Trying to make something out of this is beyond idiotic and we have here no more than blanket confirmation of the shape of the Trump business system. He is and has been for a long time the premier purveyor of luxury condominiums to the wealthy wherever their money comes from. This allows him the privilege of extracting a wonderful profit many times larger than possible from you and I.
Nice work if you can swing it and that is exactly what he did. Notice here he insists on quality control. He lets everyone else cut corners which lowers their standing in the market.
The press is out of their minds trying to find something truly out of sorts and they will never find it here let alone a Russian connection. Yes he took their money for the most expensive property money could buy.
In fact looking at the massive scope of his partnerships and just that this one blossomed into several buildings tells me that the real scale of his operations is beyond Yuge. Better yet it is comfortably run by proven trusted managers and needs zero attention from the Donald unless a large risky turn around is contemplated. That sounds a lot like his current job.
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Moscow on the Beach
Russian elite invested nearly $100 million in Trump buildings
A
Reuters review found that at least 63 individuals with Russian
passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of
property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida.
MIAMI/MOSCOW – During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump
downplayed his business ties with Russia. And since taking office as
president, he has been even more emphatic.
“I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia,”
President Trump said at a news conference last month. “I have no loans
in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia.”
But in the United
States, members of the Russian elite have invested in Trump buildings. A
Reuters review has found that at least 63 individuals with Russian
passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of
property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida,
according to public documents, interviews and corporate records.
The
buyers include politically connected businessmen, such as a former
executive in a Moscow-based state-run construction firm that works on
military and intelligence facilities, the founder of a St. Petersburg
investment bank and the co-founder of a conglomerate with interests in
banking, property and electronics.
People from the second and
third tiers of Russian power have invested in the Trump buildings as
well. One recently posted a photo of himself with the leader of a
Russian motorcycle gang that was sanctioned by the United States for its
alleged role in Moscow’s seizure of Crimea.
The Reuters review of investors from Russia in Trump’s Florida
condominium buildings found no suggestion of wrongdoing by President
Trump or his real estate organization. And none of the buyers appear to
be from Putin’s inner circle.
The White House referred questions
from Reuters to the Trump Organization, whose chief legal officer said
the scrutiny of President Trump’s business ties with Russia was
misplaced.
“I can say definitively that this is an overblown story
that is media-created,” Alan Garten said in an interview. “I’ve been
around this company and know the company’s dealings.”
The tally of
investors from Russia may be conservative. The analysis found that at
least 703 – or about one-third – of the owners of the 2044 units in the
seven Trump buildings are limited liability companies, or LLCs, which
have the ability to hide the identity of a property’s true owner. And
the nationality of many buyers could not be determined.
Russian-Americans who did not use a Russian address or passport in their
purchases were not included in the tally.
The review focused on
Florida because the state has a large concentration of Trump-branded
buildings, and determining the ownership of properties is easier there
than in some other states. The resort town of Sunny Isles Beach, site of
six of the seven Trump-branded Florida residential towers, stands out
in another way: The zip code that includes the Sunny Isles buildings has
an estimated 1,200 Russian-born residents, among the most in the
country, U.S. Census data show.
The Trump organization advertises
all seven Florida buildings on its website as it pursues similar
branding deals around the world. Exactly how much income Trump has
earned from the buildings is unclear.
Six of the seven properties
were the product of an agreement the New York property magnate struck in
2001 with father-and-son American developers Michael and Gil Dezer. The
six buildings operated by the Dezers in Sunny Isles would bear Trump’s
name under a licensing agreement.
“I can say definitively that this is an overblown story that is media-created.”
In an interview, Gil Dezer said the project generated $2 billion in
initial sales, from which Trump took a commission. Dezer declined to say
how large a commission, citing confidentiality agreements. Garten, the
Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, said Trump’s income was a mix
of flat fees and percentages but declined to disclose them.
Edgardo
Defortuna, a leading Miami developer, estimated that Trump likely made
between one percent and four percent in initial sale commissions, based
on the standard fees paid on similarly branded projects. If so, Trump
stood to reap a total of $20 million to $80 million in Sunny Isles.
