Thread by @blmohr

1/ [Thread]
Trump Tower Chicago: Media fraud, Mob contractors, casinos and shady investors

2/ Alex Jones' "InfoWars" is now broadcasting from the top of Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago.

3/ Late last year, Matt Dubiel, a local Chicago radio station owner, announced he'd won FCC approval and had "worked out an arrangement with the Trump Tower" to secure a transmitter on its roof.
trib.in/2kYrl62

4/ Dubiel said as soon as Trump was elected, the FCC fast-tracked his permit. "InfoWars" now reaches a much larger Chicagoland AM/FM audience. Jones admits its part of a larger plan for "warring against the globalists. Defending ourselves…and expanding."
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5/ In May, Jones said he was under "criminal espionage investigation." A year earlier, it was revealed that the FBI was investigating Breitbart News and InfoWars' news sites for potentially working with Russian operatives in coordinated bot attacks.
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6/ Media expansion was also Lord Conrad Black's reason for buying into Chicago.

7/ In 1994, Black and his American Publishing Comp agreed to buy the Chicago Sun-Times for $180M. American, which had reported net losses the previous 2 yrs, went public & raised $100M for the purchase. It also changed its name to Hollinger International.
nyti.ms/2JUKrVg

8/ Black & David Radler, Sun-Times Publisher and Hollinger's Pres. & COO, cut the newsroom staff by 20% from 2000–2004. They artificially inflated circulation #s by at least 45,000 newspapers/day, which amounted to million$ in over-billing of advertisers.
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9/ The two were also found to have given "themselves and their affiliates more than $400 million" from 1997–2003. That amount represented 95.2% of Hollinger's entire adjusted net income during that time.
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10/ In 2001, Trump and Hollinger announced a 50–50 venture to demolish the Sun-Times building and build Trump Tower Chicago.
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11/ Black & Trump have been friends for decades. Black thinks Mueller's investigation of Trump "conspiring against the U.S. is nonsense, & the whole ambiance of the investigation now is that of a phantom consolation prize for the absence of a crime, a victim, or a culprit…"

12/ In May, Black released his Trump biography titled "Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other."

13/ The year before Black bought the Sun-Times, Trump was 30 miles south in Gary, IN negotiating with local officials for one of only two Gary casino licenses. At the time, all three of his Atlantic City casinos were $1.5 billion in debt.

14/ He promised the Trump Princess Casino would have more than 1,500 slot machines and earn $210 million by the fifth year the casino was operating. Gary was told to expect $19 million annually. He committed to invest $153 million in the project.
read.bi/2OzLb5G

15/ Trump was rejected by the local gaming commission but he went to the Indiana Gaming Commission and was awarded a license.

16/ In 1995, he established Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (THCR), which took ownership of Trump Plaza and Trump Princess Casino. The riverboat opened in1996. Trump's 41% stake in THCR at that point was worth close to $400 million.
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17/ In 1998, he opened a 300-room hotel next to the casino. He also brought the Miss USA Pageant to Gary in 2001 and 2002.
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18/ THCR recorded net losses of $321M from 1996-2000. When it debuted on NYSE, it raised $140M & said it would use it to invest in Trump Plaza & Trump Princess Casino. Instead, most went to pay off million$ in prev loans Trump had personally guaranteed.
wapo.st/2v4cvRB

19/ In 2004, THCR filed for bankruptcy and changed its name to Trump Entertainment Resorts (TER). The next year it sold the Gary casino and hotel for $253 million.

20/ At the time, Bovis Lendlease was the No. 2 creditor of TER, with a $7.5 million unsecured claim.
nyti.ms/2mYebYv

21/ Bovis (now Lendlease) has been a general contractor on Mob-run construction projects for decades.
bit.ly/2mtTdyo

22/ nyti.ms/2Ksp7H4

23/ Trump Tower Chicago is the tallest reinforced concrete structure in North America. Trump was a pioneer in the 1990s for using concrete to build tall buildings. His tower on NY's Fifth Avenue was the first high-rise in NYC to use reinforced concrete.
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24/ Most concrete for buildings doesn't get made in Manhattan without the Mob. It's estimated the Mob has controlled up to 75% of NYC's construction industry.
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25/ New York's 5 major crime families  -  Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese  -  were called the Commission (or the "Two Percent Club").

