is run by Juan José Cugliandolo and Felipe Yaryura Tobias Dujovne whose partner and architect is the brother-in-law of Argentina’s incoming finance minister to President

Mauricio Macri.
Yy trump yelanti 420
Uruguay’s Trump Tower Punta del Este, the only property in South America to bear Trump’s name, is part of a licensing deal between Trump and Argentina-based YY Development.

Trump earned between $100,000 and $1 million in royalties from the deal in 2015 and 2016, according to his financial disclosures. One of the heads of YY Development acted as a “go-between” between the government of Argentine President Mauricio Macri and Trump after his Election Day win, according to Argentine press accounts.

Another partner on the deal is the brother-in-law of Argentina’s newly-appointed minister of finance.

A proposed deal between YY Development and Trump for a new Trump-branded tower in Buenos Aires has been cancelled, Trump officials say, despite the Argentine developers’ public pronouncements following the election that a deal was imminent.

(Photo: YY Development Group)
Trump has profited from a century-long land lease with the government of St. Vincent

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called Trump Marks Canouan LLC, which was incorporated on May, 17, 2007 in Delaware.

That company has ownership in a holding company called Trump Marks Canouan Corp. which has a licensing deal with a company in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines called Canouan Resorts Development Ltd. That company is run by Antonio Saladino Gonsalves who worked closely with Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, to develop the project through a government lease.
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Canouan, a small island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has been described by Businessweek as the place “where the billionaires go to get away from the millionaires.” Luxury development began in 1994, when a company called Canouan Resorts Development signed a 99-year lease with the country’s government to develop 1,200 acres on the island.

In 2003, Trump partnered with the company to operate a resort casino, called Trump Club Privee, and to develop 25 villas and a championship golf course designed by professional golfer Jim Fazio.

Trump earned $3 million from Canouan in 2016, from land sales, according to his federal financial disclosure. But the affiliated casino and resort faltered, and the golf course is no longer branded with Trump’s name. Canouan Resorts Development did not respond to requests for comment. Fazio told ProPublica he has “no idea” when and why the deal ended.

Other deals Trump has said he has ended, but are still noteworthy
Until recently, Trump had a deal with the son of Azerbaijan’s transportation minister

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called THC Baku Services LLC, which was incorporated on December, 10, 2014 in Delaware.

That company has ownership in a holding company called THC Baku Services Member Corp. Tap icon which has a management deal with a company in Azerbaijan called Baku-XXI Century LLC. Mammadov That company is run by Anar Mammadov Z mammadov who is the son of Ziya Mammadov, the transportation minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Ivanka azerbaijan 420

In 2015, Trump brokered a licensing deal for a luxury hotel tower in Baku with the son of the Azerbaijan’s transportation minister, Ziya Mammadov. The younger Mammadov, Anar, is viewed by Western intelligence services and analysts as a proxy for his father and the Azerbaijani ruling elite.

Leaked State Department cables described the elder Mammadov as “notoriously corrupt, even for Azerbaijan” and accused him of involvement in highway contracts awarded to a former senior Iranian military official in the Republican Guard. “We assume Mammadov is a silent partner in these contracts,” a cable said.

“If you did your due diligence, you’d learn that the minister of transport was one of the more corrupt public officials in Azerbaijan and his son was only in business because of his father,” Richard Kauzlarich, a former ambassador to Azerbaijan, told ProPublica.

The Baku-Trump hotel was not completed, but Trump earned more than $2.8 million in hotel management fees between 2015 and 2016, according to federal financial disclosures.

Trump Organization officials told ProPublica in a statement that the project was plagued with delays for more than a year, prompting Trump to end his “association with this project and reallocate our resources.” (Full statement here.) The Mammadovs did not respond to requests for comment.

(Photo: Trump Hotel Collection)
Trump said he’s ending a deal that had been brokered by Georgia’s ousted former president

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called Trump Marks Batumi LLC, which was incorporated on March, 2, 2011 in Delaware.

That company has ownership in a holding company called Trump Marks Batumi Managing Member Corp. which has a licensing deal with a company in Georgia called Silk Road Group. That company is run by Giorgi Ramishvili Saakashvili who counted Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s former president, as a partner in the deal.
Ramishvili 420
A planned condominium tower in the Georgian Black Sea resort town of Batumi was announced in 2012 with then-President Mikheil Saakashvili. Trump had agreed to license his name on the 47-story tower, which he dubbed the “Monte Carlo of the Caucasus.”