Trump receives no commission on subsequent sales in all seven of the Florida residential towers.
He
continues to make money from one of the six Sunny Isles buildings,
however, according to disclosure forms Trump filed in the 2016 U.S.
presidential race. The disclosure form states that Trump received
between $100,000 and $1 million from a business called Trump Marks Sunny
Isles I LLC. Dezer said these funds came from the Trump International
Beach Resort, a hotel and condominium complex.
Trump reported no
income on his disclosure form from his seventh Florida property, the
Trump Hollywood in the city of Hollywood. How much he has made over the
years from that property’s 200 units is unclear. BH3, an investment fund
which took over 180 units in a foreclosure sale, paid Trump a licensing
fee of $25,000 for each unit, according to Daniel Lebensohn, a
principal at the fund. If the remaining 20 units generated the same fee,
Trump’s take would have been $5 million. Garten declined to confirm
Trump’s commission.
Informed of the Reuters analysis of Trump’s
Russian condo investors, two Democratic opponents of the president, Sen.
Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), renewed their calls for
greater disclosure of his finances.
“While the president has
denied having invested in Russia, he has said little or nothing about
Russian investment in his businesses and properties in the United States
or elsewhere,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House
Intelligence Committee. “This should concern all Americans and is yet
another reason why his refusal to release his tax returns should be met
with considerable skepticism and concern.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the Republican
chairs of the Senate and House intelligence committees, declined to
comment.
Schiff, as well as two U.S. intelligence officials and
one former senior law enforcement official who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said the Russian government sometimes directs funding at
prominent individuals in the United States and Europe in hopes of
improving their perception of Russia. Reuters found no evidence of such
an effort with Trump. Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal
officer, scoffed at the idea.
“This is politics at its worst,” he said.
RUSSIAN ELITE
The
glimpse inside the condominium dealings offers a look at how the
wealthy in Putin’s Russia use foreign property to stow cash.
One
wealthy Russian buyer was Alexander Yuzvik. In 2010, he and his wife
bought unit 3901 of Trump Palace in Sunny Isles for $1.3 million,
according to Florida property records. The three-bedroom apartment has
2,100 square feet and panoramic views, according to an online real
estate listing.
From 2013 to 2016, Yuzvik was a senior executive
at Spetstroi, a state-owned company that has carried out construction
projects at military facilities.
The Spetstroi website says the
firm was involved in construction projects at the Moscow training
academy of the FSB, Russia’s primary civilian intelligence service and
successor of the KGB. Spetstroi also did construction work in the
administrative building of the general staff of the GRU, Russia’s
military intelligence service.
In a statement sent to Reuters, Spetstroi said Yuzvik worked there until he stepped down in March 2016.
Employees
of some state-owned Russian companies are typically required to
disclose their assets and income. Yuzvik and his wife filed a
declaration for 2013. In that declaration, which is publicly available,
they list only assets inside Russia. The Florida condo isn’t included.
Yuzvik could not be reached for comment.
Andrey
Truskov, another Trump condo owner, is a founder and co-owner of
Absolute Group LLC, a holding company involved in wholesale electronics,
banking and property development, with projects in Moscow, London and
New York. The wholesale electronic business is the biggest in Russia, an
Absolute representative told Reuters. The company does not disclose its
financial results.
Truskov bought apartment 1102 in the Trump
Hollywood building for $1.4 million in 2011. The three-bedroom, 3.5-bath
unit is 3,100 square feet, according to online real estate listings.
In
a telephone interview, Truskov confirmed that he purchased the Trump
Hollywood unit. He said the Florida apartment was the same price as a
three-room apartment outside Moscow at the time, and Florida was a nice
place to have a property. He said the purchase was a personal decision
that had no connection with his business.
Several wealthy buyers
were from Moscow and St. Petersburg, the country’s two largest cities,
according to interviews in Russia, Florida public records and the Bureau
Van Dijk company database Orbis. Among them: Alexey Ustaev, the founder
and president of St. Petersburg-based Viking Bank, one of the first
private investment banks established in Russia after the fall of
Communism.