26/ They rigged bidding on concrete-construction work so the big jobs were rotated among the Concrete Club - a small group of Mob-controlled contractors and suppliers.
bit.ly/2uOM8Pe

27/ Lendlease was a general contractor on some of those jobs. It was also the general contractor on Trump Tower Chicago.
bit.ly/2OLnaZB

28/ Lendlease, is an Australian-based international real estate construction, development and investment company. Its done more than 20 real estate projects in Chicago but its first was Trump's tower.
bit.ly/2hKp94F

29/ It contributed $1,500 to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's campaign in 2003. That same year, Donald Jr. began overseeing the tower's construction, financing and development.
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30/ The property is owned by Trump's shell company 401 North Wabash Venture. It, in turn, is owned by 401 Mezz Venture.
bit.ly/2KtJ3cz
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31/ Ivanka is listed as the vice president of both. Trump Jr. is the executive vice president of Trump Tower Chicago and acquisitions for the Trump Org.

32/ By 2004, Trump claimed he'd personally sold so many units that neighborhood property values were already going up. He said he had "agreements to sell three-fourths of the 461 condominiums and 227 hotel-condo units for a combined $515 million."
for.tn/2uIFnhU

33/ Later that year, Trump announced he would purchase the full interest in the joint venture between himself and Hollinger. Hollinger received $4 million in cash with the balance of $69 million in cash received at closing.

34/ There were two main loans to get the tower built. These are the loans that are being investigated by Mueller's team for possibly having a portion of them sold to a Russian bank.
bit.ly/2vgLB8n

35/ In December of last year, Mueller issued a subpoena to Deutsche Bank forcing it to submit documents regarding its relationship with the Trump family's finances.
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36/ Since 1998, Deutsche Bank has led or participated in loans totaling at least $2.5 billion to Trump companies.
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37/ The $640 million construction loan was provided to Trump in 2005. Deutsche Bank pooled a group of 21 investors (two of which couldn't be found) to fund the loan:

38/ 1- Bank of Communications (BoCom) was caught last year with a group of other Chinese banks processing hundreds of million$ in a large money-laundering operation run by the Russian Mob. BoCom was found to have accepted $64 million in laundered funds.
bit.ly/2GbX54v

39/ From 2011–2014, $20–$80 billion was moved out of 19 Russia banks and into 732 banks in 92 countries. The Russian Mob-run operation was called "The Global Laundromat." More than 10% of those were Chinese financial institutions.
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40/ The Mob used branches of HSBC and other banks to buy legitimate goods & services worth $630M. HSBC has a 19% stake in BoCom. In December 2012, HSBC admitted to money laundering and paid $1.25 billion in fines. It paid another $665M in civil penalties.
bit.ly/2nNIjsx

41/ 2 - Istar Financial is a NY-based real estate investment trust. It was also a lender in Trump Soho. It took over the ownership of Trump Plaza Jersey City in 2010. That year, iStar, Donald and Ivanka Trump were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed...
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42/ by Jody Kriss, a former partner at the Bayrock Group. Bayrock's other partners include Mob affiliate/government informant Felix Slater and Tevfik Arif, previously employed by the Soviet Union Ministry of Commerce and Trade for 17 years.
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43/ Kriss claimed in numerous lawsuits against Bayrock that its business structure was purposefully created to skirt NY real estate laws. He also accused Slater of taking "loans" from Bayrock in lieu of a salary & then never paying taxes on the loans or paying back the "loans."

44/ There's an "Istar Holdings Limited" in the Panama Papers whose listed shareholder is John Wortley-Hunt. In 2016, Bill Browder testified to British Parliament about the Klyuev Money Laundering Network.
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45/ Sergei Magnitsky had uncovered at least $230 million that was stolen from Russia and laundered through various international banks. (It was the largest known tax refund fraud in modern Russian history.)
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46/ Wortley-Hunt was a director of shell companies that were used to launder some of the funds in the U.K. In particular, he was director of Altem Invest Ltd, which was owned by Klyuev.
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47/ 3 - Norddeutsche Landesbank Hahn is a New York branch of a German bank. During the year Deutsche provided the loan to Trump, Landesbank partnered with DnB NOR (now DNB ASA), Norway's largest financial services group, to become the NORD/LB bank.
bit.ly/2LeXsyw

48/ In 2005, DnB Nor acquired Monchebank, a small regional Russian bank, for its licenses. Monchebank was owned by the Moscow-based Rosbank, a Russian universal bank whose majority shareholder is Société Générale.
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49/ In May 2012, Rosbank reached an agreement with Alfa Bank to unite their ATM networks. In 2014, the US and EU imposed sanctions on Rosbank for money laundering.
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50/ 4 - Deutsche Hypotheken Bank, a German commercial and mortgage bank, is owned by NordLB.

