The International Mafia Robber Baron/Radical religion Good Old Boys' cabal got total control of the BIG banks and, thanks to Reagan/Thatcher/Bush Sr,/Clinton/Cheney for Bush Jr gutting anit-trust laws, defunding and destroying regulatory agencies and destroying other social safeguards, they are stealing/inheriting money like never before and laundering it through the biggest banks.
CBS 60 Minutes ran a story last night about a Danish bank branch in Estonia that has laundered hundreds of BILLIONS of stolen Russian money for $$$ with full knowledge by the top brass of the bank and supposed regulators.
Greed destoys. Unleashed, demented, insatiable greed destroys civilizations.
WE THE PEOPLE - average people around the world in cooperation with people in/with power who do not want to see OUR lives and OUR world destroyed - must step up Right NOW and put an end to it,
This must not stand in OUR America or world. Not now. Not ever again.
7
Trump is desperate to change the narrative to direct it away from what looks like corruption involving Russia, the home of kleptocracy. WATCH OUT folks. Don has a penchant for turning his own faults around, projecting them on to others. In 2 tweets about Biden, he is saying China wants 'Sleepy Joe" Biden to win. With Wide awake Joe having an 11% head to head advantage over Trump, the Don man is building a narrative that China favours the Dems. When the Dems inevitably defeat the worst US president ever, Trump in a desperate attempt to stay out of jail, will say that China intervened to get rid of Trump. He will say it over and over and will not leave when beaten. He has started to build the narrative and it is one of the reasons for the anti-US farmer tariffs. I think I am right. anyone else see that coming? Honk if you think I am correct.
28
Take down Deutsche Bank and hope that Trump goes down with it.
24
What the..? I opened an account at Deutsche Bank two years ago because I was living and working in Germany. As an American, this process was, administratively, quite difficult - the account manager actually told me they were loath to offer accounts to Americans because it is such a pain. They said it was that way because they don’t want to get in trouble with the US government if Americans use their bank accounts to evade taxes or launder money. Please. The shady Trumps and Kushners of the world get away with so much while the rest of us, who honestly want to do the right thing, are treated with complete untrustworthiness. It sickens me.
45
Even if the bank had turned over the information to Treasury, Mnuchin would have quashed it. And now Barr would block the FBI from investigating too.
25
Is anyone shocked by this development? Anyone at all?
26
Trump has been laundering money for Russian oligarchs for decades. This has been documented long before he ran for president. He is a phony gameshow host who has nothing but his name and an endless appetite for fame. Financiers, oligarchs and mobsters took advantage of his failures and his vanity and use him endlessly. He is totally compromised.
50
@Eric
All true Eric and I guarantee that he is building a narrative that China hates him because of the tariffs and that they will have hacked into the 2020 elections to rig the vote in favour of the Democrats. That is the MO of the least stable genius in American history. 100% guaranteed that this is what he is doing. Hashtag Life President Trump.
17
More lies and corruption. Why am I not surprised? Aren't there any honest people left in these big banks? Are all the good folks "let go" for spurious reasons? Seems that way.
19
TOO BIG TO JAIL: 2013: Did we have NYT articles then about this money laundering, proven. not just suspicious?
"Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail – Rolling Stone
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics.../gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-102004/
Feb 14, 2013 - Yes, they issued a fine – $1.9 billion, or about five weeks' profit – but they didn't extract so much as one dollar or one day in jail from any individual, despite a decade of stupefying abuses. ... That nobody from the bank went to jail or paid a dollar in individual fines is nothing new in this era of financial crisis."
18
It's getting so that I assume banks are unethical unless otherwise proven.
15
It isn't so much that the other shoe has dropped—but, more the shoes are tumbling down a long, long vertical.
Nobody has forgotten the comment that came before Supreme Court Justice Kennedy retired.
"Say hello to your boy. Special Guy.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/politics/trump-anthony-kennedy-retirement.html)
So many shoes.....
19
I would have assumed Deutsche Bank in order to do business in the United States would have had to report such unusual and/or suspicious transactions as a matter of course, instead of employing a Monty Python-inspired "nod nod, wink wink - we don't see no stinkin' money laundering going on here." approach and getting away with it.
Where is the outrage? Not so much at what still needs to be proved about Trump and Family, but genuine anger at how Nancy Pelosi chooses to exercise the powers possessed by the House in safeguarding the republic when faced with a lawless occupant of the White House?
As quoted by Glenn Thrush in his story today G.O.P. Lawmaker Says Trump's Conduct Meets "Threshold of Impeachment", here's Ms Pelosi laying out the plan of attack "First we ask, then we subpoena friendly."...."Then we subpoena otherwise and then we see what we get."
What in the name of Archibald Cox does "subpoena friendly" mean? When you're up against a venal simpleton like Donald Trump, expecting logic will finally convince him to do the right thing only insures that you will end up looking like , as Ace Ventura would say, a loooooser!
Blowhards like Trump don't do subtle....they don't play nice over brunch at Martha's Vineyard. A good, old fashioned Elizabeth Holtzman direct accusation smack to he head is how you impress a grifter like the self described "Ernest Hemingway of 144 characters."
18
Diverting the draft SARs from the "independent" anti money laundering program manager to the private bankers who are there to hide money for the monied clients is an evasion of the Bank Secrecy Act, which is as good as a violation for taking an enforcement action. They should be running Deutsche Bank out of the U.S. They can still compel the bank to file the SARs. Backfiling of SARs is a common remedy on a BSA enforcement action.
19
Deutsche Bank has itself gravitated in 'doubtful' activities. About Trump and/or Kushner 'activities' there's ample information already. Trustworthy 'activities' around the White House has become an oxymoron...
10
How many dots are needed? Seriously.
I mean, there're only two dots here. Three, if you want to count the pretend son.
Connect them and let's get this show on the road.
To quote Nixon, "People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook."
32
I love to read the comments section after the NYT publishes a story like this. TDS and/or liberal wishful thinking takes over immediately in many cases before a single, verifiable piece of real evidence ever sees the light of day.
Show me the proof NYT.
4
Funny coincidence, but isn't it correct that Anthony Kennedy's son was behind most of the loans from DB to Trump? And suddenly Kennedy retires and allows Trump to appoint his successor? Someone who believes in extreme executive power? Hmm...
37
As in Watergate, Follow the Money!
24
Sooner or later, Vlad will realize that his “useful idiot” — his pet name for his laundry boy Donald — is more of an idiot than being useful. There are other laundromats like Zurich or the Bahamas after all.
The fallout will be very beautiful to behold.
Tick tock Lindsey and Mitch.
Trump will drag you down with him.
29
A federal district judge Amit Mehta has told, " the accounting firm Mazars it will need to turn over Donald Trump's accounting records from before he was President to the Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee ".
The truth is always looming behind the lies.
21
If Trump & Kushner really have nothing to hide, they need to release all relevant records now.
30
And to think that Mr. Trump wants to look into Biden family connections with China..,. Talk about the pot calling the kettle...
16
And a person now working at the Financial Crimes section of the Treasury - AG Barr’s daughter.
38
Headline: Trump family are crooks.
Trump supporters: We don't care.
36
I’ll be following this story. At this point, we have a story full of accusations of suspicious banking activities, SARs filed that banking officials decided not act upon, and the Deutsche Bank’s dealings with foreign entities while they did business with Trump? No proof of guilt by association between the two.
I want to see some real proof that Trump and/or Kushner committed illegal acts, whether it involved foreign entities,or not.
Show me the money NYT.
Otherwise, it’s just hearsay and partisan wishful thinking.
3
It is exactly articles like this that prove nothing will change.
6
@jane they certainly won't change if you stay home on election day.
12
Deutsche Bank?
Banking on money -ethics?
Banking on money -norms?
Banking on money-values?
Lots of people in various positions.
Banked on!
Lots of money moved... Here. There. Then
Lots of reports. Written. Read. Understood?
Lots of suspicions.
Lots of words.
Lots of facts to be analyzed.
Lots of uncovering! Covering UP?
Personal accountability?
Not much!
3
I look forward to the day when we again have faith in our president and congress. I've had it with elected officials who look the other way in the midst of unethical or illegal behavior. Lock them up!
16
@Betsy: Many who put their faith in Trump consider it a virtue to believe something without substantiation.
11
And this is why Congress needs to investigate Trump, his family and Deutsche Bank. I would not be surprised at all if the Kremlin owns Donald Trump as a result of illegal money that was funnelled to him through Deutsche Bank. Heck, I would not be surprised if the billion $ he was loaned was actually laundered money from Russia!
22
@Samoo
Yes and if he is totally innocent why is he suing to stop DB from handing over data? It makes one wonder if he is 100% innocent of the 16 or more allegations of sexual assault. He is always innocent and his accusers are always making it up- according to the self serving imposter masquerading as president.
20
This is what will send Trump to jail after he leaves the White House, 30 years of financial corruption. God, I can't wait to see it.
36
After seeing the 60 minutes expose on the Estonian Bank laundering over 250 billion of Russian oligarch/Putin money along with secondary banks JP Morgan Chase, BOA & Deutsche - how long do these nefarious banking scoundrels, their cronies and corrupt clients like Trump and Kushner get away with such horrendous and sloppy financial crimes? If justice does not prevail our country is doomed.
22
@citizen314: Justice usually goes to the litigants with the deepest pockets.
8
So this is what I heard: Trump borrowed $600m from Deutsche Bank, then defaulted on half of it, claiming that he was a victim of the Great Recession and therefore not liable for repayment. When DB sued to recover, Trump countered-sued for $3b, alleging that DB’s reckless lending practices contributed to the recession.
I have to assume that at least part of his legal argument was “Hey, look how much money they loaned me. They must be incompetent”.
By the way, IMHO this fact should serve as the metric by which all future irony is measured.
Trump and DB eventually settled and that should be the end of the story.
Except a little while later, another part of DB loaned Trump another $300m.
Huh? Only explanation: somebody co-signed the loan. Maybe somebody with a Russian sounding name?
Now we hear Kushner may also be into DB for $285m?
Together, that has the Trump clan on the hook to DB for over half a billion dollars.
Color me cynical, but that kind of money might begin to affect a person’s ability to make objective decisions.
We can put a lot of these questions behind us if Trump, and now Kushner, just release their taxes.
31
Careful there, NY Times. You're getting very close to Trumps real way of making his money. Laundering Russian oligarch's ill-gotten gains and investing it for them in his real estate holdings. The reason he can jerk Duetsche Bank around is that his loans are chump change compared to their cut from the money laundering flow.
33
@Psyfly John
Correct John and as if that in itself were not enough to send fog horns trumpeting warning, in the flurry of scandal on scandal nobody seems to be talking about the back channel to Russia that Ivanka's dutiful husband set up so that US authorities could be hoodwinked. And the admission by Trump's son that they had huge flows of money coming from Russia, has it seems been steam rolled... then there is the money laundering from his hotel in Panama City, Panama. Its an ugly building that one, I have been past it on a trip to see the Panama Canal. What went on there was pretty ugly too. I have read a lot of the Mueller Report and I have not seen it mentioned there- I would have noticed.
20
@Bob Guthrie
I’d be willing to bet that it is in the redacted parts of the Report.
18
This shows that the real Russian collusion between Trump and Russia is not just the help in getting Trump elected, it's the financial dealings and the resulting hold the Russians have over Trump because of it, which Mueller largely did not investigate. Whether that activity was legal or not, it is a huge hammer the Russians have to influence Trump.
It also shows the critical need for Congress to investigate these financial dealings to determine whether legislation is needed. Do the laws on reporting suspicious activity need to be tightened? (Clearly, yes.) Do candidate and office holder reporting requirements need to be tightened? (Again, clearly, yes.) But, in any event, Congress needs to investigate to see what laws need changing and how.
16
Trump Crime Family launders money for dictators and oligarchs and they are now running (into the ground) the once greatest country on earth.
28
@oyvey: Some of it must trickle down onto the Republican Senate delegation too.
22
@Steve Bolger
And that’s exactly why they are so quiet.
Typically, complex illegal activities like this are set up in advance with the right people paid off, to keep them quiet.
25
I'm not really sure how this is news, or rather how this is a shock. Luxury real estate/ real estate, in general, is an all-cash business and consequently purchasing real-estate is one of the ways that criminals launder money. The Times has previously done pieces on NYC real estate being used for money laundering and the shell companies that purchase luxury apartments. What makes anyone think that Trump, who also traffics in high-end real estate isn't turning a blind eye to questionable buyers in the name of more cash?
Real estate really needs to be regulated, and transactions of such high value need to be vetted and background checked. Renting an apartment or checking into a hotel requires more information about one's self than purchasing a building in cash.
20
We all know the Emperor has no clothes, but the system we grew up with and within which we make our careers and fortunes requires us to admire his wardrobe. Psychologically, it is easier to express admiration for the wardrobe if we believe it is there, so for our peace of mind we ignore or discount the evidence of our own eyes.
If Nixon had arranged an accident to destroy the tapes, or if Republicans had had a majority in congress, he would have finished his second term.
10
Pro Tip: If you are engaged in money laundering as an integral revenue source for your business, then running for President and putting all of this under the spotlight is a REALLY BAD IDEA.
28
@SmartCat
... Unless, of course, becoming president is part of the deal of paying it back to whomever loaned it to you.
17
Donald Trump is corrupt from head to toe, and so is the Republican leadership. Nancy Pelosi must, immediately, move forward with Impeachment hearings; she's already late. Her timidity is immoral, we must protect the rule of law, and the Constitution, ahead of political games. Without an adherence to laws, we must as well let Putin be president. (He may already be) Donald Trump and his criminal White House will not cooperate with ANY investigation, and will mock Congress till the end. If Nancy Pelosi doesn't have the stomach to lead in this matter, then she must immediately resign. The time is almost lost.
12
“At no time was an investigator prevented from escalating activity identified as potentially suspicious,” she added. “Furthermore, the suggestion that anyone was reassigned or fired in an effort to quash concerns relating to any client is categorically false.”
Of course they were not prevented from elevating, that is what they did and nothing happened! The next line is pure Trumpesque obfuscating diversion.
Sure looks like a lot of Deutsche folks are in Dutch.
11
I am a former commercial banker. There was mandatory annual training of all personnel to combat money laundering. We were taught that we were the first line of defense to report financial transactions that appeared suspicious under the Bank Secrecy Act and Patriot Act, among others. Remember that the point of all this was anti-terrorist and anti-illegal drug transactions. Combating tax avoidance was another goal, and transactions involving shell companies in certain countries known to be tax havens...the Caymans, Cyprus, Bahamas, Panama, Monaco raised red flags, almost by definition, of potential illegal activity. Violations of these Acts have both corporate and personal criminal liability. These folks at DB that filed the SARs followed the law. Whoever the managers are who stopped the SARs are in personal jeopardy of criminal activity, not just DB. Also, as soon as Trump and Kushner got into politics, they became "politically important people" and the level of monitoring went up. Why? So any bank handling their financial transactions is not facilitating bribery. Lastly, it is not up to the bank to do anything other than report. The client is not informed about the SAR. It is up to the Treasury financial crimes units to investigate and enforce the law. That the DB managers saw fit to stop the SARs in question was really dumb on their part, unless, of course, they were conspiring with the Trumps and Kushners. I hope NYT continues to follow this story closely.