A donor to orphanages and chess clubs in St.
Petersburg, Ustaev has received awards from the Russian Sports Ministry
and the St. Petersburg chamber of commerce for his banking and
charitable work, according to his biography on the bank’s website.
In
2009, Ustaev bought unit 5006, a 3-bed, 3.5-bath apartment in the Trump
Palace complex in Sunny Isles, for $1.2 million in cash, according to
Florida public records. Two years later, Ustaev bought another
apartment, a penthouse unit, this time in the nearby Trump Royale
condominium development, for $5.2 million.
In an email reply to questions, Ustaev said he purchased the
properties in the Trump buildings for private use, but declined to
comment on his family’s U.S. business. “I am living in Russia, I am
working in Russia, and going abroad only for business purposes or
vacations,” he said.
\
Many of the Russian buyers were from the
country’s provinces. One is Oleg Misevra, a wealthy coal magnate and
former traffic police commander whose company’s main assets are in the
Pacific island of Sakhalin in Russia’s Far East. He has caught Putin’s
eye: At a 2010 regional meeting of Putin’s United Russia party, Putin
praised Misevra’s work and held a lengthy question and answer session
with him.
A corporation Misevra controls, Swiss Residence Aliance Inc,
purchased Penthouse #1 in Trump Hollywood for $6.8 million in 2010. The
six-bedroom duplex is 8,200 square feet and boasts 12-foot ceilings,
according to real estate listings. Misevra did not respond to requests
for comment.
Some of these Russian buyers appear to have done well
in America. Another local politician, Vadim Valeryevich Gataullin,
bought an apartment for $3.5 million in the Trump Hollywood. He did the
deal through a company registered in Florida called VVG Real Estate
Investments LLC. Five years later, Gataullin sold the apartment for $4.1
million to a Delaware-based limited liability company whose owner is
not identified in state records.
In early 2012, Gataullin bought a
second apartment in the same building, unit 2701, for $920,000,
according to Florida records. Several months later, Gataullin sold the
apartment for $1.1 million to a couple from Venezuela, property records
show.
Gataullin is from the semi-autonomous Russian Republic of
Bashkortostan, an oil-producing region in the foothills of the Ural
Mountains. The son of a deputy regional prosecutor, he was a deputy in
the regional parliament from 2013 until 2015.
As a member of the
regional parliament, he was required to declare his income and assets
under Russian federal law, according to a representative of the
Bashkortostan regional parliament. A copy of the income declaration
Gataullin filed for in 2013, when he was still owner of the second Trump
unit, contains no mention of the apartment.
Gataullin did not respond to messages sent to his company in Bashkortostan.
More
recently, Gataullin has been actively investing in the Miami area. His
VVG Real Estate has spent at least $28 million on property in Broward
County between 2012 and 2016. It also bought and sold six properties in
Miami Dade County between 2015 and 2016 for a total profit of $238,400,
property records show.
VVG is also the registered licensee on a
small motel close to the beach in Hollywood. An employee there told
Reuters that Gataullin “appears and disappears like a ghost” and was
currently in Russia. A secretary at Gataullin’s holding company in
Russia told Reuters on March 17 that he is not in Russia.
The
American experience has been a mixed one for some of the Trump buyers.
Among them is Pavel Uglanov, a businessman who served as a deputy
minister for industry and energy in the regional government of Saratov,
in central Russia, from 2010 to 2011.
Uglanov bought unit 3704 of
Trump Hollywood in Hollywood, Florida, for $1.8 million in 2012. He sold
the 3-bed, 3,395 square foot apartment for $2.9 million two years
later.
Back in Russia, Uglanov made unsuccessful runs for the
Saratov city assembly in 2006 and 2011, the second time as a member of
Putin’s United Russia party. After leaving his deputy ministership in
2011, Uglanov told his then-wife, Anastasia, they were moving to
Florida.
Anastasia said in an interview in her Miami apartment that her
ex-husband never told her why. “I don’t know what goes on in a man’s
head,” she said.
