Replies to post #43925 on Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[scion]

Claimed value of sleepy NY estate could come to haunt Trump

By MICHAEL R. SISAK
an hour ago
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-new-york-cyrus-vance-jr-subpoenas-manhattan-d6a128161e52d1cea94d4ffb54d14ef0


1 of 4 - The Seven Springs, a property owned by former U.S. President Donald Trump, is covered in snow, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, in Mount Kisco, N.Y. The estate, a 213-acre swath of nature surrounding a Georgian-style mansion, is a subject of two state investigations in New York: a criminal probe by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and a civil inquiry by state Attorney General Letitia James. Both investigations focus on whether Trump manipulated the property’s value to reap greater tax benefits from an environmental conservation arrangement he made while running for president in 2016. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s sleepy by Donald Trump’s standards, but the former president’s century-old estate in New York’s Westchester County could end up being one of his bigger legal nightmares.

Seven Springs, a 213-acre swath of nature surrounding a Georgian-style mansion, is a subject of two state investigations: a criminal probe by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and a civil inquiry by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Both investigations focus on whether Trump manipulated the property’s value to reap greater tax benefits from an environmental conservation arrangement he made at the end of 2015, while running for president.

Purchased by Trump in 1995 for $7.5 million, Seven Springs drew renewed scrutiny as he prepared to leave office and was on the cusp of losing legal protections he had as president. Vance issued new subpoenas in mid-December, and a judge ordered evidence to be turned over to James’ office nine days after Trump departed Washington.

Other Trump legal woes, such as inquiries into his attempts to influence election officials and payments made on his behalf to women alleging affairs, have dominated the headlines. But former Manhattan prosecutor Duncan Levin said white-collar investigators go wherever the paper trail leads.

“While a tax issue related to a conservation arrangement might not be as sexy as a hush-money payment, prosecutors are likely to focus on any violation of law that they find,” Levin said. “Remember, the authorities got Al Capone on tax evasion.”

Seven Springs is an outlier in a Trump real estate portfolio filled with glossy high-rises and gold-plated amenities. It is listed on his website as a family retreat, although Trump hasn’t been there in more than four years.

At the heart of the estate is the mansion built as a summer getaway in 1919 by Eugene Meyer, who went on to become Federal Reserve chairman and owner of The Washington Post. In 2006, while pushing a plan to build luxury homes on the property, Trump floated the idea that he and his family were going to move into the mansion, but that never happened.

Brand new, the 28,322-square-foot dwelling featured more than a dozen bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley and a tennis court. Meyer’s daughter, the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, was married at Seven Springs in 1940.

In her memoir “Personal History,” Graham described ambivalent emotions about going there, writing: “The older I got, the more I disliked the loneliness of the farm, but in my childhood days, it was, as I wrote my father when I was 10, ‘a great old Place.’”

At one point, Meyer owned about 700 acres. A philanthropic foundation established by him and his wife, Agnes, gifted 247 acres to the Nature Conservancy and the remaining land and buildings that made up Seven Springs to Yale University in 1973, after Agnes Meyer’s death.

The estate changed hands again when the foundation took it back from Yale and operated a conference center there before passing the real estate holdings to Rockefeller University, which eventually sold it to Trump.

Trump paid about $2.25 million under the list price for Seven Springs, acquiring the land as part of an effort to jumpstart his fortunes after a series of failures in the early 1990s, including casino bankruptcies and the sale of his money-losing Trump Shuttle airline.

Trump envisioned transforming it into his first championship-caliber golf course, with an exclusive clientele and lofty membership fees.

He hired an architecture firm to plot fairways and greens but abandoned the effort when residents voiced concerns that lawn chemicals would contaminate neighboring Byram Lake, a local source of drinking water.

Trump’s then tried building houses. He proposed putting up 46 single-family homes, and after that plan also met community opposition, 15 mansion-sized dwellings which he described in 2004 as “super-high-end residential, the likes of which has never been seen on the East Coast.” The project was held up by years of litigation and no homes were ever built.