35
@Joe Smith
True.
And you might find it interesting that Barr’s eldest daughter recently got a job with FinCen - the very department that investigates money laundering.
21
Don't you just hate getting caught, red-handed, even if lying is your usual modus operandi? And what on earth is going on with Deutsche Bank? Is their reputation worth anything anymore? I seriously doubt it.
18
It's time to bring this lawless administration and those in Congress that enable it to justice.
24
@KJW
I want to see a list of the Congress folks that by law require extra close checking who are not being checked.
8
Should the words bank and money laundering ever be used in the same sentence? Am I wrong here? What the heck is taking so long to throw this whole family to the curb, and shut the doors on Deutsche Bank?
19
One wonders what is going on when Deutsche Bank is giving Trump special treatment and then it turns out that Michael Cohen has also had some of the same suspicious activity flagged from his banks, the First Republic Bank and City National Bank. But when the “suspicious activity report” (SAR) on the account owned by Cohen’s shell company was flagged with the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), those records suddenly went missing. Now the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a complaint with the Office of Inspector General to investigate this.
On a side note, Mary Daly, William Barr’s daughter just got a job at FinCEN, the treasury department that is in charge of money laundering.
https://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-filing/crew-sends-treasury-department-michael-cohen-complaint/
34
@Dan
The Barr family is one that stays together strays together.
What an interesting/enlightening comment. Thank you Dan!
9
@Dan
Right Dan. I can see everything you pointed out from distant Australia, so why can't Con Don's loyal base see it? Why can't Jordan, Kennedy, Graham, Gaetz, McConnell and so on ad infinitum see it? Obviously they can and merrily participate in the obfuscations of this band of brigands anyway. In what universe does an Attorney General not see it?
This is all in plain sight. Now the comprehensively un-investigated SC crony Brett the Unvetted is going to be able to overturn Roe v Wade and support disregarding legal subpoenas. What a mess! Good luck America- I hope you get to keep your democracy. The rest of the world needs you to.
14
@Bob Guthrie
They can all see it. But what if - as often happens with big crime - they were also given quite a bit of money proactively, to keep them quiet?
13
I am sure Trump has ordered Roy Cohn (AG Barr) to squash this investigation and any others like it . It will be very difficult to prosecute Trump or Kushner for financial crimes as Barr feels the president and Kushner are above the law much like the Romanovs were in Russia. If Russia chose to launder millions thru Deutsche Bank and the Trump/Kushner families that is private biz and exposing it is treason . Trump's base feels having a slick mob style boss in the white house empowers them ,evangelicals save fetuses while Trump admin put children in cages never to see their parents again. All will come out eventually and many will testify exposing Trump/Kushner as criminals making 2020 a loser for Trump.
18
Who are the people supporting the criminal in the WH? How deep is this sickening corruption of our government and banking industry.
22
Now here is Trump’s response to this article. Sounds like he would have no problem with Congress’s oversight of his bank records, doesn’t it?
“The Failing New York Times (it will pass away when I leave office in 6 years), and others of the Fake News Media, keep writing phony stories about how I didn’t use many banks because they didn’t want to do business with me. WRONG! It is because I didn’t need money. Very old....fashioned, but true. When you don’t need or want money, you don’t need or want banks. Banks have always been available to me, they want to make money. Fake Media only says this to disparage, and always uses unnamed sources (because their sources don’t even exist)......”
“Now the new big story is that Trump made a lot of money and buys everything for cash, he doesn’t need banks. But where did he get all of that cash? Could it be Russia? No, I built a great business and don’t need banks, but if I did they would be there...and DeutscheBank...........was very good and highly professional to deal with - and if for any reason I didn’t like them, I would have gone elsewhere....there was always plenty of money around and banks to choose from. They would be very happy to take my money. Fake News!”
10
Ms McFadden (and all appropriate regulators) meet Congressional Committees, Congressional Committees meet MsMcFadden.
15
“The New York Times continues to create dots that just don’t connect.” - Karen Zabarsky, (spokeswoman for Kushner Companies)
Spoken like someone who is innocent, with nothing to hide.
/sarc
It sounds more like a defensive and guilt-ridden challenge to me. We just haven't connected the complete set of dots yet, but they are out there.
And your boss's daddy-in-law can't do anything to save you. Better lawyer up and turn state's evidence. Else you will end up in a cell next to Michael Cohen.
16
Warmer... Warmer...
16
Yeah, right. A man runs for President and gets elected and -- purely by coincidence of course -- his account trips an alert in a computerized warning system designed to detect illicit activity. Funny that never happened when he wasn't running for President. What sort of idiot do you take me for?
3
If Duetsche bank revealed this damning evidence, they could have potentially lost everything they lent to these two loser organizations. Now they can recoup some of it , until the inevitable default occurs.
6
When we don't jail white-collar criminals, this is the kind of nefarious activity that just continues. Had we jailed Trump in 2015 for money laundering through his Taj Mahal casino--instead of fining him $10M--, he would not have been free to either run for office or use Deutsche Bank as his Monopoly game in 2016-17. The same applies to the lenders in the taxi medallion scam. Had they joined the owner of the Taj Mahal in the sneezer--after they tried to blow up the world economy in 2007-08, they would not have been free to scam the taxi drivers tis time around. These are bad times for "little people" who try to follow the law, as Ms. McFadden discovered. https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-fines-trump-taj-mahal-casino-resort-10-million-significant-and-long
17
It seems that there is a complicated dynamics between Germans and their ethics+international laws. On the one hand, Germans are among the most correct/incorruptible people, i.e they have strong ethics but, on the other hand, they have an innate disdain against laws imposed on them. Remember how Volkswagen cheated for two decades on the emission controls in a most puerile way ? Deutsche Bank couldn't care less about enabling money laundering or the Iran embargo, scoffing at the American laws right under our nose ! It's hard to bribe a German but, when they get a chance to cheat others, they have no limits/no shame. Two related things: 1. dear French people: no thanks to you for the Versailles treaty: you have enraged the Germans for the following 100 years, 2. dear non-German Europeans: how much longer do you think that Germans will atone for their biggest sin called WW2 ? because, when they stop feeling guilty, after three generations, they will not support you any longer, and France has its own troubles with the socialism fizzling out (it was a good run), UK is out and, whatever Italy is doing these days, remember that that is the country who elected Mussolini (though, to their credit, they ousted him quickly, just a temporary malaise, what Italian for that ? dolore di capo ?).
2
Why is Deutsche Bank allowed to do business in the United States?
10
Deutsche Bank was caught and fined for laundering Russian money. They willfully ignored this AND Justice Kennedy, who mysteriously retired to open a spot for Kavanaugh, was Trump's banker at DB. Hmmmmmm.
12
“Deutsche Bank staff saw suspicious activity”, ha ha ha! Isn’t this a contradiction in terms!
3
McFadden wins! Ha ha ha double ha! Oh yeah man let’s run everything like a business. Corporations are people too. Presidential material with the other 900 democratic hopefuls for 2020.
I vote McFadden.
1
Tell us something about Trump and his monetary/financial practices that we don’t know already or can’t deduce, conclude logically by watching his behaviour.
Mendacity and veracity on the tail ends of a Gaussian curve especially, don’t survive in the same human!
It just doesn’t work this way.
The question to ask and contemplate is... none of this matters to his base, his supporters, and that’s a solid 40% of then population.
A lot of republicans may think he’s corrupt in their minds but most will also tell you, this man fits my agenda, so he still gets my vote!
Right there is your problem.
Is uncovering more of his criminal, corrupt behaviour going to help change McConnell’s mind— no! That ‘case-closed’ statement was enlightening. What he was saying-in truth- was not to bother with investigations or impeachment... it “ain’t” gonna work!!
4
Didn't Justice Anthony Kennedy's son work in the private banking division of Deutsche Bank?
7
(CNN 2/13/19)
Mary Daly, Barr's oldest daughter and the director of Opioid Enforcement and Prevention Effort/s in the deputy attorney general's office, is leaving for a position at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit, a Justice official said.
5
Wow, the Trumps, the Kushners and Deutsch Bank are all dirty and involved in laundering large sums of ill begotten Russian money. About the only people who would be surprised by that would be a Trump supporter. Do I really need to say anything else?
5
Could it be that our president is hearing footsteps?
3
Wow!! Someone struck a nerve with this article. Donald Trump lashed out with a 5 part tweet and he even spelled some words correctly.
Our president (who claims lots of banks will do business with him) was thinking of America first when he went with a foreign bank rather than an American bank thereby helping make America great.
I am curious to see what Angela Merkel will do on her side of the pond with this information. We all know that she has a special fondness for Donald in her heart...not.
12
@TomHarrison. Tom, Trump was not choosing which bank to do business with. From previous reporting...Deutsche Bank was wanting to make a big splash in USA at same time all NY banks refused to do business with Trump because he had stiffed them to many times.
3
@M - Yes, I understand that. But in his tweets today he denies that U.S. banks or any banks were refusing to do business with him.
"...No, I built a great business and don’t need banks, but if I did they would be there...and DeutscheBank was very good and highly professional to deal with - and if for any reason I didn’t like them, I would have gone elsewhere....there was always plenty of money around and banks to choose from. They would be very happy to take my money."
It would be wonderful to see a list of U.S. banks that would take his money:)
5
@tom harrison
Here's your list of the US Banks:
.
5
All the real estate developer were doing it.. it was like sport !
5
Let's not forget that US Tax Payers gave DB $354 Billion.
Republican leadership has made it clear they have no intention of lambasting Trump's activities in any way.
To me, that makes it clear they are part of this criminality.
We truly live in a kleptocracy, and Fox News keeps us fighting other ordinary citizens over their own greed.
I think any person that has been a publicly visible apologist for Trump should now be investigated.
6
When a group of people all have something on each other, little can break their solidarity because they all know they'll hang separately if one of them breaks.
10
This is the crux of the corruption of Trump and his minions. They launder money for the Russians. Take a look at our Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, too.
10
It is difficult to give much credibility to professional complainers. Ms. McFadden "left" and later sued Bank of America before landing at Deutsche Bank to start telling management how to run their business.
@Randy. I think of her as a true patriot not a “complainer”. Neither of us know her but have differing opinions on her motivations. I hope we are each able to learn more about her, it certainly sounds like we all need more info.
3
Deutsche Bank,the second largest money laundering operation
in the world right after Wells Fargo.
Some of the execs of both of these scam artists/criminals need to do time in American prisons.
8
How long this will drag? If Trump is re-elected? The entire Trump family including the Kurshners will get away with murder. How’s possibly they are in government? And expanding their crooked business culture everywhere? Upsetting and disturbing.
6
It sounds like the bank is a criminal enterprise.
5
And America thought Bernie Madoff was a big criminal hiding in plain view?
HA!
This is a big can of criminal worms and I hope it brings down Deutsche, Trump, Kushner and more crooks because if someone starts taking this investigation seriously, it's going to uncover more serious criminal findings than the Mueller Report.
It will probably make Manafort's crimes look small in comparison.
Trump thought running for Potus would block anyone EVER finding out how he's managed to have so many bankruptcies and yet he's a top borrower at Deutsche. This doesn't make banking sense that Trump's track record for losses...makes this bank throw money at him when other banks wouldn't work with Trump. Suspicious? You bet!
The connection between Scotus Kenney's son, Justin Kennedy working at Deutsche who gave Trump 1 billion needs investigation.
11
It is people like Ms. McFadden that will save our country yet.
7
"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook." - Richard M. Nixon
"Sure, our president is a crook. So what? We voted for him, and we like what he is doing." - today's Republicans
---
My, how far we've fallen in 45 years.
The only thing that Mr. Trump and the G.O.P. will understand is utter defeat at the polls in 2020.
VOTE!
8
Let’s not forget that Justin Kennedy — the son of SCOTUS Justice Kennedy— was the person at Deutsche Bank who actually lent Trump those billions. Why do you think Justice Kennedy retired so hastily? The web of illegal compromise, corruption and money among GOP, conservatives in courts/government/corporations, mob oligarchs and Russia runs deep and wide.
5
So they were afraid to incur Dumb Donald’s wrath (on Twitter)? Sounds like these same DB incompetents would make perfect Republican congressmen or senators since they are also afraid to incur the wrath of DD...I guess moral and ethical convictions are a thing of the past!
3
It seems that there is a complicated dynamics between Germans and their ethics+international laws. On the one hand, Germans are among the most correct/incorruptible people, i.e they have strong ethics but, on the other hand, they have an innate disdain against laws imposed on them. Remember how Volkswagen cheated for two decades on the emission controls in a most puerile way ? Deutsche Bank couldn't care less about enabling money laundering or the Iran embargo, scoffing at American laws right under our nose ! It's hard to bribe a German but, when they get a chance to cheat foreigners, seems that they have no shame. Two related things: 1. dear French people: no thanks to you for the Versailles treaty: you have enraged the Germans for the following 100 years, hence their current adversion toward international laws (maybe I am mis-attributing blame here, eh!), 2. dear non-German Europeans: how much longer do you think that ze Germans will atone for their biggest sin called WW2 ? because, when they stop feeling guilty, after three generations (that's about now), they will not support/tolerate you any longer; France has its own troubles with socialism fizzling out (it had a good run), UK is out and, whatever Italy is doing these days, remember that that is the country who elected Mussolini (though, to their credit, they ousted him quickly, just a temporary malaise, what is Italian for that ? dolore di capo ?).
3
I am surprised not to see anyone worried about the safety of the brave Ms McFadden. There are some very ruthless operators under Russian leadership who dispose of those who raise their heads too incoveniently high - and not restricted to Boris Nemtsov on a Moscow bridge.
4
The feds need to do their job. Put these people in jail. A few hundred million in fines is a slap on the wrist.
3
Compliance departments' mission statements are not to ensure the firm acts rightly and goodly - they are there to make sure the firm gets as close to the edge of compliance as possible while allowing the maximizing of profits. I used to work for a somewhat big trading company and they said as much in our year end meeting once, for some reason.
3
@Bob. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. That is enlightening. Maybe in some bizarro world it is good DJT was SO stupid and SO cocky to run for and (accidentally) get elected POTUS.
Perhaps we were all too comfortable and too willing to believe in the superiority of our country and our democracy and our capitalist system that we declined to see the corruption, the sleaze and greed that is all too apparent.
Financial institutions are forbidden from disclosing Suspicious Activity Reports to the customers. As such, the Trump organization would never have known that one (or more) was files with respect to its transactions. Never, that is, unless the government found illegal activity as a result of the SAR.
The government pretty much ignores 90% of SARS. There are just too many of them filed. They do help the government, however, when the individual in question is investigated for other criminal activity.
So a bank would not stop a SAR from being filed just to protect a relationship unless that relationship involved illegal activity.
What this says to me is that the Deutsche Bank private banking unit was probably covering up illegal activity. Whether it was on the part of the Trump organization or the bank itself is not clear, but it was probably both.
It would not be the first time.
3
Hmmm... and, gee... what a coincidence that retiring Supreme Court Justice Kennedy has a son who is on the board there, and that he just suddenly decided to 'retire' right when it was absolutely guaranteed that a Trump appointee would be confirmed.
How about that...
7
Is this a surprise or just a confirmation/reflection of Trump organization's operation ?