In Miami, Uglanov opened a gas station, called
Niko Petroleum. When that business struggled, he sold it. He then
started a charter boat business and a trucking firm. They struggled,
too.
Uglanov did not have connections in the United States like he
did in Russia and he didn’t understand how Americans do business, his
ex-wife said.
Last August, Uglanov posted a photograph of himself
on his Facebook page posing alongside Alexander Zaldostanov, leader of
the “Night Wolves” biker gang. The Wolves, and Zaldostanov personally,
were made subject to U.S. financial and travel restrictions. The U.S.
government said gang members stormed a Ukrainian government naval base
and a gas facility during Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
An aide
to Zaldostanov did not respond to questions from Reuters. The group, in
interviews in Russian media, has denied storming the base and the gas
facility.
Zaldostanov has had multiple meetings with Putin,
according to the Kremlin’s website. The Russian president awarded
Zaldostanov the country’s “medal of honor” in 2013.
In a phone
interview late last month, Uglanov confirmed the Trump apartment
purchase. He said it was a personal matter and declined to answer
questions. “Basically, my private life is not your business,” he said.
THE RAINMAKER
For
Dezer, Trump’s American partner in Sunny Isles, the six buildings have
been a win for his family, the Trumps and Sunny Isles.
Trump
visited the sites at least four times as the buildings – including a
hotel – were constructed and promoted between 2001 and 2011, according
to Dezer and former employees of Dezer’s company. Trump had approval
over the look of the buildings and apartments, Dezer said.
“His people were very much involved in quality control and
construction,” Dezer said. “They were down here once every quarter
checking on us, the progress. They wanted to see we were making money.”
In
2008, when the housing market crashed, buyers defaulted on 900 Trump
apartments, according to Dezer. Dezer said he worked hard over the
coming years to pay back creditors. Until those 900 apartments were sold
off, Trump did not earn any money for them, he added.
Foreign
buyers bought into the Trump buildings as the developers dropped their
prices after the crash, according to Dezer and local realtors. The
majority of these buyers were from South America, with a smaller
percentage of Russians and other former Soviet nationals.
Tanya
Tsveyer, a realtor whose Russian clients have bought in the Trump
buildings, described her customers as primarily business people,
including several with investments across the United States and Russia.
“They bought in the Trump because they liked how the buildings fit their lifestyle,” she said, referring to the Russians.
By early 2011, the Trump buildings had started to turn a profit,
according to Dezer. He invited Trump to a mortgage burning ceremony to
celebrate Dezer’s paying off the project’s $475 million dollar mortgage.
Dezer recalled Trump telling him that he planned to run for president.
At
the party, Dezer, his father and Trump gleefully set flame to a stack
of mortgage documents, applauded by a crowd of tenants from the Trump
buildings and local business people. A video of the event shows Trump
smiling, joking and working the crowd.
“I was with Michael Jackson
when he had the hair burned with the Pepsi, and it was a disaster,”
Trump told revelers, referring to the time the pop superstar’s hair
caught fire during the 1984 filming of a Pepsi commercial. “I am sitting
next to that friggin’ fire, and if my hair goes, I am out of business.”
Dezer
and Trump got help selling the condos from Elena Baronoff, who
immigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Baronoff, who grew up in
Uzbekistan, had been active in Soviet cultural associations. In Miami,
she soon began bringing Russian tour groups to Miami.
Gil Dezer’s
father, Michael, recruited Baronoff to work alongside the Dezer
corporation. She traveled to Moscow, St Petersburg, France and London to
bring in Russian buyers, according to Dezer, selling apartments to them
for between $1 million and $2 million. Baronoff was diagnosed with
Leukemia in 2014 and died a year later.
“She was huge, she was big for them,” Dezer said, referring to Russian buyers. “No one has filled her shoes.”
Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs in Moscow; John Walcott, Mark
Hosenball, Jonathan Landay, Arshad Mohammed and Warren Strobel in
Washington; and Astha Rajvanshi in New York.
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