A year later, work was stopped after Saakashvili (left of Trump in the accompanying photo) was ousted and fled in exile. His successor, Bidzina Ivanishvili, told reporters that Trump “did not invest in Georgia” and likened the deal to a trick. “They gave him money and they both played along,” she said.

In December 2016, Trump’s partner on the deal, Silk Road Group, said the long-delayed $250 million project would continue. But on Jan. 4th, the Trump Organization and the Silk Road Group issued a joint statement saying they had decided to “formally end the development of Trump Tower, Batumi.” (Full statement here.)

(Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
A frequent Putin envoy paid Trump to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow

Trump Entities Foreign Entities Foreign Power
Trump Tap icon Donald J. Trump has ownership in a holding company called Miss Universe L.P., LLLP, which was incorporated on October, 16, 1996 in Delaware.

Tap icon That company has ownership in a holding company called Trump Pageants, Inc. Tap icon which had a licensing deal with a company in Russia called Crocus Group. Agalarov That company is run by Aras Agalarov Putin who is a trusted associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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In 2013, Trump’s Miss Universe pageant was brought to Moscow through a partnership with father-son developers Aras and Emin Agalarov (right and left, respectively, of Trump in the accompanying photo) and their 7,500-seat Crocus City Hall. The Agalarovs paid Trump somewhere $14 million and $20 million, according to various estimates. The elder Aras Agalarov is a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He built a state-run university and, in 2013, was given the Kremlin’s Order of Honor, one of Russia’s highest civilian awards.

Trump’s Moscow meetings during the Miss Universe pageant included some of the country’s wealthiest and politically-connected officials. Trump sold Miss Universe in 2015.

(Photo: Victor Boyko/Getty Images)
Methodology

This project only looked at deals with documentable connections with foreign political parties, government officials and their relatives or state-owned or operated enterprises. Discussed but yet-to-be-consummated deals in Argentina and India, which Trump Organization officials say are being cancelled, did not make the list. Other deals with business partners who have no clear political connections also didn’t make the cut.

For example, a failed Trump-branded tower in Toronto is up for sale and embroiled in litigation by condo investors. The buyers say they were scammed by Trump’s Russian-born partner into investing in condos that bear Trump’s name. It’s unclear how much political sway his partner, Alex Shnaider, has in his home country of Azerbaijan or with the Kremlin.

We also didn’t include Trump’s partnership with Daewoo for financing the Trump World Tower in the late 1990s and a separate licensing deal with Daewoo for seven residential towers in South Korea. Daewoo was acquired by the state-owned Korea Development Bank in 2010 amid mounting debt and is currently on the sales block. But it’s unclear if Daewoo is still involved in the towers. Business records for U.S.-based Daewoo subsidiaries show that the South Korean affiliates have been dissolved. The Trump Organization reported at least $2 million in rent from Trump World Tower for 2015 and 2016, according to Trump’s federal financial disclosures.

When the Trump Organization has shuttered or dissolved a deal with a foreign partner, we’ve included details about it, along with the corresponding business documents on file with secretaries of state in Delaware, Florida and New York. We have also compiled business incorporation records for specific Trump entities, relevant press releases and promotional materials for each deal, and foreign business and trademark records that were crucial to the underlying agreement.

The Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, including reporters Grace Ashford, Elisabeth Gawthrop, Micah Hauser and Jose Manuel Villa Rodriguez, worked on this report and assisted in compiling data, documents and interviews on foreign deals. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project assisted with research.

Donald Trump silhouette by Lorie Shaull from the Noun Project, finger tap by Symbolon from the Noun Project, Mangal Prabhat Lodha image: Facebook, Atul Chordia image: Panchshil Realty, Hussain Ali Sajwani image: DAMAC Properties, Anar Mammadov image: anarmammadov.com, Ziya Mammadov image: OCCRP, Kalpesh Mehta image: Tribeca Developers, Lalit Goyal image: IREO, Jose E.B. Antonio image: Presley Ann/Getty Images, Aras Agalarov: Wikipedia, Aydın Doğan image: Dogan Group, Vladimir Putin image: Wikipedia, Ralph Gonsalves image: Wikipedia, Nicolás Dujovne image: Wikipedia, Mikheil Saakashvili image: Wikipedia

For more on this story go to: https://projects.propublica.org/trump-conflicts/