17 October 19
Never-Before-Seen Trump Tax Documents Show Major Inconsistencies
Heather Vogell, ProPublica
Vogell writes: "The discrepancies made the buildings appear more profitable to the lender - and less profitable to the officials who set the buildings' property tax."
Heather Vogell, ProPublica
Vogell writes: "The discrepancies made the buildings appear more profitable to the lender - and less profitable to the officials who set the buildings' property tax."
EXCERPTS:
The punishments for lying to tax officials, or to lenders, can be significant, ranging from fines to criminal fraud charges. Two former Trump associates, Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, are serving prison time for offenses that include falsifying tax and bank records, some of them related to real estate.
In response to ProPublica’s questions about the disparities, Laura Feyer, deputy press secretary for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, said of the Trump International Hotel and Tower, “The city is looking into this property, and if there has been any underreporting, we will take appropriate action.”
Taxes have long been a third rail for Trump. Long before he famously declined to make his personal returns public, a New York Times investigation concluded, Trump participated in tax schemes that involved “outright fraud,” and that he had formulated “a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns.” Trump’s former partners in Panama claimed in a lawsuit, which is ongoing, that Trump’s hotel management company failed to pay taxes on millions in fees it received. Spokespeople for Trump and his company have denied any tax improprieties in the past.
In February, Cohen told Congress that Trump had adjusted figures up or down, as necessary, to obtain loans and avoid taxes. “It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes,” Cohen testified, “and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.”
The two Trump buildings with the most notable discrepancies shared a financial trait: Both were refinanced in 2015 and 2016 while Trump was campaigning for president. The loan for 40 Wall Street — $160 million — was then the Trump Organization’s biggest debt.
Trump’s company, which has sometimes struggled to obtain credit because of his history of bankruptcies and defaults, turned for relief to a financial institution where Donald Trump had a connection: Ladder Capital, which employs Jack Weisselberg, the son of the Trump Organization’s longtime CFO, Allen Weisselberg. Ladder is a publicly traded commercial real estate investment trust that reports more than $6 billion in assets. In 2015, and still today, Jack Weisselberg was an executive director whose job was to make loans.
Trump and Jack Weisselberg had history together. Jack was at UBS, in its loan origination department, in 2006, when the Swiss bank loaned Trump $7 million for his piece of the Trump International Hotel and Tower. Allen Weisselberg had bought a condo from Trump in one of his buildings for a below-market price of $152,500 in 2000. He deeded it to Jack three years later for about $148,000. Jack sold the unit for more than three times as much in 2006. (Jack Weisselberg declined to comment on Ladder’s loans or his relationship with the Trump Organization.)
Rep. Elijah Cummings. (photo: Win McNamee/Getty)
US Rep Elijah Cummings Dies; Longtime Baltimore Advocate Was Key Figure in Trump Impeachment Inquiry
Jeff Barker, The Baltimore Sun
Barker writes: "U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore, a committee chairman known for his devotion to Baltimore and civil rights and for blunt and passionate speechmaking, died of longstanding health problems early Thursday morning, his office said. He was 68 years old."
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Jeff Barker, The Baltimore Sun
Barker writes: "U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore, a committee chairman known for his devotion to Baltimore and civil rights and for blunt and passionate speechmaking, died of longstanding health problems early Thursday morning, his office said. He was 68 years old."
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Former White House adviser Fiona Hill leaves Capitol Hill after giving closed-door testimony to a panel of impeachment investigators. (photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Trump's Impeachment Blockade Crumbles as Witnesses Agree to Talk
Michael D. Shear and Nicholas Fandos, The New York Times
Excerpt: "The White House's trenchant declaration to House impeachment investigators last week was unequivocal: No more witnesses or documents for a 'totally compromised kangaroo court.'"
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Michael D. Shear and Nicholas Fandos, The New York Times
Excerpt: "The White House's trenchant declaration to House impeachment investigators last week was unequivocal: No more witnesses or documents for a 'totally compromised kangaroo court.'"
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Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren shake hands before the start of the first night of the second 2020 Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, Michigan, on July 30, 2019. (photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
Bernie and Warren's Progressive Tax Plans Are So Popular That All the 2020 Democrats Are Adopting Similar Ones
Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Business Insider
Zeballos-Roig writes: "At the fourth Democratic primary debate on Tuesday, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren made their case again to impose substantial wealth taxes on the fortunes of the richest Americans, fending off attacks from their moderate rivals over its feasibility."
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Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Business Insider
Zeballos-Roig writes: "At the fourth Democratic primary debate on Tuesday, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren made their case again to impose substantial wealth taxes on the fortunes of the richest Americans, fending off attacks from their moderate rivals over its feasibility."
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Teachers pick up picket signs at CTU headquarters on the Near West Side Wednesday. (photo: Matt Hendrickson/Sun Times)
25,000 Chicago Teachers to Go on Strike After Rejecting District's Latest Offer
Nader Issa and Matthew Hendrickson, The Chicago Sun Times
Excerpt: "Months of slow-moving negotiations, back-and-forth attacks and public posturing between Chicago officials and the city's teachers union have led to 32,500 teachers and school support staff deciding to walk off their jobs and onto picket lines Thursday morning."
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Nader Issa and Matthew Hendrickson, The Chicago Sun Times
Excerpt: "Months of slow-moving negotiations, back-and-forth attacks and public posturing between Chicago officials and the city's teachers union have led to 32,500 teachers and school support staff deciding to walk off their jobs and onto picket lines Thursday morning."
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Syrian Arab civilians flee as Turkish troops with American-made M60 tanks and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters gather near the village of Qirata. (photo: Getty)
Patrick Cockburn | Trump's Abandonment of the Kurds Will Harm America and Help Russia
Patrick Cockburn, The Independent
Cockburn writes: "It is the endgame of the eight-year-old Syrian war: the Turkish-Kurd confrontation was the most serious crisis still to be resolved, something that is now happening in the cruelest way possible with the extinction of the statelet that the Syrian Kurds had fought to create since 2011."
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Patrick Cockburn, The Independent
Cockburn writes: "It is the endgame of the eight-year-old Syrian war: the Turkish-Kurd confrontation was the most serious crisis still to be resolved, something that is now happening in the cruelest way possible with the extinction of the statelet that the Syrian Kurds had fought to create since 2011."
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California Yosemite River Scene. (photo: Flickr)
Trump Wants to Let Private Businesses Cash in on America's National Parks
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "An advisory panel appointed by Trump's first Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, has recommended privatizing National Parks campgrounds, allowing food trucks in and setting up WiFi at campgrounds while also reducing benefits to seniors, according to the panel's memo."
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Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "An advisory panel appointed by Trump's first Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, has recommended privatizing National Parks campgrounds, allowing food trucks in and setting up WiFi at campgrounds while also reducing benefits to seniors, according to the panel's memo."
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