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Deutsche Bank repeatedly helped Donald Trump out of trouble. The United States Constitutional Court is debating whether the institute has to release documents. Is there a bomb there that Trump’s opponents expect?
At a time when nobody wanted to lend money to businessman Donald Trump anymore, a bank in Germany stepped in. Deutsche Bank financed large projects from Chicago to Miami for the real estate company at the time, although it repeatedly provided false information and did not cover debts and obligations.
Deutsche Bank awarded Trump more than $ 2 billion to the borrower. She continues to be the largest creditor of the US President. USA And from his company, the Trump Organization.
The deals between Trump and Deutsche Bank have attracted the attention of Trump researchers and political opponents in the United States for years. Now the strange business relationship ends before the US Constitutional Court.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will deal with Trump’s previously withheld tax returns and his financial records. Democrats in the House of Representatives are pushing for the documents to be made public. They investigate Trump’s mysterious finances and real estate business and see a decisive lever at Deutsche Bank.
At Tuesday’s hearing, three lawsuits are summarized. It’s not just Trump’s tax returns, it’s fundamentally the powers of investigators and parliament to see the documents of a sitting president.
Too much wind for many, but not for Deutsche Bank
The case is particularly interesting. Trump v. Deutsche Bank AG. Trump had tried to prevent the bank from disclosing information about his family’s finances, but lost in the first two instances.
Trump has been in business with Deutsche Bank since 1998, initially with the real estate department and later also with private equity advice. At the time, Trump received an initial loan of $ 425 million for two construction projects in New York. Trump was a businessman with his back to the wall at the time: His grand hotel and casino project in Atlantic City had failed. Banks no longer wanted to give him loans. Except one.
The deal with Trump, which was too windy for many competitors, fell into a phase when Deutsche Bank wanted to become a major global player, and therefore pushed hard on the American market, looking for risks and dazzling customers.
A demand and a strange development.
Numerous loans followed, even though bank employees knew Trump was artificially inflating his wealth and was not servicing loans and bonds. The lawsuit even came about due to a loan.
In 2005, Trump received a $ 640 million loan (now a good € 590 million) for the Trump International Hotel & Tower project in Chicago. When the financial crisis spread in 2008, Trump still owed him half, but instead of paying, he sued Deutsche Bank. He accused the institute of having contributed to the financial crisis and claimed compensation of three billion dollars.
“Trump International Hotel & Tower” in Chicago: years of dispute over a loan. (Source: Kamil Krzaczynski / Reuters)
The bank, in turn, sued for $ 40 million of Trump’s assets, which he used to secure the loan. The end result was an agreement that gave Trump two years to pay the bank that $ 40 million.
Then it got even weirder: because the debtor Trump received this money again from Deutsche Bank, but from another department. While the name Trump seemed burned in the real estate department, now those for private wealth management stepped in.
The track of Russia
There they also gave him loans to buy the Doral Golf Club in Miami and to convert a former post office into a hotel in the capital, Washington. The hotel, which opened shortly before the 2016 election, is always at the center of Trump’s conflict of interest. There were numerous diplomats and lobbyists who wanted something from the President of the United States.
Trump at the construction site of his hotel in Washington in March 2016: a loan from Deutsche Bank secured the project. (Source: Jim Bourg / Reuters)
His deals with Trump have long been a burden on Deutsche Bank in the United States. Investigators and political opponents of Trump focus on them. One suspicion is particularly delicate: the bank was convicted of money laundering for Russian oligarchs. Democrats believe that the companies of President and son-in-law Jared Kushner may have been involved in this money laundering. However, no proof of this has been provided.
To follow the Russian trail, not only the House Finance Committee, but also the Secret Service Committee are demanding documents.
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Beyond the Russia issue, the question of how a foreign bank should deal with a debtor who has the most powerful office in the world is a difficult one.
In the crown crisis, the Trump Organization, which is now led by Trump’s children, has already asked the bank for an informal conversation, according to media reports, on how to defend debt and obligations. The reports led Democrats to new requests to the bank.
Much will depend on the verdict of the judges, both for Trump and for the bank. Observers still await a verdict before the summer break. Therefore, the bank may have to provide information before the Trump election in November that provides information on Trump’s finances and business.
But the majority in the Supreme Court is conservative, and Trump himself appointed two of the nine justices.