In 2017, " The giant German lender Deutsche Bank was hit with about $630 million in penalties on Tuesday over a $10 billion Russian money-laundering scheme that involved its Moscow, New York and London branches. "
Since 1990's, Deutsche Bank is the only bank that deals with Trump organization after filing multiple bankruptcies. The latest loan amount is over $ 300 millions since Trump becomes president. It is interesting to find out how much Russian's dirty money ended up in Trump's pocket ?
7
Trump's Russian financial ties are thru Deutsche Bank. Mueller blew it when he didn't pursue that.
We have a RIGHT to know if our President has international Conflicts of Interest.
6
@Nancy Shields
Did Mueller neglect to follow the money, or was Trump successful in defending his “red line” by curtailing any investigation into his and his family’s finances?
It’s a matter of record that Mueller hired people with experience researching money laundering. Why did they look at Manafort’s bank records but not Trump’s?
I’m expecting Rosenstein could likely shed some light here.
3
Deutsche Bank has suspicious activity in a great many of its big accounts, and the fact that they look away is why they have been such a successful "bank." Will they have to give up Trump and Kushner to save the others, or will they be able to discredit Ms. McFadden and pay off people sufficiently to make it all go away? My money is on the latter.
5
In whose jurisdiction does this now rest? Will any legal entity pursue this, or is Trump once more likely to walk free?
7
In the case of exceedingly wealthy individuals strongly suspected of numerous crimes, I'm starting to be in favor of 'guilty until proven innocent' - they can use their assets to defend themselves from their jail cells. Maybe a strong taste of what they think they'll never have to experience will bring them back to reality. In any event, since a lot of this chaos is about clickbait and ad sales, just think of the ratings!
How many criminals do we have now in 'power'? I've lost count. Time for perp walks, including out of the West Wing.
8
Despite all the reports there is hardly any hard evidence-how much, who and exactly when.
And I want to believe.
@Yankee
There's certainly evidence in their bank records; the public just hasn't seen it yet.
13
People forgot about AI. Software can now scan thousands of transactions and instantly identify fraudulent or suspicious activity.
Spin it all you want however the precision of AI is undeniable.
6
No it can’t - at least not yet. Certainly, software can identify transactions that may involve fraud or money laundering, but they then need further review and investigation by humans. By, for example, people like Ms McFadden
3
So,let's release the dodgy transactions and see whether there is a deep state contingent at the bank creating an uproar that they know will never be provable or whether there is substantive misbehavior there.
Is there anything under the fig leaf ? We all want to know for once and for all.
3
Let's hope that the SDNY acts like a law enforcement agency and follows the money to possible prosecutions. Our Justice Department under Barr has shown itself to be Trump's personal defense attorneys and will do a "hear no evil, see no evil" approach to the law. I had hoped the Mueller would have not been such a boy scout and issued indictments, but he felt that Congress should take the lead, but Congress has shown that the Dems are spineless and the Republicans are co-conspirators. Come on Southern District, stand up for the law and fight Barr if you have to but get it done.
21
"...if they didn’t do anything, the bank could be perceived as cutting a lucrative break for Mr. Trump, whose administration wields regulatory and law enforcement power over the bank..."
At the risk of stating the obvious: emoluments clause, anyone?
29
Great reporting and explanation by David Enrich and all. It's a simple matter to trace the trump organization transactions...*if* Deutsche Bank had a transparent process. So, for example, as David reports:
"That did not happen with this report. It went to managers in New York who were part of the private bank, which caters to the ultrawealthy. They felt Ms. McFadden’s concerns were unfounded and opted not to submit the report to the government, the employees said."
There should be traceable documentation at Deutsche Bank that supports the rationale of the private bank managers. They could use that material as evidence that their decision about the trump organization was correct.
On the other hand, if there is no evidence to support their decision, Deutsche Bank is in trouble.
I have to laugh. The mere fact that there were transactions with the trump organization should have sent up flags. They didn't need any computer analysis.
"Ms. McFadden, a longtime anti-money laundering specialist in Deutsche Bank’s Jacksonville office, said she had reviewed the transactions and found that money had moved from Kushner Companies to Russian individuals."
Sarcastically, right, nothing to see *here*. And involving the trump "foundation"?
"The transactions, some of which involved Mr. Trump’s now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity..."
Trump is all about the suspension of disbelief. But trump can't hypnotize computers.
29
On thing is clear: the Trump organization is going to go full tilt to block the investigations. They will fight like a cornered animal to stop Congress from getting the D. B. records. I thank the Times for this report. I hope the Times will report of the likelihood that the Trump legal machine will win this epic battle.
30
The critics sentence in the article is the one that says, "The red flags raised by employees do not necessarily mean the transactions were improper."
@William Case: Just means they were likely improper. And should be further investigated.
19
Red flags require supervisors to investigate. These banks were not performing their due diligence.
18
@William Case: are you going to make that case for trump in the SDNY court proceedings against him?
2
It makes no sense, common or otherwise, for any bank to loan money to an individual who has declared bankruptcy at least four times. Especially bankruptcies involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Therefore, I have to conclude that the loans were guaranteed by a third party and that third party would not want any scrutiny by American government officials.
And who went to the Russians hoping to establish back-channel communications via the Russian embassy? Mr. Kushner. And on whose behalf was Mr. Kushner working for?
Follow the dots and it becomes very easy to understand why Ms. McFadden and others were raising concerns that others chose not to hear.
It is very easy to fire the messengers but extremely difficult to silence them. Our president may refer to these people as "rats." Instead, they are canaries in the coal mine.
672
@Tom Q Any high school student would immediately recognize that Trump is a serial bankruptcy criminal. How come there's no punishment for repeated bankruptcies?
102
@Tom Q
Let's hope the carbon monoxide stays low in the coal mine and the canaries keep singing.
68
On the same hand, it makes no sense to me. Even a dummy would know every transaction with the Kushner or Trump name on it would be scrutinized by the bank. These are smart people. I find it hard to believe they would engage in any dodgy doings knowing this to be the case.
8
We are all still guessing about the actual reasons for Trump's desperate need for financial secrecy. But a history of money laundering for East European oligarchs seems to be the most plausible explanation. The Trump empire for decades was deeply in debt and had a portfolio of overpriced real estate to unload. The market to buy such assets at inflated prices is pretty much limited to people with illicit money to launder.
561
@woofer, I think it is more basic than money laundering. Real estate is done though a combination of equity investment and loans. Trump's bankruptcies meant that standard western sources of capital were off limits. So he had to seek investment capital from less honorable sources. Both of Trump's adult sons have made comments about large Russian investment in Trump companies. A President deeply in debt to Russian oligarchs might have no choice but bend America's foreign policy to a pro-Russian policy and, in particular, to call for lifting sanctions on Russian oligarchs. In other words, such a Prez might be guilty of what most of us would call treason.
130
Nothing will be done about this. It will be another example of how the richest in America, with the help of the banking industry, get away with criminal behavior. While this isn't violence in the direct sense of the word, it's not a victimless crime. Honest employees are fired or feel forced to leave to avoid the taint of association with such practices. There are ripple effects if there is a bank collapse due to the practices and those ripples hurt customers who are least able to afford it.
It was evident before Trump ever ran for president that he wasn't trustworthy with money or anything else. That the GOP continues to support this man and his dishonest practices shows how low they have sunk in their wish to remain in power. They haven't learned a thing from Watergate or from anything else. What they have done is to fracture the country, help cause recessions, leave working Americans in precarious economic positions, and encouraged racism, xenophobia, etc.
5/20/2019 12:33pm
27
Deutsche Bank will probably never recover its $300 million from Donald Trump.
Sad!
8
Corruption after corruption. Let the light in.
11
A history of money-laundering for Russian and Russia-tied oligarchs would pretty much explain all of Trump's odd, downright anti-American behavior with respect to Putin and the risks he ran and continues to run obstructing justice and defying Congressional subpoenas. If there is a paper trail to be discovered, all the puzzle pieces will fall into place, even for a great many Trump voters. Then Republican Senators, finger in the wind, may discover they are patriots and Constitutionalists once again and not running dog apologists for a would-be American kleptocrat.
19
@RRI
"Then Republican Senators, finger in the wind, may discover they are patriots and Constitutionalists once again"
That is the optimistic scenario. I hope you are right.
5
@RRI,
Here’s to hoping you’re right.
Republicans may rediscover patriotism when Trump is on his free fall but Trump will be bringing down everyone with him. He’s been proven to blame everyone but himself and has no value of loyalty to anyone but himself. The day he outs the secrets of William Barr, Lindsey Graham, and Mitch McConnell will be a very glorious day.
5
@RRI: McConnell works for trump.
1
This is totally bizarre! Banks do not disclose this information and cannot disclose to a customer that a SAR has been filed. DB appears to be a very corrupt financial institution. But with 45, birds of a feather fly together!
10
Congratulations to the New York Times again. Great reporting! I find it curious (and troubling) that this story isn't front page news on every paper in America.
25
@John Q Public
If Murdoch controls slabs of press in the USA, his papers will not mention it at all.
1
How does someone who loses $1 BILLION in 10 years stay afloat much less put on a show of ostentatious self-indulgent - gold toilets and all - while filing bankruptcy 11 times?!?!?!
As Donnie Jr. and Eric have both said...."We don't worry about banks - we get all the money we need from RUSSIA!
Hmmmmm.
21
It is quite refreshing to see The Times use an actual named source - "several government officials" is not a named source - for one of its articles. Even a nicely posed photo of the named source.
5
Please continue your investigation by looking at the relationship between Justin Kennedy, Justice Kennedy's son and Justice Kennedy's abrupt resignation.
27
Deutsche Bank should go the way of the Geheime Staatspolizei and disappear.
4
@Alex Cody
Deutsche Bank should go the way of the Hindenberg.
2
The German banking supervisory authority called BaFin will certainly pick this up. Guess what, money laundering is a crime in Germany, too, also for foreign individuals and organizations, and the time bar for crimes under sec. 261 of the German criminal code is five years. So, if this occurred in or around 2016, Trump and Kushner are now in the crosshairs of yet another investigation. The Bafin is a very stubborn and pernickety German authority not known to be stoppable by external pressure.
401
@Tommy S
Problem might be, that the Investment side had been spun off to London and was headed by a Britisher of South Indian origin (who ran it into the ground with greed and wild speculation). It may not fall under BaFin jurisdiction.
16
@Tommy S
All of this would also explain why Trump needed to hurt Angela Merkel - who was probably well aware of the Deutsche Bank's money laundering schemes.
14
Go get em!
7
The Deutsche Bank lost a fortune in 2008. It had to pay huge fines for banking violations. Kushner and Trump as well as Russia clients are too big to mess with in the bank's eyes.
5
The reality is both Trump and Kushner are crooks.
64
Seems to me that the main issue here is the culture at Deutsche which allowed individuals in the Privaate Banking business line to overrule the Compliance group’s recommendation that a suspicious activity report should be submitted. But the Times provides no detail on who these individuals were, what discussions took place between them and the Compliance team and what additional information (if any) they might have provided to Ms McFadden’s superiors. The article buys into Ms McFadden’s perspective with little skepticism around her motivations. Moreover, whether or not a suspicious activity report was issued back in 2016, it seems likely that all these payments have since been combed through by regulators and investigators who have come up with nothing incriminatory. Lots of insinuations and ink poured based on one disgruntled employee’s viewpoint.
4
@Liz
Quotation from the article:
The transactions, some of which involved Mr. Trump’s now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity, according to five current and former bank employees. Compliance staff members who then reviewed the transactions prepared so-called suspicious activity reports that they believed should be sent to a unit of the Treasury Department that polices financial crimes.
But executives at Deutsche Bank, which has lent billions of dollars to the Trump and Kushner companies, rejected their employees’ advice. The reports were never filed with the government.
The nature of the transactions was not clear. At least some of them involved money flowing back and forth with overseas entities or individuals, which bank employees considered suspicious.
44
@Cornflower Rhys
The NY State AG has an on-going Criminal Investigation into the financial dealing surrounding Trump’s Foundation. They also have already received some records from Deutsche Bank. It would be interesting to know if they have records of these described questionable transactions?
32
Computer systems frequently identify transactions for further review. After review, most do not result in the filing of suspicious activity reports. The Times makes no mention of this nor does it provide any statistics around the how many computer flagged transactions at Deutsche lead to SARs.
2
Deutsche ignored their own internal warnings because they had too much exposure to the criminal dealings of our tax cheat in chief. So when Congress formally subpoenaed this information, Trump, his children, and the ineffable J. Kushner all sued DB and Capital One to prevent them from releasing the financial information Congress sought. Are these the actions of innocent people? What's in your wallet?
51
I feel bad for Jared’s children. Surrounded by corruption, their dad and both grandpas.
27
Not so sure the mom and grandmas weren’t somehow complicit as well.
16
@MIMA
Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny - kids turn out to be just like their parents! Where do you suppose young Jared learned his tricks of the trade? And young Donald, too? Lousy father-figures, lousy kids, lousy grandkids. Be careful what kind of behaviors you model for your offspring!
2
The Bank, the Russians and the Trump family, gangsters all. I wonder how Mitch McConnell will spin this one.
50
So we have Ms. McFadden.... dismissed from B of A. She sues for "racial discrimination" and settles for an undisclosed amount. Now we learn that this "anti money laundering specialist" had to be transferred to another division at Deutsche Bank after complaining to Human Resources there. She was later terminated by DB. Seems as though McFadden was riding the "grievance train" to fame and fortune.....perfect fodder for a headline story in the NYT. There was no evidence that the money transfers to and from Trump/Kushner to foreign banks was illegal.....apparently it is standard practice in high level real estate transactions. Ah....but Russia was involved....let's appoint another Special Prosecutor and get to the bottom of the collusion question once and for all. What a hit job!
10
@Pmac
The article itself states that it is standard practice in high level real estate transactions to do large money transfers. This article is very balanced with disclaimers and specific in its facts. It states that a computer program designed to detect possible money laundering tagged some Trump and Kushner transactions, and 4 other employees at Deutsche Bank concurred with McFadden that they were suspicious. This is not one disgruntled employee seeking revenge. And to quote William Barr, it looks like Deutsche Bank put its thumb on the scale when deciding if it wanted to look into the Trump Kushner transactions for money laundering
69
@pmac- Trump is the victim...of everything! Bankruptcies...poor subcontractor work...bone spurs...subpoenas...Should I go on ?
22
So you reject the claim that these red flags were raised and DB management ignored them? These FIVE sources are all saying the same thing, but you know better? Or is character assassination all you’ve got?
17
Clearly some anti-trumpers thought that they little people could make their own impact on world history and flagged all sorts of routine garbage that supervisors stopped.
Pls note that there is no mention of any red flags during prior years so clearly article trying to hint at some collusion delusion again.
Wake up NYT there is no collusion and Trump was not sending payments to Russians fooling gullible American voters.
10
@Patriot -Denial is an amazingly powerful defense mechanism.
53
There is delusion here, close to home.
7
@Patriot, this isn't about collusion, although it could turn out to be just that. It is about DB not following our laws in order to protect Trump and other important people. I had thought Republicans were all about law and order but I guess that just applies to the little people.
21
Justice Kennedy’s son worked for DB
The Justice steps down from the Court, with no reason given, allowing trump to appoint an attempted rapist who will vote the way trump tells him to vote
Is this a coincidence? Blackmail?
