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In 2017, Trump's Vegas hotel had some seriously strange money flows. Here's a thread I made outlining the issue, but the tl;dr is that even though Trump co-owns the hotel with Phil Ruffin, the money was being diverted to LLCs that Trump alone owned.
In financial disclosures, the unexplained funds were labeled as "sponsorship fees" and "commissions" and "development fees," but when reporters asked about these millions, Ruffin and Trump claimed the money was for "back pay," and the issue went away.
Well today at the Cohen hearing, the issue unexpectedly came back up again -- in the context of Trump's $25M Trump University fraud settlement. Rep Speier asked Cohen about a "businessman in Kansas" being involved somehow in procuring the settlement funds. kansascity.com/news/politics-…
Cohen didn't seem to know anything about it, but it's pretty clear that the businessman is Ruffin.
So right when Trump had a $25M bill suddenly become due, his Vegas hotel suddenly comes up with $28M in unexplained revenue, and it's diverted to Trump alone.
So right when Trump had a $25M bill suddenly become due, his Vegas hotel suddenly comes up with $28M in unexplained revenue, and it's diverted to Trump alone.
Ruffin claims this money was just a bill that had been owed to Trump for some time: "'[Trump] had $28 million in back fees that he never collected,' Ruffin said in a phone call Wednesday. 'The hotel paid him [what] was owed to him. I don’t know what he did… It was his money.'"
This is the same line given to the WSJ back in 2017: "The extra money [] came from fees he was owed from the condo-hotel from years earlier but had been deferred... Trump was now able to collect the money because the project was in better financial shape."
wsj.com/articles/reven…
wsj.com/articles/reven…
The explanation is nonsensical. Why would Trump alone have deferred pay he was owed, but not Ruffin? Why would it be paid out all at once, diverted into a confusing cascade of LLCs, and labeled as pay for generic and undefined "fees"?
Not to mention, calling something "back pay" offers an explanation of why the money might have been *owed* to Trump -- but it does nothing to explain the *origin* of these tens of millions that the Vegas hotel suddenly generated.
But where on earth did Rep. Speier learn of this supposed connection between the Trump Vegas payout and the Trump U settlement.
Perhaps it's just the timing -- an unexplained $28M showing up at about the same time Trump is suddenly owing $25M. Which is intriguing, sure.
Perhaps it's just the timing -- an unexplained $28M showing up at about the same time Trump is suddenly owing $25M. Which is intriguing, sure.
But it does seem a fairly tenuous connection, if that all it is.
But Rep. Speier's question is clearly based on some sort of report or record: “there’s some reference to a businessman in Kansas being involved in [the $25M Trump U settlement].
But Rep. Speier's question is clearly based on some sort of report or record: “there’s some reference to a businessman in Kansas being involved in [the $25M Trump U settlement].
Anyway, the Trump Vegas money has bugged me for like the years now, because it's so obviously not what Trump and Ruffin claim it was. I assumed the issue was dead, since no one was looking into it.
But from Speier's comments today, I guess someone kept looking into it after all.
But from Speier's comments today, I guess someone kept looking into it after all.