5 - AIB Debt Management, an affiliate of Dublin, Ireland-based Allied Irish Bank (AIB). In 2017, the Ireland Central Bank fined AIB $2.65 million for not complying with "anti-money...

51/ laundering and terrorist financing reporting procedures."

In March, it was revealed that nearly $3 million of a $230 million tax refund fraud run by the Russian Mob in partner with corrupt Russian tax officials, was washed through AIB banks.
bit.ly/2Okq6Mq

52/ 6 - Oak Hill Funds was started by Texas multimillionaire Robert Bass in 1986. Two years later, he and the Aoki Corporation of Japan sold NYC's Plaza Hotel to Donald Trump for $390 million. 4 yrs later, Trump lost the hotel in bankruptcy.
nyti.ms/2LY2hZd

53/ In 2010, Oak Hill, along with Cinven and CVC Capital Partners, invested $750 million in Avolon, an aircraft leasing group, that operates in China, the UAE, the U.S., Russia and Western Europe. Avalon was created in 2014 in the Cayman Islands.

54/ Oak Hill Capital partners is a corporate affiliate of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2007, The NY Times Company agreed to sell it's nine television stations to Oak Hill Capital Partners for $575 million.
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55/ 7 - Bank of East Asia Ltd. (BEA) is a Hong Kong-based commercial and retail bank. It was sued by billionaire Paul Singer's hedge fund Elliot Management Corp. claiming it was an "under-performer, poorly managed and functioning as a 'private fiefdom.'" Singer owns 7% of BEA.

56/ He's a large financial backer of The Free Beacon, a conservative website. It was the entity that first hired Fusion GPS in 2015 to find info about GOP pres. candidates, including Trump. Elliot Mgmnt has made more than $42M on private prison stocks.
nyti.ms/2yRMjdF

57/ 8 - Fortress Credit Corp. was co-founded by Wes Edens, a private equity investor and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. Edens, with Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris, recently purchased a majority stake in Aston Villa, an English soccer team.
bit.ly/2tgNbXI

58/ Fortress Investment Group was sold to SoftBank for $3.3 billion in 2017. There are currently eight different Fortress Investment funds listed in the Panama Papers. Most are related to Aircastle Investment. Fortress Bank pooled the investors for the tower's mezzanine loan.

59/ 9 - Merrill Lynch Capital Corp. was 1 of 5 banks sued by creditors who claimed it & other banks loaded "billions of dollars of debt on Tribune newspapers, TV stations & other operations w/out giving them any value in return, when they bought the comp.
bit.ly/2LGReHU

60/ 10 - Landesbank Sachsen Aktiengesel (Sachsen LB) is a state-owned wholesale bank based in Frankfurt, Germany. A few years after investing in Trump Tower Chicago, it became over leveraged with bad U.S. housing subprime mortgages.
bit.ly/2LccZiu

61/ It was later found that the Dublin office of Sachsen LB was borrowing short to invest long in US asset-backed securities. It lost billions in bad investments when the hosing market crashed.

62/ 11 - Highland Funds is an affiliate of Highland Capital Management L.P. based in Dallas, TX. In January, It made a $10M endowment gift to the George W. Bush Presidential Center in 2018. Its invested at least $10M in Trump Entertainment and Resorts.
bit.ly/2MdlVAJ

63/ 12 - Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital was sued by Deutsche in 2014, claiming it misrepresented the quality of the $735-million residential mortgage-backed securities it sold them. There are 9 Merrill Lynch shell companies listed in the Panama Papers.
bit.ly/2LYPyZz

64/ 13 - Eaton Vance/Grayson & Co., a joint venture of Boston-based investment management company Eaton Vance and New York retail consulting firm Grayson & Co.

65/ 14 - E. Sun Commercial Bank, a Taiwan-based bank with offices in New York, worked with Samsung Pay to launch across Taiwan and Apple Pay to launch across Russia.
bit.ly/2M1u66j

66/ 15 - Greenwich Capital Financial, an affiliate of the Royal Bank of Scotland that specializes in fixed-income investments. The Center for Public Integrity did a report on the top banks that were responsible for the housing market collapse in the late 2000s...