Where are articles in the NYT about this ?
62
Bravo to Ms. McFadden. She has ethics and she was obviously well trained at documenting and finding suspicious transactions. These banks are no different than the mob boss in the white house. The corruption is jaw dropping and the blind ignorance of 40% of Americans, feeding on the Faux News disinformation machine is astounding.
We need to oust Deutsche Bank from the US in my book. They and Wells Fargo are at the top of the list of banksters.
11
Deutsche Bank has a long history of covering up and fronting for money launderers.
I am in financial services compliance. No one is punished for filing a SARs that turns into nothing. Failure to file or structuring transactions to avoid a filing, however, brings a heap of trouble for everyone.
20
Banks are policing their own transactions with their best clients? That sounds like a bullet proof system sure to catch any illegal activity.
15
While soybean farmers in the Midwest are facing failure because the price of their product has dropped and banks will no longer lend to them, Trump and associates can borrow until banks face such catastrophic losses they dare not call in these bad loans. Oh well, Trump can bail them out with taxpayer money. Unfortunately, this scenario is played out many, many times every year and Trump is not there. It's all part of the big scam, and the United States merrily skips down the third-world path to another tin-pot dictatorship.
18
@Barbara Snider...And, you are an expert on the horrifying plight of Midwest Soy Bean Farmers how? Because you saw it on CNN, MSNBC or a SNL cold opening?
@Albert Edmund.
Albert I am not an export on soybeans but I was raised in Illinois the largest producer in US.
According to Forbes magazine “... All of this doesn’t help U.S. farmers, of course, but their problem with China is simply this: China is holding them hostage until the U.S. gives them what they want from their trade talks. What if tariffs stay for years? Will American soy farms disappear? Many small farmers are already declaring bankruptcy. “ May 10 2019 8:00 am
So I just thought you might believe what they have to say about soybean farmers. Further info in article states soybean futures a bigger problem than current low prices. These are problems compounded this year by exceedingly poor weather conditions currently. Not a good forecast - not a bluff.
1
To say there is no evidence of collusion in the Mueller report is a falsehood. I could cut and paste right now a heap of circumstantial evidence such as Manafort colluding with Kilimnik by sharing data- more than circumstantial actually. But financial links were barely touched on by Mueller even with his revelations of Trump lying about Trump tower Moscow during the campaign, that look more than circumstantial to me. But basically Mueller has not explored the copious financial obligations and entanglements. Meanwhile two massive calamities are engulfing the United States along with the barely scratched on issues around Deutche Bank. At any other time, American detention camps for abducted children whose parents the Administration have lost track of, would feed news cycles for years. Also Russia now being allowed by the GOP to run amok on the next election constitutes yet another disaster. And the corrupt GOP covers its eyes like the three monkeys, resolutely ignoring and covering up the truth. This calamity will take at least a decade to recover from
17
Add to this the 60 Minutes stories on the Danish Danske Bank and money laundering last night, which also included DeutscheBank.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
16
if djt and his family are innocent - why would they put so much time and energy into hiding financial dealings?
28
When I was very young I hated it when, in a movie, everyone was obsequious to the rich, offering them extra, free services. I would yell out in the theatre--"Hey! They should pay MORE!"
Well this, plus the DeutscheBank executives' quashing the flagging of Trump/Kushner money laundering suspicions show us how Fat Donald has skated all his life.
But why anyone kowtows to the rich is still incomprehensible to me--as the IRS is now doing: the audit rate for income taxes is now just 0.59 % and the audits of the very wealthy has dropped by a factor of 2/3.
15
@JFMACC "the audits of the very wealthy has dropped by a factor of 2/3" ... but Trump's tax returns has been audited continuously since his campaign began ... according to the conman, himself.
6
Neither Kushner nor Trump made the money that they started out with as adults. It was given to them by two men who acquired it by less than honorable means, one who went to jail and the other who was more clever not more honest. If either did not seek crooked ways to make more it would be surprising.
16
The Republican Party historically represented suspicion of large institutions, which included the federal government, big business (including big banks), among others. The danger of these large entities is that they become too powerful, and with that power can come corruption. Teddy Roosevelt rightly broke up monopolies in the big business sector.
Somewhere along the way, the Republicans changed their tune. First, they dropped their skepticism of big business. Then they redirected their ire toward all government. Reagan said, "Government IS the problem."
The Republican Party is now the party of Anarchists. They want to tear down the government. Steve Bannon's "deconstruction of the administrative state."
When they are in power, they sabotage government from within. Then they proclaim, "See, government doesn't work." Mr. Trump has taken this to a whole new level. He is more than happy to use the power of big government when it suits him.
- Executive orders, without consent of Congress.
- Disregard for oversight by Congress and the Judiciary.
- Socialism (bailouts for his 'protected class' of farmers, hurt by his own big-government tariffs/national sales tax).
- Forcing the social values of his evangelical minority base upon the rest of us by fiat.
In other words, big government is just fine for MY constituents and policies, but it is a threat to liberty when the other side does it.
Hypocrites!
17
This is an extraordinarily disturbing report. It adds yet another piece of evidence that points to the criminality of the current occupant of the White House and those surrounding him. As for Deutsche Bank, it has a long history of laundering money for the Russians and is a thoroughly disreputable organization. It is striking, but unsurprising, that it is the only major bank willing to lend to Trump (and latterly, to Kushner). When one remembers Don Jr.'s remark about all the Russian money the Trump family was receiving, we see the web of criminality these dreadful people are enmeshed in. Deutsche Bank should be investigated, and if these allegations are true, its license to operate in this country should be revoked. And since Barr's "Justice" department is anything but, I hope the NY Attorney General will investigate this situation promptly. If the reporting is born out, she should indict Trump and Kushner, since she is not constrained by the ridiculous "Justice" department policy that is protecting Trump from the legal consequences of decades of fraud.
21
Misleading headline when the facts are about a disgruntled employee publicizing allegations, true or not, to aggrandize her lawsuit.
1
@Eyora Dumass - This appears to be the right wing talking point of the day.
7
Her allegations are credible and supported by others. The headline is appropriate.
13
"Trump and his family then sued Deutsche Bank in an attempt to block it from sharing the documents. Although Trump once promised to publicly release his tax returns, he has refused to do so, claiming he is under audit." Earlier this month, the Times obtained Trump’s tax returns from 1985 to 1994 showing his businesses lost more than $1 billion during that timespan."
Everything "The Night Tweeter" touches, he ruins, sooner or later.
15
What we have here is a US president who can not get a loan from a US bank and goes to a foreign bank with a reputation of money laundering and who has been fined for those actions. This US president is in hock to this bank for a minimum of 300 billion dollars. Furthermore, this US president has sued this bank so they do not release any info about him.
What am I missing?
13
Donald J Trump's lies, corruption, and criminal activity are exposed daily. They are out there for all to see. And yet, they continue unabated. One can only imagine the Republican outrage if this were the Clintons instead of the Trumps and Kushners. What has finally been exposed in America is the ascendancy of politics over government. Has Trump and the Republicans so tainted our belief in the values of those who serve us in Washington that our trust in "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" is forever lost?
11
So let me understand this: as long as I commit a crime in another country, I'm still allowed to be President?
Gotcha!
12
@Kingfish52 - Well, if you look at how our country overthrows other governments if we don't like them then the answer has always been, yes.
We need more Ms. McFadden's; I am sorry, but not surprised, that she was fired for doing her job honestly. The Trump organization is increasingly looking like a criminal enterprise.
9
Not for anything but HR never works for the employee, always for the employer. Going to them was a complete waste of time. This back should lose its privileges and charter and closed down for malfeasance. What a joke, all they do is pay fines nothing else.
7
How can we as a country keep receiving these huge indicators that the current president has most certainly been involved in illegal business activities, not to mention obstruction of justice while in office, and not hold he and his band of thieves accountable? Subpoena them all, hold them in contempt, fine them, jail them, proceed with impeachment to get the information needed. The only way to break the hold of this horrible cult of graft and corruption that Trump, the world's biggest fraud, has created and nurtured for many years, is to pile on every day with every bit of information that can be uncovered. The public needs to be "educated" as to the true dangers these people pose to our democracy. Ms. McFadden certainly had no hesitation about "doing the right thing" -- why is Congress not holding itself to the same standard?
11
Forget the Mueller report, this should be the main focus of Congressional hearings. Everyone knows Trump is a crook. Lay out the evidence piece by piece on live television (like the Cohen hearing), and that should damage his poll numbers.
9
A whistle blower gets fired for doing her job.
How many times have we seen this before?
It's all moot. As soon as Trump isn't president, he and his entire family are going to be indicted for tax fraud by NY State.
I'm sure that an investigation into Deutsche Bank—which is going on right now, undoubtedly—will also yield indictments.
5
I guess Jared joins the President in being above the law. With Barr and McConnell acting like rabid attack dogs even questioning Trump or the imperial family about very suspicious behavior can lead to a career destroying attack on the questioner.
11
Financial Corruption is at the heart of the criminal Trump's entire empire. Whether dealing with the Mob( G&G Construction Gambino front) or cheating on his taxes and building regulations, follow the money. He is the worst excuse for a human being EVER.
11
Something has to explain President Trump's bizarre kowtowing to Vladimir Putin and the Russians. This just might have something to do with it.
10
Unbelievable. This guy just continues to get away with everything.
13
Trump just pretty much confirmed the story by calling it all Fake News a few moments ago.
Well done!
But that was pretty much expected. The real question is when will regulatory agencies and law enforcement abandon useless finger waving and start using handcuffs to implement accountability beyond the street weed smoker?
9
Is anybody really surprised that the Trump family is steeped in corruption?
Wonder why he wont release those tax returns ....(no other POTUS has ever refused.)
8
Let's see, a disgruntled former DB employee with a political agenda? Let's use it as another excuse to attack the President! Let me guess - she voted for Hillary.
1
@TL A German employee with a political agenda in the US. Did I get that right? BTW, only US citizens can vote in our presidential election.
3
She’s a German citizen. She doesn’t vote in US elections.
3
No corruption or illegal activity here, Mr. President? We'll believe you when you tweet out your tax returns.
5
Just who exactly is surprised? Kushner and the so-called president are corrupt to the bone, and everyone knows it.
Now when will someone do something about it?
10
This raises serious concerns over how a major financial int`l. institution like Deutsche Bank can be so lax in turning a blind eye to potential criminal activity; simply because they had so much money invested in the Trump business empire. If this is not a cautionary tale to the whole world how banks can become compromised; I don`t. know what would. As for Trump; the more that gets revealed; the sleazier and swampier it becomes. Why people like Ms. McFadden are never listened to is beyond reason. A spider`s web of lies, deceit, and coverups at the highest level. No wonder the world is in such a stinking mess. If we do not start demanding higher morals and accountability; then shame on us!
4
Now we are getting to the good stuff and the real Trump/Russian connection: money and money laundering.
6
Crime in Plain Sight. Lets hope this information gets to someone who can prosecute both DT and DB
5
Deutsche Bank has already faced significant fines for money laundering involving Russians and organized crime: https://www.ft.com/content/e231dbe0-6124-11e9-b285-3acd5d43599e. This is just more of the same and needs to be fully investigated. It should not be up to Deutsche Bank to determine if suspicious activity should be referred to Treasury. Given their history, we must have third party oversight of their business.
5
Donald Trump is on another Twitter rampage this morning after someone read him this article. According to little Don, this is fake news. He wrote and I paraphrase, “who needs to work with banks for loans when I have so much money.”
What he didn’t tweet is that most of his money is from Russian oligarchs and Saudis. They could be loans, gifts or money laundering. Once again Trump’s inability to keep his fingers from Twitter tapping digs himself deeper into a hole.
10
Deutsche Bank is sitting pretty right now and most certainly isn't going to rock any boats, certainly not Trump's. Besides, who is going to take action against any wrongdoing now? Mnuchin? Barr? Hahahahaha!!! This is good for yet another plank in the DEM platform, campaigning against the ever-expanding blanket of Trump corruption that covers just about everything.
3
As Claude Rains would say, "I'm shocked, shocked to find that money laundering is going on here!"
5
Obstruction of justice AND money laundering?!
Impeachment time has come.
12
Trumps funniest and dumbest reaction was telling the world that he doesn’t need banks, he pays everything in cash.
That is exactly what money launderers do, cash that comes from some unknown place and from being black is not whitewashed.
Not to forget that American Banks do NOT want to work with unreliable Trump ever again.
Yes Mr. Trump you made pretty clear how corrupt you really are.
14
Perhaps Deutsche Bank is pretending to be lending but is in reality a middle man for Russian "investments". And perhaps Russians are shadow owners/investors in DB.
5
Trump tweets the assertion that he uses all cash, doesn't need banks because he is so rich.
This puffery is ludicrous since he also bopasts of swiondling banks by declaring bankruptcies x 4 ! But hypocrisy and honesty are never an issue for him.
Of course he would deal in cash; all grifters do so they can avoid a paper trail. No crooks take checks!
And no savvy businessmen use their own cash.
Does Trump think we are all suckers ?
10
Hey, amateur Clinton Foundation whistle-blowers! Here's another one for you. What, no takers?
4
Oh please. This is a very weak story. The main source, Ms. McFadden -- beyond being resentful about her former employer for firing her -- does not provide any specifics about alleged attempts to launder money. The other "former managers" and "former Deutsche Bank employees" not named here but used to "verify" Ms. McFadden are likely disgruntled as well, parroting her. The NYT displaying photos of Ms. McFadden's corporate brownie points is just silly.
Also, the NYT using past money laundering allegations against Deutsche Bank to imply that Trump and Kushner are therefore guilty is unfair to say the least. And just because a bank transaction triggers the bank's software about potential suspicious activity -- and even the filing of an official suspicious activity report -- does not mean there was anything wrong on further inspection, and does mean there was a "cover-up" by management.
1
So let's review Deutsch Banks records to ensure compliance with regulations. Trump is certainly putting up a big fight resisting disclosure with law suits and hollow denials. What's to hide? He seems to be hiding everything. Not a good look!
7
So... why do DJT and DB fight any subpoena or request for records? If this is just a disgruntled employee, then surely they could score an easy PR victory exposing that fact and their own clean hands.
6
Of course these two clowns were involved with money laundering with the Russkis. Isn't that what grifters do?
Question: how did Donald Jr. and/or Ivanka escape scrutiny? Aren't they Daddy's little helpers too?
8
In the sad saga of Trump and his family's brazen lies and corruption, what is more appalling than the Trumps is congressional republicans' willingness to totally ignore the lawlessness of current administration, country's citizens, environment and governance be damned.
Even more appalling is the fact that 90% of Trump's base ,still, and unflinchingly, support Trump.
6
Again, how convenient for the left/NYT to write this article but again most witnesses ID have to be kept secured so it's just a bunch of anonymous randoms that people take as facts
1
Release the full Mueller report. Release 10 years of tax returns. Release draft records. Release Fordham school transcripot. Release Wharton transcript. Relese high school transcript. Release 5 years over due financial statements on the so called Trump Foundation.
How long before Trump and Kusner hire lawyers and sue for defamation to get this shut down....now that the National Enquirer isn't there to buy the story and kill it?
Trump...why are you covring up and hiding your texes (BTW - you are not restricted if you are even being audited which we doubt).