In 2009, Trump made a splash by allowing Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to pitch his Bedouin-style tent on the Seven Springs property north of New York City because he had no other place to stay for a U.N. visit.

Trump initially suggested he didn’t know Gaddafi was involved, but later conceded he “made a lot of money” renting the land to the Libyan leader. Local officials halted work on the tent and Gaddafi never stayed there.

His development plans dashed, Trump opted for a strategy that would allow him to keep the property but reduce his taxes. He granted an easement to a conservation land trust to preserve 158 acres (60 hectares) of meadows and mature forest.

Trump received a $21 million income tax deduction, equal to the value of the conserved land, according to property and court records. The amount was based on a professional appraisal that valued the full Seven Springs property at $56.5 million as of Dec. 1, 2015.

That was a much higher amount that the evaluation by local government assessors, who said the entire estate was worth $20 million.

Michael Colangelo, a lawyer in the New York attorney general’s office, outlined the central question involving the Seven Springs easement at a hearing last year regarding a dispute over evidence.

“If the value of the easement was improperly inflated, who obtained the benefit from that improper inflation and in what amounts?” Colangelo said. “It goes without saying that the attorney general needs to see the records that would reflect the value of that deduction, as it flowed up to intermediate entities, and ultimately to Mr. Trump, personally.”

A message seeking comment was left with Trump’s spokesperson. In the past, the Republican ex-president has decried the investigations as part of a “witch hunt.”

Seven Springs caught investigators’ attention after Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen told a congressional committee in 2019 that Trump had a habit of manipulating property values — inflating them in some cases and minimizing them in others to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits.

Cohen testified that Trump had financial statements saying Seven Springs was worth $291 million as of 2012. He gave copies of three of Trump’s financial statements to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform during his testimony.

Cohen said the statements, from 2011, 2012 and 2013, were ones Trump gave to his main lender, Deutsche Bank, to inquire about a loan to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and to Forbes magazine to substantiate his claim to a place on its list of the world’s wealthiest people.

Trump, on his annual financial disclosure forms while president, said the property was worth between $25 million and $50 million.

New York’s attorney general was first to act. James issued subpoenas to commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield for records relating to its assessment work on Trump’s behalf; to law firms that worked on the Seven Springs project; and to Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, for records relating to its annual financial statements and the conservation easement.

James also subpoenaed zoning and planning records in 2019 from the three towns Seven Springs spans. Vance followed with his own subpoenas in December. One town clerk said investigators were given “boxes and boxes of documents” in response. They included tax statements, surveying maps, environmental studies and planning board meeting minutes.

James’ investigators have interviewed Trump’s son, Eric Trump, an executive vice president at the Trump Organization and the president of the limited liability company through which it owns Seven Springs; Trump’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg; and lawyers Trump hired for the Seven Springs project who specialize in land-use and federal tax controversies.

The investigators have yet to determine whether any law was broken.

Vance, who like James is a Democrat, hasn’t disclosed much about his criminal probe, in part because of grand jury secrecy rules. The district attorney’s office has said in court papers that it is focusing on public reports of “extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.”

Documents filed in connection with the criminal investigation — buoyed by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month granting Vance access to Trump’s tax records — have listed Seven Springs among possible targets.

Along with the mansion, Seven Springs has a Tudor-style home once owned by ketchup magnate H.J. Heinz, and smaller carriage houses that Trump’s adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have said served as “home base” when they visited the estate to hike and ride ATVs.

During his presidency, Trump himself opted for higher-profile properties like his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course and his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, where he’s been living since leaving the White House.

The New York Times reported last year that Trump’s tax records showed he classified the estate not as a personal residence but an investment property, enabling him to write off more than $2 million in property taxes since 2014.

___

Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-new-york-cyrus-vance-jr-subpoenas-manhattan-d6a128161e52d1cea94d4ffb54d14ef0

[scion]

Trump’s Florida resort touted as potential gambling destination

By Jonathan O'Connell and Josh Dawsey
March 17, 2021 at 2:02 p.m. GMT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-florida-casino/2021/03/17/7679cb28-8699-11eb-82bc-e58213caa38e_story.html

Former president Donald Trump’s son Eric, who runs the family’s private company, touted the potential of transforming their Doral golf resort into a gambling destination amid a quiet push among Florida Republicans to legalize casinos in areas of the state that have long opposed them.