67/ and found Greenwich to have invested $99 billion in subprime mortgages. Greenwich maintained a $500 million line of credit for subprime lender Fremont Investment & Loan/Fremont General Corp.
bit.ly/2Kqtbay

68/ 16 - Union Labor Life, or Ullico Inc., is the nation's only labor-owned insurance and investment company. It only lends money to construction projects that agree to hire union labor.

69/ In 2002, Ullico officers and directors engaged in insider dealing, stock price manipulation and other offenses. Its executives paid themselves million$ in special bonuses and deferred compensation without getting approval from the board.
bit.ly/2LZ47wt

70/ 17 - Foothills Asset Management, a commercial finance subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co.
18 - MJX Venture, a New York-based asset and investment management firm.
19 - Satellite Senior Inc. 11, a New York-based trust.

71/ The $130 million mezzanine loan was made by Fortress, which pooled the following group of six investors:

72/ 1 - German American Capital Corp., a NY-based subsidiary of Deutsche, was sued w/ a group of 16 other entities by developer Leslie Dick in 2008 regarding violations of the RICO act. The charges were over the 2003 sale of the GMC Building in Manhattan.
bit.ly/1XAGiXT

73/ Other parties sued included Trump, George Soros, Fortress, Deutsche and Cerebrus. According to Dick, "Through unlawful means, including but not limited to money laundering, bankruptcy fraud and bid rigging...
bit.ly/1XAGiXT

74/ (some of the defendants) acquired Conseco's prime assets, including Conseco Finance and the General Motors Building in New York City, and thereafter attempted to conceal their illicit activities."

75/ 2 - Blackacre Institutional Capital Mgmnt, the real estate invest div of Cerebrus Capital Mgmnt, changed its name to Cerberus Real Estate Capital Management in 2007. There are 5 shell companies with the name "Blackacre" listed in the Panama Papers.
bit.ly/2OKUOPk

76/ 3 - Newcastle Investments L.P., an affiliate of Fortress, invested $110 million in the American Golf Corporation in 2006. The company operates more than 90 U.S. golf courses, most are in CA.

77/ In 2010, Newcastle had some of its accnts hijacked by BroCo Investments, a Russian-based investment brokerage firm. BroCo paid $1.6M in fines for using stolen usernames and passwords to make illegal trades through customers' stolen brokerage accounts.
bit.ly/2LSbpTl

78/ In 2014, Newcastle entered into a 98-year contract to lease Australia's Port of Newcastle for $1.75 billion. The port is the world's largest coal port.
bit.ly/2LQ1gqi

79/ There is a NewCastle Investments Ltd. listed in the Panama Papers.
bit.ly/2M3RCQe

80/ 4 - The Drawbridge Special Opportunities Fund L.P., run by Fortress, initially consisted of just real estate, lodging and gaming investments. It owns Penn National Gaming, which operates casinos and horse racing venues.

81/ In 2014, Drawbridge helped finance the purchase of 25% of available real estate and hospitality properties in downtown Las Vegas.
bit.ly/2OH2IJp

82/ Drawbridge Special Opportunities Fund L.P., like its parent company Fortress, is connected to Aircastle Investment Limited in the Panama Papers.
bit.ly/2vBawng

83/ 5 - PCRL Investments L.P. could not be located.

84/ 6 - Dune Capital, formerly run by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Mnuchin founded Dune Capital Management with two former Goldman partners and "got hundreds of millions of dollars" in financial backing from billionaire George Soros to fund Dune.

85/ He used Dune to invest in various real estate projects including the Trump International Hotel Waikiki and the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago.
bit.ly/2nezogG

86/ There are 12 Dune Capital companies listed in the Panama Papers.
bit.ly/2M3RPmg

87/ At Dune Capital, Mnuchin started RatPac-Dune Entertainment, a film-financing comp, w/ Hollywood producer Brett Ratner & James Packer, the Australian billionaire, casino magnate. In 2013, they closed a $300M deal to finance up to 75 Warner Bros. movies.
bit.ly/2LSmIed

88/ Packer is partnering with Lendlease to build the Crown Sydney Hotel Resort at Barangaroo.
bit.ly/2AHQAVE

89/ Loans for the Trump Tower Chicago are not due until 2024.
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https://twitter.com/blmohr/status/1016004910519857155

https://twitter.com/blmohr/status/1020407574598995970

*[The tower WAS the tallest reinforced concrete structure in N.A. at the time it was built.]