7
I find this report particularly alarming. Because of the seriousness of the allegations regarding a sitting president and his first circle of course, but even more so because if the red flags discussed in this article are indeed proven to be connected to criminal activity with Russia at some point, that would be particularly ignominious for the whole judiciary branch of the United States who just spent two years in one of the most high profile investigations in the history of this country, which just happened to be about that very sort of Russian interference. To think that it would miss or cover up this kind of thing would be a disgrace and lead to a huge crisis in either case. More investigation is definitely needed to confirm or dismiss these allegations, any uncertainty here is not tolerable as it blatantly undermines our faith in the institutions.
340
@Jsfranco
“whole judiciary branch of the United States who just spent two years in one of the most high profile investigations in the history of this country,”
First, it was not the “whole judiciary branch” that did the investigation; it was the DOJ (part of the administrative branch).
Second, the scope of the investigation was limited and did not include Trump’s finances.
It is very clear from Mueller’s report that he had his hands full just investigating the crimes performed during the campaign, election and transition that resulted in many criminal felony charges, a number of guilty pleas, a couple of trials with convictions and guilty plea deals.
Trump’s finances have just started to be investigated and already the NY State AG has made referrals to the state’s tax fraud investigation division, the insurance fraud investigation division, and made an audit referral to the IRS. In addition the AG’s office has had Trump’s charity foundation shutdown and taken over by the state; as well as investigating the transactions to determine if criminal charges could be filed in relationship to the Trump use of the charity for personal enrichment.
NOTE: the NY AG already has some financial records related to the charity from Deutsche Bank.
53
@Gandolph Thank you (and @sfranco) for these concerns and illuminations. Perhaps Barrr should allow the unreacted report to be presented to a sworn in Congress.
23
@Jsfranco, Do you remember Trump drawing that line in sand that Mueller dare not cross? What is in this article was beyond that line and not part of Mueller's inquiry. Though it may be part of the 12 ongoing inquiries whose conclusions are not in the Mueller report.
21
Mueller’s report did not look deeply into Trump money-laundering allegations due to the scale and depth of expertise needed and time constraints of delivering a report to the AG and Congress. Consider Trump's Panamanian business interests. Trump entities are alleged to have facilitated Russian money-laundering used to acquire buildings and residential units under development in Panama. Trump business interests in Panama real estate developments layered (cleansed) and integrated (exchanged) real property for dirty money. (Vancouver casino's and real estate are alleged to be primary launders of dirty money sourced mainly from China.)
Money-laundering benefits international banks. It provides fees and multiple channels to wash dirty US dollars - globally estimated to be between $800 B and $2 T.
Global banks and intermediaries are aware of the "Vancouver Model" that describes a plan to invest in Vancouver real estate to cleanse dirty money.
U.S. has severe penalties to penalize Banks, like Deutsche Bank, for wrong-doing. The money laundering industry relies on sound evidence and good lawyers. And the U.S. has ample resources to prosecute money launders – but they need sufficient evidence to do so.
Robert Mueller focused on low-hanging fruit to build documentation needed to charge Trump with a felony – obstruction of justice and possible impeachment.
To collar anyone for high-stakes money laundering may be the hardest threshold to meet in white collar crimes.
2
Hope Congress passes a law that requires all the presidential candidates go through security clearance and background check. This roots out any potential issues with candidates like Trump. Hope congressional republicans support this as this is no different from Voter ID laws that they all favor.
11
Hmmm, Deutche Bank is the ONLY bank that would loan the Trump gang money and they had already been disciplined for allowing money laundering schemes with the Russians? Why would anyone be suspicious?
14
The only explanation I can think of is the Russian oligarchs TOLD the bank to loan Trump the money, they have him covered.
Why else after Trump defaulted for hundreds of millions of dollars would they continue to do business with him , then add to that his suspicious money laundering behavior that was never looked into or reported by the bank.
6
Seems like this reflects another reason why impeachment is necessary. Wake up democrats in the house of representatives. There are many of us who will not support democratic candidates who oppose impeachment!
5
Can anyone explain why Deutsche Bank repeatedly disregards its own regulations all the while watching their prized client, Trump, default on loans?
6
At the excruciating slow snail's pace that legal actions move, Trump will have served two terms before these wrong-doings finally get to a conclusion in the courts.
3
And isn't it a wonderful thing that most of that money is finding its way into the pockets of the neediest of Americans? We're most grateful to you, Deutsche Bank, Mr. Trump, and Mr. Kushner – for how you're spreading your wealth.
3
AML processes in finance are also specifically about interdicting the funding of attacks on the United States. Russia, Putin, and Putin's dog Trump certainly qualify as attackers. If DB respected and followed the law there could have been at least some de-funding or potential prosecution thorugh criminal processes in place. Clearly, DB execs and employees need jail time. Deutsche Bank should go out of business , finally - Like so many businesses, people and vendors in Trumps history ; look at the stock down 95% (on it's way to zero) in the last 12 years.
4
I believe this is one of the key areas of corruption where trump and his cohorts are at most risk. The FBI and banking regulatory authorities have sweeping powers to invest the money trail and connect the dots that prove beyond a reasonable doubt criminal activity has occurred and been concealed by the facilitating bank... in this case Deutsche Bank. The regulators need to do their jobs. The truth will come out and trump will be punished when this happens.
5
The International Monetary Fund is doing a financial stability assessment of the United States this year. Maybe they should be questioning the AML oversight of banks by the OCC and the Federal Reserve?
5
Per Federal Banking Regulations, Code of Federal Regulations:
Banks, bank holding companies, and their subsidiaries are required by federal regulations to file a SAR with respect to:
Criminal violations involving insider abuse in any amount.
Criminal violations aggregating $5,000 or more when a suspect can be identified.
Criminal violations aggregating $25,000 or more regardless of a potential suspect.
Transactions conducted or attempted by, at, or through the bank (or an affiliate) and aggregating $5,000 or more, if the bank or affiliate knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect that the transaction:
May involve potential money laundering or other illegal activity (e.g., terrorism financing).
Is designed to evade the Bank Secrecy Act or its implementing regulations.
Has no business or apparent lawful purpose or is not the type of transaction that the particular customer would normally be expected to engage in, and the bank knows of no reasonable explanation for the transaction after examining the available facts, including the background and possible purpose of the transaction.
2
"Mr. Trump and his family sued Deutsche Bank in April, seeking to block it from complying with the congressional subpoenas. The president’s lawyers described the subpoenas as politically motivated."
Politically motivated, yes, in that we're all struggling to defend the United States political system from its enemies--its enemies from without and, most frightening, its enemies within.
17
The only thing shocking about these revelations is how non-shocking they are in light of Trump’s history of badly compromised ethics in business and all other aspects of his life.
26
Welcome to the world of white collar crime, the ring around this particularly filthy collar so far successfully resistant to a major clean up. And why? Well, when you have the bank executives themselves who willfully ignore alarms sounded by their anti-money laundering team it's not hard to understand the reason.
No surprise if McConnell, McCarthy, Graham and their like minded colleagues are equally complicit in looking the other way. They certainly have not voiced any qualms. But if DOJ is letting this slide without a much deeper, a more rigorous investigation, then we are truly looking at the beginning of the end of our democracy, placing a welcome mat to the autocracy that has been knocking on the door since Trump was elected. There has been absolutely no transparency. Instead we've had stonewalling by Trump and his minions - Barr and Mnuchin - where the un-redacted Mueller Report and his tax returns are concerned. Not difficult to figure out.
20
Obviously, when it comes to greed, dishonesty often trumps honesty every time.
10
So-called "private banking" is knows as "we break the rules for you" banking.
22
If we Americans sit back and accept this we will be complicit.
All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing, to paraphrase a Wiseman.
What kind of a country do we wish to make, it is our decision.
15
This is the moment when other Deutsche Bank employees who know exactly what happened with questionable Trump/Kushner transactions must stand their ethical ground and speak up....no exceptions!
19
Takes courage and moral fibre to do the right thing...but those of you that have it, here’s your chance!
3
In #2 of Trumps 5 Official White House Communication Tweets includes "and always uses unnamed sources (because their sources don’t even exist)......"
Apparently he never read the article. Perhaps because it has no graphs. It does however have a photograph. The source has a name. It's Ms. McFadden.
13
One of the more frustrating aspects of this story—to me—is the fact that the executives of this company, for all practical purposes, ignored the information provided by their employees. This happens far too often.
13
Lord, this is weak. I guess there are only so many anti-Trump memes around and some dirty money laundering through Deutsche Bank is about all that's left.
When you boil all this down, some Trump wire transfers triggered the anti-laundering software and some employees, hopefully without any political agendas, noted it to management and despite whatever they now say, DB management decided that their notes or recommendations or activity report warranted no action.
A company owned by an extremely wealthy and well know real estate developer initiates several wire transfers to close several real estate deals. There is absolutely no evidence that these involved Russian government officials. The speculation is almost seditious, as was the entire Russia collusion effort.
2
Then by that logic there should be no problem disclosing the contents of the SARs to bipartisan Congressional intelligence committees, right?
24
Logic?
Izzat so.
My, my.
Think of that.
Well, maybe Ms. McFadden is off the beam. MAYBE, she’s another chiseling employee covering up lousy performance with accusations, despite the awards.
But we know this for sure.
1. Trump used to brag a lot about all his businesses in Russia, and his profits there.
2. He owed D-bank $300 mil in 2016-2017.
3. Deutschebank has been repeatedly busted for laundering money—from Russia—and evading our own sanctions on Iran.
4. Teump’s suing to block releases of subpoenaed financial info.
Seems to me that if there’s smoke there’s fire is true, that most likely where there’s fire there is fire.
But feel free to explain—calmly—which fact is wrong. Do try to offer evidence.
3
Just the fact that Deutsche Bank gave loans to Trump and his cronies when other banks flatly refused to do so, should disqualify Deutsche Bank as a legal financial institution.
They should be hunted down, prosecuted and shut down to prevent these crimes in the future.
10
There also needs to be an investigation of Supreme Court Justice Kennedy's son who worked at Deutsches Bank during this time and whether there is any evidence that Trump pressured Kennedy to retire prematurely perhaps ever so gently blackmailing Kennedy with the threat of revealing the son's involvement in this money-laundering scheme.
22
The Fed has the power to cap the asset size of a bank, as they did with Wells Fargo. If upon concluding an audit of SARs they find gross negligence by DB, they should cap their balance sheet and that kind of pain should feed back up to DB's board, who have to face the stockholder's wrath.
9
I do not understand why the House cannot put on the "squeeze" to DB? Give us information or we will do anything in our power to make your business life "difficult" here in the US. If all that matters is money to them, and it is, negotiate with them in terms they can understand.
Stop being so soft and start playing hard, harder than the other side, enough is enough!
6
A top Deutsche Bank executive, Mr. Jain, was abruptly forced to resign a couple of years ago. Related to Trump/Kushner money-laundering crimes? Just an enquiring mind.
The bank's continued presence in the U.S. has significantly sunk the moral and criminal standards in this country. Kick them out.
We depend on the catholic church to "discipline, punish" their clergy and report them to the police for their sexual crimes. No surprise, we depend on the Banks to choose to tell the law enforcement agency about the collusion between them and their ultra-wealthy customers to commit money-laundering crimes.
5
What I find nearly impossible to understand from a journalistic and ethical perspective is the NY Times decision to ignore its own reporting on the history of Deutchse Bank's money laundering activity and in particular with the Russians and involving real estate.
For instances, why didn't the article references the NY Times piece entitled "Deutsche Bank Fined in Plan to Help Russians Launder $10 Billion" from Jan. 30, 2017.
Also, it failed to mention the article entitled: "Deutsche Bank Offices Are Searched in Money Laundering Investigation" from Nov 29, 2019.
There is a long history of non-compliance, improppper reporting and so on. There are have been other TBTF banks for certain involved in all kinds of issues ranging from drug money to other securities fraud but bringing the historical context into perspective is vital.
This is not a one off incident. If your going to report on something so major, give the context as it points to the credibility of the internal analysts and their reports.
8
@Tom Paine
The artcle did address DB past illegal activity
“In the past few years, United States and European authorities have punished Deutsche Bank for helping clients, including wealthy Russians, launder funds and for moving money into countries like Iran in violation of American sanctions. The bank has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and is operating under a Federal Reserve order that requires it to do more to stop illicit activities.”
1
@M
Yes, it did. That said, I didn't see any links or attempted drill down or emphasis that given the Federal reserve mandate and other sanctions that other issues such as that relating to Deutchse banks relations with the Bank of Cyprus, where Wilbur Ross was an top executive and any of the other related instances and or linkages. Perhaps that is for another more comprehensive article that revisits the question of connections between Kavanaugh's relative at Deutchse and the fact that this one bank was the only one willing to make loans to Trump & Kushner until the deal with the Saudi's recently.
Corrupt entities can freely thrive in corrupt societies.
5
The more politically connected and rich you are adds more layers to not being turned over it seems.
4
This is at heart just another in the endless line of stories about what ifs, couldves,, wouldves, maybes, perhapses, where the principle source is a very disgruntled employee who has been canned by two banks already. Why not get back to us with the real outcome of all this investigation and innuendo.
@Joe Gagen
Do you know Ms. McFadden? How do you know she's a "very disgruntled employee?"
2
Let us not forget the sudden and unexpected retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose son was a longtime Deutsche Bank executive involved in Trump’s relationship with the bank. More than coincidence, it would seem.
16
Tammy McFadden is my hero. She acted in the public interest despite personal consequences.
14
Perhaps the call to "Investigate the investigators" is really just an attempt to figure out what the FBI actually knows... and excluded from the Mueller report because it was still under investigation.
3
well past time to look at Justice Kennedy’s sudden departure from the Supreme Court with replacement by Kavarapist. Apparently Kennedy’s son signed off on some of these curious loans.
14
@laurie - It would be interesting to know if Kennedy feels any remorse for what he's done and for how history will remember him.
3
And the know-nothings from flyover country, the ones for whom agent orage's policies are the most damaging, think this charlatan and his career criminal son-in-law are on their side. It's baffling ... utterly baffling.
John Oliver was right - about when the news of the June 2016 trump tower meeting broke: that was a bombshell, if anything means anything anymore. But no, nothing means anything anymore.
11
All great wealth should be treated with great suspicion!
"the only mainstream financial institution consistently willing to do business with" a known con artist. What's suspicious about that? From one of the largest most sophisticated banks in the world doing business with one of the least sophisticated and biggest financial losers in the world - what could go wrong?
Deutsche Bank is the go to bank for corrupt tyrants and kleptocrats out of Russia, like Putin and trump.
Shockingly and unprecedented for any Danish firm, the formerly respectable little Den Danske Bank WAS also a go to bank to launder billions of Russian loot into the west through American banks and Deutsche Bank - likely ending up in offshore and onshore accounts belonging to trump and Kushner and in his money hemorrhaging golf courses in Scotland. How will Russia continuing to launder money after losing one of their largest money laundromats in Estonia?
"The New York Times continues to create dots that just don’t connect.” Given so many dots, and dots yet to be uncovered as the trump-Kuschners desperately try to whitewash them all away, what are they so worried about? As trump keeps sayin' "We'll see."