Although Republican legislative leaders have not yet submitted a bill, word of a proposal has spread widely enough that both supporters and opponents already are gearing up for a fight that they say could be more intense than in previous years due to Trump’s potential interest and his close relationship with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

The bill would allow developers to transfer gambling licenses to properties in areas where casinos have long been prohibited and bar local municipal governments from intervening, according to a half dozen policymakers, lobbyists and other stakeholders, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because the bill’s language has not yet been made public.

“My understanding is they are trying to take the gambling permits that are in South Florida and make them portable, and preempt local governments from stopping them,” said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber (D), a longtime opponent of gambling. Gelber wants the city to hire an attorney to challenge the legality of such a move, which the city commission is scheduled to consider Wednesday.

Eric Trump said in a statement to The Post on Tuesday that the Doral property in Miami, which has suffered from a drop in business due to the pandemic and his father’s polarizing presidency, would be a natural choice.

The elder Trump famously built an Atlantic City casino empire that ended in a series of bankruptcies in the early 1990s. He then repeatedly advocated for the expansion of casinos in Florida before entering politics.

“Many people consider Trump Doral to be unmatched from a gaming perspective — at 700 acres, properties just don’t exist of that size and quality in South Florida, let alone in the heart of Miami,” Eric Trump said in an email. He declined to say whether the company was pushing for the bill or not.

Florida currently limits gambling mostly to tribal casinos and horse racing properties. A political battle over whether to expand gambling occurs almost annually in the state capital in Tallahassee, but sources on different sides of the issue say this year’s proposal may be more likely to succeed.

“We’ve been trying to do this for eight years and this is the closest we’ve gotten,” said one person familiar with the proposal.

“When you hear that there’s support for it from both chambers and the governor’s office, it’s frightening,” Gelber said.

Two people familiar with the proposal said it is being shepherded by Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Republican from Trilby, and could be introduced later this week or early next.

Katie Betta, a Simpson spokeswoman, said in a statement that “gaming negotiations are extremely complicated, and while Simpson believes the efforts are worthy, it is also important to be realistic about where we are.”

Simpson “has been involved in these negotiations for years, and if they get to a place where he believes an agreement would benefit the State of Florida and have the support of his colleagues in the Legislature as well as the Governor, he would be happy to discuss further details,” she said. She said the senator had not discussed gambling with Trump.

Spokespersons for DeSantis and Trump did not immediately reply to requests for comment. DeSantis, who is widely considered to have national political ambitions, has worked since before his 2018 election to build a rapport with Trump and fiercely supported his reelection.

Brian Ballard, a longtime Trump ally and powerful Florida lobbyist, is working to expand gaming in Florida, people familiar with his activities say. A person close to Ballard said he was not working on behalf of Trump for the venture but instead was working for sports leagues and other clients.

Although Republicans control the House, Senate and executive branch, support for gambling expansion has not always fallen along partisan lines, as Miami-area leaders of both parties have teamed up with Disney and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which operates tribal casinos, to defeat past proposals. The state constitution also requires that voters ultimately approve gambling through a ballot measure.

Republican real estate developer Armando Codina, who has built offices, homes, restaurants and a school in the Doral area, said he was aware of the proposal and was already working to fight it, particularly because the negotiations “have happened in a dark room.”

He said he did not know whether the former president was involved in crafting the plan but said the legislation could make Trump’s Doral resort worth hundreds of millions of dollars more if a casino opened there.

“I think this would be bad for Florida and I think it would be terrible for Miami-Dade County,” Codina said. “We’ve created a venue that is a family venue. If this was to happen in Doral, we would over time probably sell a bunch of our interests.”

South Florida billionaire and philanthropist Norman Braman said the Miami area had no need for casinos, particularly given that the area has become a hub for art galleries and tech start-ups in recent years.