I so hope to see the entire trump-Kuschner clan out on the street and destitute at the end of all this.
"any suspicious activities" - it's ALL in-your-face suspicious! His businesses, his charities, his education, his presidential campaigns, his behavior and actions as POTUS, ... it is ALL suspicious.
10
The one thing that you can give Donald Trump credit for is his consistency.
He is a consistent liar, a consistent cheat , and overall a very consistent fraud....
You do the math, would you want a man like this in the White House for another four years?
And for those of you who support him, how do you know that you're not next in line to be conned ?
12
Anyone see 60 minutes last night? NY Deutsch Bank completely missed the $200 billion of Russian corruption laundered through a single Danish bank branch in Estonia that was legitimized as it filtered through theNY branch.
13
Where there's smoke there is fire. DB is crooked and so his trump and kushie. Lock em up!
7
When are we going to start putting corrupt executives in prison? Obviously, the banks view the fines as just the cost of doing business.
14
The people at Deutsche Bank that are covering for Trump and Kushner have to be squeezed (jailed if necessary) until they show prosecutors where the bodies are buried (the evidence of the criminal activity) by Trump and Kushner.
No one believes that bumbling, so called "businessmen" like Trump and Kushner could have sustained themselves in the business world without the help of benefactors that ultimately turned the screws on Trump and Kushner in order to bend them to their (primarily Putin's) will.
We have a Russian puppet for a president and his puppet son-in-law for his closest advisor.
12
Thank you, Mr. Enrich. Again, we see how some people and institutions are above the law. How bad must it become before our disengaged Congress takes action? We suspected these crimes all along. No wonder Trump and Putin are such good buddies.
8
Thank you, Ms McFadden, for speaking out.
May more employees do the same.
12
Tammy McFadden has integrity and a moral compass. Thank you for speaking out on the reality at Deutsche Bank.
12
Just how much evidence of wrongdoing, if not outright crimes, do trump cult members need? It's like they need an intervention right now, as they sink deeper into the 'deep state' belief system. FOX is the kool-aid, and they wallow greedily in that trough. Common sense has flown for these folks: Women and gynocologists commit infanticide daily? ONLY trump can love America? All the media in the world is wrong except for one shining, sacred and unquestionable source, which just happens to say nothing bad about dearleader? Where have republican Americans gone? They have become trump-bots, looking everywhere for lies, at the beck and call of the Father of Lies.
10
Of course Trump denies this, but how the heck would he know if DB execs ignored the warnings and didn't investigate? Not to mention the fact that he lies about everything.
6
Russianization of America lead by mobsters Trump and Kushner. When will people get tired of the mafia state?
11
Rich, corrupt bankers colluding with rich, corrupt politicians?! Well now I've seen everything.
10
Do you smell the smoke ? What will it take for people to wake up. Let me see, a pathological liar, let me count the ways.
7
The stench is strong with DB.
6
One can only hope that the Southern District of New York of the Justice Dept. will take a keen interest in this matter, and subpeona the documents to find out what, if any, crimes have been committed by DeutscheBank and it's employees in not reporting money laundering. Luckily the attorneys in this district have shown integrity and independence from inteference by the White House in the case of Michael Cohen. It would also be hoped that the New York Attorney General's office begins its own investigation as well as the Trump Foundation is involved in what may be a criminal matter.
11
@Ted UWS
William Barr testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he is "supervising' all of the ongoing investigations that have grown out of the Mueller inquiry. Good luck to truth ever seeing the light of day.
3
@Ted UWS -- not merely the SDNY but also the financial crimes division of the State Atty Gen's office and the Manhattan DA's office
2
Ironically, Deutsche Bank's attempt to explain their failure to respond to signs of Trump money laundering—"An effective anti-money laundering program requires sophisticated transaction screening technology as well as a trained group of individuals who can analyze the alerts generated by that technology both thoroughly and efficiently”—is a precise description of the process that flagged the transactions in the first place. PS: Missing from background in this report is the lengthy history of money laundering at Trump casinos: The Trump Taj Mahal casino broke anti-money laundering rules 106 times in its first year and a half of operation in the early 1990s, according to the IRS in a 1998 settlement agreement.
18
This serves as a good reminder that despite Barr, Trump, McConnell, and other Republicans declaring “case closed,” we in fact have no knowledge of the counterintelligence investigation that Mueller was conducting. As I understand it, his report only described the criminal investigation into Russian election interference and possible Trump campaign coordination.
There was a whole other investigation into (to quote Adam Schiff) “whether people around then-candidate Trump were acting as witting or unwitting agents of a foreign power.” And Schiff’s committee has recently subpoenaed Barr because he says they have received no updates on this investigation since Comey’s firing.
We need public hearings. We need Mueller to testify. In the meantime, thank you to Ms. McFadden and the NYTimes for continuing to shed light on these dark corners of which the public still knows so little.
15
It’s a good thing there is a fourth estate because right now the Republicans ( not all of them) are treating Trump as if he’s king. I don’t know if they know this. It’s easy to get into a mode where you just aren’t objective. But without a free press ( the enemy of the people, according to Trump) this country would be just another banana republic.
24
@Oliver "Get into a mode where you just aren't objective? I think you can't describe most of the media and Democrats any better"
I work in the financial world, we have very strict guidelines and all suspicious activity MUST be reported, we can face monetary penalties and expulsion from the industry for life if we don't. How on earth does Deutsche still have their charter? Something is certainly rotten in the state for this to have gone on for as long as it did. It's things like this that put our industry in the doghouse.
26
Deutsche Bank probably gained huge fees associated with money laundering. This is undoubtedly why they continue to overlook Trump’s bad financial behavior. Our government regulations are not strong enough. This type of behavior has to be monitored and, when found out, treated harshly.
13
@LAM excactly, LAM - 'government regulations are not strong enough' - this is the appropriate reasoning - investigat, then strengthen Regs - to cite in court, as legislative necessity for rec't of info via the financial subpoenas currently being ignored and/or fought by the Trump Admin.
Note: Elizabeth Warren has been trying to educate the public on this fact for a long time!
All those foreign oligarchs with billions needing laundering, and all those Trump condos for cash sale, with special US visas attached, and the possible scenarios just write themselves.
There is no question in my mind that Trump would have seen many irresistible opportunities for illicit wealth regardless of whether or not he got elected. In fact, his thinking he would not be elected probably made him bolder, at least until the polls started to look good for him in mid 2016. Then he began to belatedly cover his tracks and had to cancel some of the more recent Condo/visa deals that his family was hawking.
I really hope that Deutsche Bank will be forced to come clean and reveal all of Trump's machinations.
The Devil will be in the details.
23
Thank you for your courage in dealing with this. I only wish that something would come of it other than acknowledging another instance of unconscionable behavior by this man.
18
"But government regulations give banks leeway in selecting which transactions to report to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network."
Didn't "government regulations" also give Boeing plenty of leeway in certifying that its new 737 Max planes were perfectly safe? Look how that turned out.
I suppose banks aren't as dangerous as planes, though. All Deutsche Bank can do is help our president destroy democracy as we once knew it.
15
Although alarming because of Trump and Trump World, this is equally upsetting as bad business practice by a once-respected bank. One hates to paint with a broad brush and say that the entire system is rotten to its core, but is it? Isn't it? It will take many people to fix the problems; hopefully they will be honest and effective, because if they are not, the whole financial system crashes and so does society as we know it.
6
"In the past few years, United States and European authorities have punished Deutsche Bank for helping clients, including wealthy Russians, launder funds and for moving money into countries like Iran in violation of American sanctions. The bank has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and is operating under a Federal Reserve order that requires it to do more to stop illicit activities."
Why this bank is still in business s the question begging to be asked. They seem to a deep relationship with corruption, dictators, kleptocrats, brutal regimes and third world nation pillagers. Serial offenders yet still walking the streets of sleaze.
19
@Loud and Clear - perhaps DB claims that the corrupt practices cited from 2016-2017 predated its current status "operating under a Federal Reserve order that requires it to do more to stop illicit activities"
But this should not stop Congress from enforcing subpoenas via court, and investigate the "too lax" regulations cited in this article, in order to beef up Regs - such as - to make ALL items red-flagged by internal experts to be mandatory reporting, rather than subject to review by a group in whose interest it is to bury those recommendations.
2
gee, this is a real shocker. i cant even imagine that there could be ethical concerns around Kushner and Trump, and the possibility that they have shady dealings with Russians, i mean that is just too much. can it be possible?
7
It's clear that DB would have been is DS had their primary client been indicted on corruption and money laundering charges. The resultant bankruptcy and likely property seizures would have caused a devastating default on the loans, perhaps threatening DB's very existence. But it is easy to see the Game of Trumps is going to end badly for everyone involved.
4
NYT also reports , in Youngstown , Ohio Trump base is solid even though town didn't see any change during Trump's 2 years of good economic indicators.
And then You see this news!
Then you realize some people in the life live for only revenge.
7
@su: Nihilism is a global death wish.
1
“Our thoughts and prayers” are with the people of Youngstown.
@su Not sure what you mean? Who is seeking revenge? The Deutsche Bank whistleblower?
Corruption, like cancer, inevitably develops in all aging political systems. Early idealism gradually morphs into more self-interested maneuvers that are carefully hidden via the(wink wink) legal system only the wealthy can access.
Trump has always prided himself on hoodwinking the rubes. Still, his own nefarious accomplishments are eventually going to trip him up. They always do eventually. I can hardly wait!
11
@Margie Moore - not merely hoodwinking the Rubes, Margie; recall that Trump also said that gaming the IRS [i.e. defrauding the American taxpaying public of revenue] was "sport."
Ugh
1
Most importantly, there is a growing body of evidence that implicates Trump in multiple crimes with Russians. We all know who the strongman mob-leader boss of all Russians is. Also of note are the numerous lies that he has already told the American people regarding this latest revelation in a long, long list. It goes just a few more steps towards establishing a sufficiently established pattern of lies and deceit from the man; he lies about just everything. It is amazing just how many crooked things this guy was/is involved with and how none of it bothers the members of the church of trump. He really has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
23
@TB420 What's the evidence?
1
So much for truth in lending.
8
WHY has no one mentioned DB's 2017 settlement w/DOJ:
"Deutsche Bank Agrees to Pay $7.2 Billion for Misleading Investors in its Sale of Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities"
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/deutsche-bank-agrees-pay-72-billion-misleading-investors-its-sale-residential-mortgage-backed
10
Dirty money and I do wonder how many other current elected officials have accounts at this bank.....Putin didn't just buy up a couple of people..I suspect this started almost a decade ago and has been ongoing for quite some time....
Start by following the money.......Federal Reserve should do a full blown audit of this bank. I feel there is a whole lot of nasty business to uncover that involves a lot of things we should worry about.
8
Why don't I hear this story on all the news today? This should be at the top of the list in reporting on all fronts. Silence. Disgusting.
17
@Randé
Not even at NPR. I remember that they did not stop reporting about Hillary's email from dawn to dusk but they are mute when it comes to Trump. I guess they do not want to be attack by this vile man via tweet.
5
Mr. Trump will sell America's soul to have a Trump hotel in Moscow. That is clearly his aim. His sucking up to Putin is aimed at that elusive hotel. The question remains which set of Oligarchs will give him the money to build one? Trump has invited the world's thugs into our country and disinvited our friends. We need to remember the old adage: birds of a feather flock together.
10
“But executives at Deutsche Bank, which has lent billions of dollars to the Trump and Kushner companies, rejected their employees’ advice. The reports were never filed with the government.”
It sounds like multiple counts of conspiracy, including Trump and Kushner, are going to be developed in the foreseeable future.
Yippee!
7
Surprise, surprise. An ethical employee tries to do their job and flag suspicious and illegal activity by high profile customers and is then silenced, fired and smeared by the firm that hired them to do that very job. How many times have we read about similar cases. Deutsche Bank has long had a reputation for money laundering so this report comes as no surprise. It's also no surprise that it involves Trump and Kushner. What was it that Eric Trump stated several years ago about how much Russian money flows into the Trump coffers? Follow the money.
24
I find this report to be the product of a slow news day where it was necessary to manufacture a negative story concerning Mr. Trump. How about running a story explaining why the Governor, Lt Governor and Attorney General of the state of Virginia are still in office (for some reason other than that they are all Democrats) .
2
@James news days don’t get that slow.
4
Getting Trumps state tax returns to Congress is a good first step towards breaking the iron shroud of Trumps finances.
12
It shows us how little white-collar law enforcement there is in the USA that even with the company concluding in an internal investigation that crimes were committed, still the relevant law enforcement agencies are uninterested. Whereas, if someone phones the police about small-time street crime in a poor neighborhood there will be an enforcement response immediately. Why did Mueller pass over this entire issue? Or did he?
15
@Marc: Federal bureaucrats who try to protect the interests of their agencies regularly get humiliated in Congressional grillings by Republicans.
6
Piercing this iron curtain of upper echelon bank oversight decisions won't be anywhere near as easy as leaking a long video that led to the collapse of a far right allied governing coalition in Austria. Without someone with data base archival access or legal authority to subpoena such files, this story will remain murky and seductively vague, no matter how necessary it is to discover its truth value.
It does help explain, of course, trump's insistence that the bank not cooperate with James' inquiry in SDNY that we learned about a few weeks ago. Indeed, it is not inconceivable that this story was a coded response by
someone, either at DB or SDNY, to trump's legal move to stop such cooperation.
But the bank's willingness to
cooperate will be central to extracting these files in toto. Otherwise one needs a leaker or trump back stabber at a very high level in DB, which may not be realistic since what they arranged with the two characters in question is surely not an isolated case. There are surely lots of skeletons in DB's archived transactions files.
Cooperation would open up a whole
lot of comparable questions about the transnational transactions of many other members of the upper elite. Think Panama papers part 2.
Just as the House investigation is a test of the health of our institutions under great stress, so too this story will test the ability of bank regulators to investigate money laundering encoded within many obtuse transactions.
5
Interestingly enough Ms. McFadden and here bosses are the type of employee known as a "regulated user" which means that all of their emails and communications are captured and stored under the rules of Sarbanes-Oxley or SOX legislation.
She will be able to document her allegations and the SEC and Congress should Subpoena those records ASAP. They will also bolster what I am sure is going to be a lawsuit over retaliatory firing.
I hope she gets millions from DB.
16
I have several friends who are attorney's state that money laundering is what is going to bring Trump down. It's been frustrating to see how little focus there is on this in the press.
29
The age of computers has changed everything in our lives. A few clicks on a mouse can have consequences totally undreamt of just a few decades ago.
Computer generated criminality is rife all over the world and especially in the United States simply because it is so easy to do crime with one. Deutsche Bank and (now) Danske Bank are just the tip of an iceberg the size of which no one is really sure of. There is much truth to the expression that no heart is colder than a banker's. Perhaps we should add greedier to it.
Wholly criminal governments like Russia, along with other renegade governments like North Korea and yes, China, are wreaking havoc on international finance. Easy, computer generated money has corrupted plenty of American companies besides the Trump and Kushner operations, to be sure.
Unless law enforcement and the courts get a handle on this new way of moving dirty money around the globe, the economies of entire nations, including of course our own, will be hugely compromised.
9
@Bob Burns: Money is created with every central bank purchase of government debt.