“We don’t need it,” Braman said. “It’s nonsense that tourists will come here to gamble. It just doesn’t make sense. It will feed off the community.”

Braman said it was “without question” that Trump’s presence in the state was affecting the debate, whether he was actively participating in the effort or not.

“There’s no secret that Doral would be the perfect place,” he said.

Before he ran for political office, Trump spent years trying to persuade Florida legislators to approve new casino licenses. After buying the Doral resort for $150 million in 2012, Trump began his efforts anew, hiring a top Florida lobbyist to try to get gambling approved and telling the Miami Herald in 2013: “I think gambling is a good thing for Miami.”

During a 2015 GOP primary presidential debate, fellow candidate Jeb Bush, who opposed gambling as Florida governor from 1999 to 2007, accused Trump of trying to buy his support for new casino licenses through campaign donations, which Trump denied.

“I promise, if I wanted it, I would have gotten it,” Trump said.

Building a casino at Doral could reverse Trump’s fortunes at the property, which suffered alongside other elements of his brand from his divisive politics, including the loss of a PGA Tour event in 2016 that was moved to Mexico.

Doral took an additional hit when the pandemic shut down much of the country’s corporate and meeting business, the resort’s bread and butter. Trump has a $125 million loan on the property from Deutsche Bank, according to government records.

But Trump’s Doral course is not the only site expected to pursue casino licenses if they become available. Developer Jeffrey Soffer, owner of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel, has repeatedly pushed for casino approval and recently purchased a pari-mutuel casino and former dog track north of Miami, renaming it the Big Easy Casino.

A company controlled by Soffer recently sold NFL star Tom Brady property on Indian Creek Island, near to where Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the former president’s daughter and son-in-law, plan to move.

“You could move a casino to the Fontainebleau the next day with 1,500 machines,” if the bill passes, said one person familiar with the proposal.

Two people familiar with the proposal said that in addition to allowing new casinos, the bill would likely introduce sports betting into the state and allow the Seminole tribe to control much of the sports betting market as part of a revised compact with the state.

The site of the former Miami Herald headquarters also has been considered as a potential casino location in the past. Representatives for Soffer and the Seminole tribe did not respond to requests for comment.

Florida Rep. Joseph Geller, a Democrat who tracks gambling issues, said he had not seen any details of the bill. “Usually the whole thing is done behind the scenes,” he said.

Geller said the oft-used argument that gambling was needed to shore up the state budget was inadequate now that President Biden has signed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package with roughly $10 billion to be directed to Florida.

Despite Trump’s popularity among Republicans, Geller said he wasn’t sure there would be wide interest in helping him open a gambling operation, particularly given the collapse of Trump-run casinos in Atlantic City decades ago.

“This guy has bankrupted every casino he’s ever run. How do you bankrupt a casino?” he said. “I don’t think we need a failed casino. We don’t want to be the next Atlantic City.”


David Fahrenthold contributed to this report.

Headshot of Jonathan O'Connell
Jonathan O'Connell
Jonathan O'Connell is a reporter focused on business investigations and corporate accountability. He has covered economic development, commercial real estate and President Donald Trump's business. He joined The Post in 2010.Follow

Headshot of Josh Dawsey
Josh Dawsey
Josh Dawsey is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 2017. He previously covered the White House for Politico, and New York City Hall and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for the Wall Street Journal.Follow

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-florida-casino/2021/03/17/7679cb28-8699-11eb-82bc-e58213caa38e_story.html

[scion]

Bloomberg @business - Donald Trump's business empire is ailing.

His net worth fell by $700 million during his presidenc

$590 million in loans come due in the next few years

The value of his commercial real estate is down 26%

Read the story:
https://trib.al/ZobU8tN

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-donald-trump-net-worth-business/


7:13 pm · 17 Mar 2021

Donald Trump's business empire is ailing.

➡️ His net worth fell by $700 million during his presidency
➡️ $590 million in loans come due in the next few years
➡️ The value of his commercial real estate is down 26%

Read the story: https://t.co/5bWKqpGZy0 pic.twitter.com/DGZOylE8sk

— Bloomberg (@business) March 17, 2021