This Bank needs to be fined out of existence in the US at least. It's incredible the number of transgressions they've had. They're basically fronting criminal enterprises, including the Trump and Kushner organizations, which are relatively minor players when compared to some of the Oligarchs. There's really no telling the amount of damage they've done, and it all ends up getting paid for by the average guy eventually because when these guys fail, and they will fail, if they're allowed to continue operations like this, then we'll end up bailing out the banks and the economy with our tax money -- something no Trump or Kushner has ever paid I'm guessing.
12
Money Laundering, the REAL Family Business. For many YEARS.
Period.
27
We are going to soon see the connection between trump and his contact at the bank, Justice Kennedy’s son. Too too coincidental that the Supreme Court judge retired out of the blue. Trump probably has the goods on the son, a DB employee.
26
Why would Deutsche Bank cooperate with anybody given the fact that Trump owes the bank billions?
1
Geez, it causes one to ponder if and how many of Trump most aggressive allies in government, especially Steve Mnuchin and even Mitch McConnell might have allowed themselves to be pulled into Trump's orbit and his shady dealings.
9
It is imperative that we "connect the dots" to the Deutsche Bank loans and the reasons Donald Trump is being blackmailed by Vladimir Putin. Preet Bharara was very close to putting a lot of the puzzle together before he got fired by Trump.
15
And still, the GOP stands by trump. This is political organized crime. Vote them ALL out of office in 2020.
27
"Anti-money-laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving legal entities controlled by Donald J. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog." Congress needs to see these internal reports! Get them now!
13
What an unbelievable story. Thank you NYT for your excellent reporting.
10
This totally corrupt president's attempt to block the subpoena to Deutsche Bank will fail. And his piling on obstruction on obstruction will add to his downfall. The voters of this country do not favor would-be autocrats.
8
The possibilities hinted at in this article make me sick to my stomach. I want to know the truth and implore Congress and New York State to get the bottom of it.
16
People should stop expecting justice out of our legal system. Trump and Kushner may not be as rich as they pretend, but they are rich enough to be a above the law and everyone from cops to politicians knows that nothing will happen to Trump and Kushner.
The laws are for holding down the poor people. A poor person accused of any crime either pleads guilty or they ruin their lives. Everyone in the criminal justice system knows this truth. That is why every cop, lawyer, judge and politician is a criminal as well.
There is absolutely no reason to respect our laws. They are fake.
8
The media should increase their scrutiny of DB. Something tells me it's the golden goose for information that could put Trump and Kushner behind bars, where they belong.
7
I don't get it. What's the problem? Authoritarian leaders always get away with this kind of thing -- not only the dubious transactions, but also having evidence of it squashed. So how are we supposed to be outraged? We have an authoritarian leader, who we elected, and who is apparently protected by the other, increasingly weak branches of government. It's par for the course. If we want something different, then we need to elect someone else, or fill the streets with protest. But protest doesn't happen, generally. We're too busy with our private lives, TV, new products, etc. We don't deserve any better than Trump, honestly.
3
Hmmm! If it is "totally false and completely made up" would one not want to have that information be shown to the world to really clear their name? Instead, Trump and Kushner companies chose to simply deny the information presented by Ms. McFadden.
If the information is false, have no fear and let her present the false findings, that will really clear your names. If it is at all possible!!
5
Are those "anti-money-laundering specialists" at Deutsche Bank still have their jobs in the bank? :)
Top executives at Deutsche Bank behaved just like the way I expect such people to behave. No surprise there.
I really feel jealous to those GOP Congressmen and Trump's die hard vote bank in rural and desperate part of the country who got the talent and honesty to miss it or see it in a very different light with very different interpretation and exception from a person like Trump and his family members who run Trump businesses.
3
I worked in private banking for twenty years. A highly regulated business.
Where were the bank examiners?
The wolf watching the hen house?
12
@Toms Quill
"...This is potentially criminal activity and Congress ha the authority to subpoena it."
Fat Chance. The Administration will never respond to any subpoena's...unless impeachment proceedings and televised hearings make the criminality of the Trump Administration abundantly clear to people who just don't want to see the truth.
3
It doesn't matter. He will be re-elected in 2020!
This has been happening to Trump his entire life. Red lights flash, warning signs abound, but people and institutions go right ahead and lend him money, become his business partners, work for him, vote for him. From where I sit, he seems a repugnant man, but he must have a tremendous charisma and sales ability in order to turn everything to his advantage and make otherwise careful people align themselves with him. I doubt very much that Trump will ever be made to account for himself. He will go to his grave smug and convinced of his greatness, and with good reason. No one yet has been willing to take him on, including the U.S. Congress, and it's a pretty sure bet that no one ever will.
2
@Ms. Pea: narcissists are very talented. and they fool most; and I suppose if surrounded by other pathological monsters with their talents for deceit and harm, the mix is truly toxic and probably virtually impenetrable. frustrating and frightening that these crimes can be openly revealed and yet remain unpunished.
4
And let us not forget this as reported by the NYT:
"[Anthony Kennedy and Donald Trump] had a connection, one Mr. Trump was quick to note in the moments after his first address to Congress in February 2017. As he made his way out of the chamber, Mr. Trump paused to chat with the justice.
“Say hello to your boy,” Mr. Trump said. “Special guy.”
Mr. Trump was apparently referring to Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin. The younger Mr. Kennedy spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank, eventually rising to become the bank’s global head of real estate capital markets, and he worked closely with Mr. Trump when he was a real estate developer, according to two people with knowledge of his role.
During Mr. Kennedy’s tenure, Deutsche Bank became Mr. Trump’s most important lender, dispensing well over $1 billion in loans to him for the renovation and construction of skyscrapers in New York and Chicago at a time other mainstream banks were wary of doing business with him because of his troubled business history."
12
@Dorota: the whole Kennedy connection should be addressed again on the front pages.
9
The fact that there is now at least one member of the Supreme Court with ties to DB (kavanough), makes me suspicious about the criminal world of money laundering infiltrating and thus influencing our courts, our Congress, and of course, this president.
9
One more lesson on how some get to operate above the law...
4
"Lenders typically use a layered approach to detect improper activity."
how many onion layers
need to be peeled back
before the black smudge
is revealed?
sometimes half the bulb
goes in the trash
with it
8
Blinded by lies, America's love affair with criminality unleashed. Doggedly supporting kleptocrats and all the while the majority of citizens twisting and withering on the vine of false hope and venal lies.
3
This is smear conspiracy fiction worthy of Alex Jones.
In the Trump/Putin era we would need an army of “Woodward and Bernstein” to unveil all the money related crimes and political plots that are destroying America and its democratic values.
5
Ooops there it is. Corrupt executives covering up criminal activities.
2
You can go to prison for 5 years if you take a 3% cut from an office football pool. Ask Wayne Davis (NYC).
Yet how many people from Wells Fargo or Deutsche Bank will go to prison?
We put people in the white-house instead of jail....
8
Thank you Ms McFadden, for speaking up.
772
@Increasingly blue
YES Thank you... More people need to speak up. You exist!!
45
@Increasingly blue It’s reassuring that there are still many people out there like Ms. McFadden that have integrity, and honesty. Unfortunately, however, when these people try to alert others in their organizations about wrong doing that they have discovered, they are the ones that all too often pay the price for trying to do the right thing. Until this ugly little secret of big business changes, corporate America, and the financial industry will merrily keep going along in their quest for more, and more profits - at any cost.
45
@Increasingly blue
And somehow the 2 Yr exhaustive Mueller investigation - which delved into entirely unrelated things that occurred years before Trump even announced running for office didn't find any issues with any of this. Sounds kind of contrived. NYT etc. trying way too hard on this stuff.
1
At least in Texas, standard regulations for real estate transacitons require filing of "foreign persons" documentation, and the money flow is tracked to the penny. I guess that's just one set of rules. Common knowledge among NY real estate people that Trump has always been dirty, nice to now have confirmation on his conduit.
10
Why I'm not at all surprised!
I really feel jealous to those GOP Congressmen and Trump's die hard vote bank in rural and desperate part of the country who got the talent and honesty to miss it or see it in a very different light with very different interpretation and exception from a person like Trump and his family members who run Trump businesses.
2
Crime? I find it suspiscious that Deutshe Bank advised the FED, SEC and Geithner at the Treasury on how to divvy up the cash and assets they confiscated from "failed" (shut down) regional and community banks to redistribute to favored TARP recipients. No wonder they were able to pay off the debt to the tax payers in a down market. Meanwhile the SEC wiped the regional banks off the board and stiffed the shareholders for their entire investment. That, my friends, is a CRIME!
2
Excuse me, I left out the FDIC.
The best window of opportunity to turn over the Deutsche Bank flagged transaction info was in 2016 or early 2017, prior to Trump's election and subsequent swearing in, while a competent justice department was still intact. With Barr in charge now, it would go the way of the Mueller Report.....nothing to see here, folks. Move along. Disgust doesn't begin to describe the feeling this excellent reportage engenders. How depressing that we seem to have absolutely no levers or will to hold Deutsche accountable.
849
We do have levers, though not necessarily the ones we want. The House can investigate (as they are), and New York will investigate and can indict.
151
There are means to address these issues. Trump may stonewall but he can’t prevent the House from investigating general allegations. They have the power to drive Deutsche Bank out of this country.
31
@Nancy
Rachel Maddow Jan. 24, 2019: ” … Deutsche Bank now also stands accused in a completely separate scheme of facilitating the laundering of ...Russian money, $150 billion. This was illicit cash that was spirited out of Russia through an overseas branch of the biggest bank in Denmark, randomly. For years and years, apparently nobody thought it was odd that this tiny Danish bank branch in Estonia was almost exclusively handling piles and piles of cash from customers who weren`t Danish or Estonian, they were all Russian. And the bank that handled the majority of that U.S. dollar transactions, $150 billion worth of these suspect Russian transactions, the bank that handled them was Deutsche Bank, allegedly…And as I said, we don`t know if the Deutsche Bank`s Jenga tower of money laundering problems has anything to do with their relationship with President Trump. Maybe Trump just knows how to pick `em. But there`s been a lot. Many tens of billions of dollars of illicit Russian money apparently pouring through Deutsche Bank during the time Deutsche bank has inexplicably mysterious pots of cash to lend to a client no bank in its right mind would seem to want…”
Trump is working overtime to keep this and other evidence of illicit behavior from we the people. How much more criminality and obstruction of justice are we going to accept? There is so much sleaze surrounding this "president" the country is drowning in it. We must hold him accountable. Congress must impeach.
70
Why do we let a company with a long history of proven criminal conduct “police its own activity” in the first place? How can we claim to be honestly surprised by these actions? It’s already clear what Trump’s interests are. But what about Deutsche Bank’s thousands of other criminal clients getting away with money laundering?
Why does this bank have jurisdiction over something that should be overseen by a branch of the FBI? No bank in today’s world should be able to rubber stamp “flagged transactions.” All of that should be open to oversight and made transparent—because if you can’t launder the money, the cost to doing (illegal) business goes up, and the amount of illegal business carried out goes down. Criminals are nothing more than businessmen and women who are willing to profit off the exploitation of others—in one form or another. These aren’t victimless crimes.
1049
@Ty, ask your friendly neighborhood Republican why this bank and many others are allowed to police themselves. While you're at it, ask your local Republican why major polluters are also allowed to police themselves. And companies with unsafe working conditions. It's all part of the glorious plan to strip you, the little guy, of any power, while sticking you, the little guy, with the bill. So the next time you hear those GOP stock phrases "burdensome regulations" or "inefficiency" or "red tape" or "market uncertainty," know it's just the sound of Republicans chipping away at the common good.
110
@Ty Two responses:
1. By what laws would "we" be able to police Deutsche Bank more than is done? I don't know, but that's an issue. The transactions discussed in the article were flagged internal to the bank, not by some independent monitor. And, whatever oversight there was in the US was gutted by Trump's administration and its OCD penchant for deregulation.
2. It is possible for businesspersons to profit off of exploiting others without breaking the law. Criminals break the law to exploit others. Which, as I often say, makes criminal enterprises the purest form of capitalism: private ownership of means of production, governed solely by market forces. Nothing in the definition of capitalism says you must avoid exploiting or hurting people; that's fine, as long as market forces allow you to prosper while doing so.
17
@Ty
America was built by the blood, sweat and tears of enslaved black African men, women and children laboring on land and resources stolen from the fighting and resisting blood, sweat and tears of brown of Native men, women and children in the Americas by corrupt greedy inhumane white European Judeo-Christian invaders and occupiers.
Both the banking and insurance industries trafficked in and profited from both of those cruel evil inhumane business enterprises.
If only we Americans lived in a divided limited different power constitutional republic of united states where all of the people of every color aka human race were the ultimate sovereign over their elected and selected hired help.
16
A Trump supporter here questions why Ms. McFadden only questioned the transfers for 2106 and 2017. Maybe, just maybe that’s because the Russian involvement took off after Trump visited Russia for the Miss Universe contest and Putin began to see a potential ally and puppet in Trump. Putin only works with people who can help with money. Trump had ties to Deutsche Bank. Putin was under sanctions because of Magnitsky and Ukraine. So Deutsche Bank couldn’t easily launder too much money for him. But an intermediary in the US could. Its possible that an alliance was forged as Trump began to muse about running. You help with money laundering and I’ll get you elected. So that would have accelerated in 2016 and 2017. Before that it was just Trumps loans - money coming from the bank into Trumps account. After that it was movement of US dollars OUT of Trump and Kushner accounts to Russia after Rubles were washed. If all this is fact, it’s explosive and it shows that Kushner is as much a crook as his father in law. Personally I think the Moscow Trump Tower is a diversion from the real reason Trump was in bed with Putin. And Putin is the master of diversion.
7
Most corrupt President in U.S. history.
Ever.
16
How long, o lord, how long?
Let our people go, release us from our greedy vain violent bully in chief, before he gets us in more trouble.
His enablers are equally guilty. Wanting does not make might into right!
7
Comey, what were you doing then? Just wondering.......
4
Deutsche Bank's Company PR piece.
"Deutsche Bank. VIP Money Laundering for the stars!"
5
Everyone knows Deutsche Bank is Putin’s washing machine. Looks like he had some hired help at the laundry.
9
The corruption here that the Trumps are involved in is so deep and long standing and so pervasive that most people cant get their heads around the size of it. Trump is so tangled up in lies and deceit that even he probaby does not know how far reaching and deep it goes. If we enable this administration they will take us back to the dark ages and the country we know and its rights and rule of law will vanish out of sight and perhaps beyond redemption. The lies and twisting of reality and the depth of public deception is beyond belief at this point, and it will only get worse. We are held captive by this right wing, white supremacist president and his administration and he can and will eagerly kill all that is fair, equal and good and replace it with discrimination, hate, unjustice and crime, backwardness and more. How long will we allow this to go on? Take the scales off your eyes and see the big sad, picture here. This is really a crisis of epic proportions and we need to act to reverse it. We cannot remain passive, especially in the face of so many lies and distortions that happen daily from this presidency, aided by Russian disinformation that infects our media . We must recover our sanity now, or go to mafia type rule. Please realize that this scandal dwarfs all others in its size and scope. Mueller report holds one key. Get the complete version published. Get rid of Trump before he stacks the courts and government into complete incompetence.
7
Afraid to say this, but we're in the last days of the American Empire. Instead of the Vandals and the Visigoths, it's the Chinese and the Russians who are fighting over the spoils of this once great civilization.
The Chinese control our economy and the Russians control our government. We are witnessing a war between them for the country as a whole. Loyal Americans have either been duped by Putin or have become too cynical to care.
Meanwhile the population as a whole has been distracted and pacified with the violent entertainment of the gladiators at the Colosseum... (Game of Thrones, next article after this one).
8
I guess we're going to have to wait for the SDNY to get to the bottom of this. We certainly won't get the truth from the SEC or anyone else in DC on all of this.
7
If DOJ is going to cling to the fantasy that a sitting President can't be indicted, then we need a statute that tolls the statute of limitations while he's in office. Period.
8
The banks should respect the Presidents/Kushner account information. Period.
And no impeachment hearing talk either. It won't happen and people that comment on that possibility are starting to insult the intelligence of the rest of the commentators.
2
@DAB
If potential crimes were committed, why should they respect the accounts?
2
@DAB No, if there are crimes, they will be revealed, and you might want to look at the majority who have not fallen for silly little man's con. imho, the narcissism with which he sought the presidency, to convince himself, he really is the 'greatest', is and will be his downfall. He should have stayed a reality TV star, with his silly name, the 'Trump' brand, keeping him out of jail.
Where there's smoke there's fire.
And in this case there's a plume of smoke about 5 miles high which is growing by the day.
8
Whether or not you think Democrat subpoenas are politically motivated, remember that (a) they can't hurt Trump if he hasn't done anything wrong or improper and (b) every other presidential candidate going back to Nixon released their financial info voluntarily. So what is it that Trump has to hide?
Tump's refusal to release financial info + Trump's multiple bankruptcies + Trump's sons' statements about Russian investment in Trump related companies + Trump weakness regarding Russian oligarchs = a President putting personal business interests ahead of national security. No, this is not rehashing the Russian collusion issue; this is crossing the red line that Trump insisted Mueller not cross. Trump drew that red line for a reason. What is Trump hiding?
25
Trump has skirted and skated and shirked his whole life, seldom answering to any authority for his wrongdoing and shady dealings because so many have been willing to look the other way. Now it is the Constitutionally mandated responsibility of Congress (House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans) to NOT look away, but to look very, very closely and hold Trump accountable — for a change, one and for all.
14
@Citizen-of-the-World Seems like bringing bad actors to justice is just too much trouble, and everyone would rather just watch teevee.
Foreign funding and influence schemes are playing out in the EU elections now. "If they could do it here (U.S.), they can do it anywhere."
A bigger concern is that the President's lapdog and minion Mr. Mnuchin is now Sec. of Treasury. Mnuchin won't release Trump's tax returns. Does anyone actually believe he would investigate any "suspicious" transactions activities linked to his boss.
38
@iriscot
Neither will his head of the justice dept. Mr Barr.
Trump has built a wall alright. A protective wall around himself to protect against all of his illegal behavior.
4
The reason why only natural born Americans can become President is to minimize the risk that their loyalty is to someone else than the People of the United States.
The emoluments clause is supposed to ensure exactly the same. If that is null and void, then please let's also consider others more worthy than Trump, though perhaps not born in the USA, for President.
I would vote for Arnold any day. He is an infinitely better Republican and upstanding American than Trump ever was.
15
Kushner, like father like son. Trump family, great at promising the world and in the end leaving everyone empty handed, from the contractors to the banks, and of course us, the American taxpayer who picks up the tab for Trump's bankruptcies.
32
Letitia James, I think there are multiple state-level money laundering charges that are indictable and more than likely to result in a conviction that survives an appeal. AG James, it is up to you to restore the rule of law.
36
@Marc Tretin
Her New York AGs office has already issued subpoenas for bank records from Deustche Bank last month.
2
I’m begging the House Democrats to step up and open an impeachment inquiry. We are entitled to know the full truth as Team Trump stonewalls everything. Democracy needs full transparency. Please fulfill your constitutional duty, Speaker Pelosi.
33
@Craig I apologize up front for being dismissive over something so important, but We The People need to understand how courts work and basically, what is the impeachment process in a high level of government court proceeding. Impeachment works much like an impaneled Grand Jury in that they determine if actions should be considered criminal and sent to trial. No one is questioning yours or others understanding that criminal offences occurred. What those of us with a law degree and a higher understanding of criminal proceedings need the general public to understand is, it is the Senate that is the trier of fact. Criminal proceedings are adjudicated by the Senate in case of House Impeachment. Clinton got his hand slapped by that Senate. Do you really think Trump will get even that from this Senate no matter what crimes committed? Nancy is timing this like a horse race while playing three dimensional chess and we are only a few moves into a very long process; no where near the home stretch. Please trust the process and understand there are reasons to not rush it. She is in fact giving him and his bunch of associates plenty of rope.
33
@Louis Nevitt, Dems need to bring the facts to light so the American people can judge whether or not Trump should be removed. Easier to issue subpoenas as part of an impeachment inquiry. It is the right way to go to get at the truth. And if the American people are convinced, amazingly you will see Senate Republicans open their eyes.
1
@Louis Nevitt
Agreed!
Why would Kushner be sending money to Russian individuals?
And why would the person detecting those funds transfers be the money laundering specialists?
23
Presumably, Russian individuals paid much more in dirty money for Kushner real estate. What they are getting back from Kushner is laundered.
2
@Debbie
You forgot that the employee who tipped off the bank was fired for doing such.
3
@RJG. Sorry another apologist mis-stating the information in the article. DB alleged that she was not meeting her quota of work accomplished- to which she alleged that upper management had reduced her workload after she had questioned the process.
What is "money laundering"?
Moving money that was "originally illegally obtained" by mixing it with non illegal businesses so that it may evade taxation and eventual return to the criminal.
Why concentrate on the epiphenomema? Get to the root of the original illegal activity with policing that respects due process and presumes innocence.
Have we really thought this whole thing thru? What is the cost of enforcement via the benefits.
Quasi deputizing non law enforcement to report "suspicious" activity without need for warrants? Shall we all be required to report our neighbors (or maybe just the ones who are different from us.)?
ACLU - what are your thoughts?
6
@JDK
How many of your neighbors do you suspect are
engaged in money laundering?
@JDK
When a private company risks exposure to prosecution, fines and lawsuits, it covers it's risks. It makes sure it's aware of it's liabilities and it practices due diligence.
If you turn a blind eye, that will be the direction the sucker-punch is coming from.
@JDK I think there is a misunderstanding as to when (and to what degree) the presumption of innocence should occur in legal proceedings. If legal proceedings are divided into three phases (policing, prosecuting, and judging), then presumption of innocence is vital in the judging phase but less so in earlier phases. If police always presumed innocence, no arrests would ever be made.
Given Republican Congress failure to act on multiple reports of criminal activity, obstruction of justice, proposed pardons of war criminals and now, possible money laundering by this administration, I have to wonder: how many Republicans have a vested interest in this stuff and don't want their own wrongdoing to be exposed?
56
@RFM: They all have something on each other.
5
I find it interesting that these suspicious transactions only started appearing after Trump entered the political arena. He has been in the real estate business for decades and done business with DB for much of that time, yet mysteriously these questionable transactions only started appearing after he decided to enter the political sphere. While this should be looked at, I find it very troubling that there were no suspicious activity reports further back in time, even though Trump had been doing business with the same people through this same bank long before he started getting into politics. This makes me seriously question both the validity of these reports as well as the motivations behind the person making them. I would like to see an investigation into Ms. McFadden to see what if any political ties and political history she has. She had been with the bank since 2008 and did not start finding anything questionable with Trump transactions until 2016, about the time Trump started talking about running for President. Even the Democrats out there need to admit that this raises some questions regarding motivation for these filings that should be looked at.
4
@sailbum
Did it occur to you that before Trump became president they were just more careful about it and after Trump became president, it was known that Trump would place people, his allies, in key positions to block any investigations into money laundering as he has done so?
We also don't know what the NYSC has pertaining to this activity before Trump went into politics and if in part that is also one of the reasons he did so.
Trump in his business practices makes vendor wait him out using the courts to delay hearing the cases.
Many of these vendors were small and couldn't wait as they counted on the money to pay employees, so they settled for smaller amounts.
Some of the bigger clients still have cases pending but have to wait until his presidency is over.
Remember Trump said he didn't break any laws and were just using the laws on the books to his advantage.
That means manipulating them.
5
@sailbum
When a complicated client seeks and then gains high political office, that client's business transactions become subject to a new, stricter set of laws. Those transactions warrant closer scrutiny.
That's the way it works in this country.
9
@sailbum
There may actually be SERs farther back that we don't know about because they were also quashed by senior Deutsche Bank management.
As far as the validity, these transactions are flagged by a computer program, then acted on by employees.
But perhaps the real motives we should be questioning aren't Ms. McFadden's, but the president's. If these transactions by him and Mr. Kushner are indeed highly suspect, then ask yourself why did they start happening around the time that he and Mr. Kushner gained decision making ability around U.S. foreign policy and trade policy.
The quid pro quo is practically right out in the open. It's not dots that are connecting, it's gigantic flashing red sirens.
11
I don’t have trump investigation fatigue.
But I do have democratic party ineffectiveness fatigue.
Even more though, I have ignorant fellow citizens despair!
48
@Greg
How about spineless complicit congressional republican fatigue?
7
@HG Wells
We know that about Republicans.
We had been led to hope Democrats would be aggressive in their attempts to set things right.
Now, we have Pelosi playing politics (badly) with our future and not one single other Democrat willing to speak forcibly up.
So, yeah. All politicians suck but, at this sad point, Democrats are by far the biggest disappointment.
We live in a world run by criminals. What are their plans for the rest of us, after the climate catastrophe?
20
@Ronald Dickman
What are their plans for the rest of us, after the climate catastrophe?
A protein source.
11
Let's see, serial lying, tax evasion, money laundering, cheating at golf, stiffing his contractors, marital infidelity, sexual assault and using the White House to enrich himself. How much more will Trump's supporters put up with? He's even guilty of chain migration while claiming to want a merit-based system. One wonders exactly what skill set Melania's parents brought to the United States other than providing Trump with yet another East European wife.
65
I am sure melania is deeply involved in this. She is not exactly a Laura Bush or Michelle Obama quality person. They are certainly not a normal husband/wife couple.
4
Are there any ties to former Justice Kennedy's son to this failure to investigate suspicious transactions at Deutsche Bank? Somewhere in this dirty mess is the reason Kavanaugh is now on the Supreme Court.
31
@InNJ you bet...
1
Asked and answered, it seems.
2
Trump's most memorable truism is that he could kill someone in broad daylight and get away with it. Add Deutsche Bank to the lengthy list of people and entities that will let him do whatever he pleases. God like? I suspect he is one step shy of saying he is God.
18
@Susan remember Obama? He could lie as long as the day was long and the MSNM was dead silent or covering for him.
1
@Juergen Granatowski Obama was not stupid, why would he lie?
@Juergen Granatowski.
I reply again to a member of the cult - please stay on task. We are not talking about Obama right now - you should go somewhere else to spew on that. This is a forum on an article about possible money laundering. You are learning too well the tactics of your great bamboozler. We will however not be confused by such tactics.
"Senior executives worried that if they took a tough stance with Mr. Trump’s accounts — for example, by demanding payment of a delinquent loan — they could provoke the president’s wrath."
This is inexcusable. This underscores the absolute necessity that the Emoluments Clause be enforced immediately and without delay in the future. The very idea that Donald Trump is still neck-deep in the machinations of his business empire while supposedly acting in the role of public servant is both revolting and infuriating. Jimmy Carter gave up a peanut farm when he became president out of a concern for the appearance of impropriety. A peanut farm! Now, we are stuck under the thumb of an international wheeler-dealer, who has spent his life grifting, stiffing payments, and cutting corners, happily jumping into transactions with anyone, no matter how shady, who would provide Trump with capital for his insatiable and utterly incompetent business designs.
The American people demand and deserve the full truth about this administration, and its criminality. This administration, from top to bottom, is the worst we have ever seen. Trump must be impeached.
43
@Dominic Absolutely not a Trump fan, and the likelihood is that financial irregularities are what will bring him down, but in this case it is the portion of the article that you quoted that is inexcusable.
Was Trump delinquent on any of these DB loans after he became President? Has DB failed to demand payment on any loans because he is President? Apparently not, or it would have been reported by these intrepid reporters.
The sentence you quoted was a gratuitous insinuation of wrongdoing, without proof or even an allegation that it has occured. The executives "worried" that something bad could happen. Not worthy of an expose, and useful information only for a smear.
Show us the proof that the flagged "suspicious" activities were illegal. That is what is important for readers to know. The Times continues to report suspicions, speculation and opinion, without yet having closed the deal on criminality. It is beneath the Times to traffic in innuendo.
2
So the real question is : ‘What is going to be done to hold people accountable and prosecute them? ”
America loves to throw the little guy in jail but rarely do we see the rich klan being held accountable for their corruption. They just lawyer up with the best lawyers money can but and weasel out of these cases and continue to go on and on.
After living 75 years on this earth It’s amazing to me that non of them seem to have learned that they can’t take their wealth to the grave. However , they pass it on to their ‘spawn’ to perpetuate the cycle of corruption over and over all the while demonizing and exploiting the majority of society’s underlings.
It’s a cancer that undermines the very foundations of our democratic institutions and metastasizes the core of our ‘Republic’. They are somehow not subjected to the same rule of law that the majority of citizens are so there is no recourse or punishment for their actions.
Look at Bill Barr’s actions. A travesty to our Justice System and the Rule of law.
What message does he portray and send to future generations about how they can skirt the law if they are politically connected .
I don’t see America surviving till this systemic corruption is extinguished.
29
Per your article, McFadden has a history of being a problem employee.
1
@nessa
I suppose that's why Deutsche Bank chose to give her performance awards over the years.
And how is suing a former employer for bias being a 'problem employee'?
4
@nessa
"Per your article, McFadden has a history of being a problem employee."
So was that kid pointing out the transparency of the emperor's new wardrobe.
3
@nessa
That's right, shoot the messenger.
If she is a problem employee, then what can you name specifically that she has done wrong other than say she would like fair and equal treatment like other employees.
3
Unfortunately, there is no proffered evidence beyond the reasonable doubt. Similarly to the tax evasion and fraud schemes.
Trump's Satanic empire is not easily to penetrate.
7
"Suspicious Activity" ?
How about blatant in-your-face activities like compulsive lying, degrading women, spreading races, obstructing justice, pardoning war criminals, alienating longstanding allies, and creating alliances with criminal foreign leaders.
Who needs "suspicious activities" when you already have more than you need to get rid of Trump and Kushner.
19
Like the old song Love and Marriage Love and Marriage Go Together Like a Horse and Carriage so do Trump and Russia. Deutsche Bank has been in violation laundering money for Russians. Suspicious activities appear to be taking place with the Trump Organization account and Jared Kushner's. Yet Trump is suing Deutsche Bank not to turn over any financial information to congress. The irony in this article is that Deutsch Bank would have had to report suspicious activities to the US Treasury whose current secretary refuses to comply with a lawful subpoena to turn over six years of Trump's tax returns. As long as Trump remains in office there will be more corruption. And the American people would be the losers.
10
With Barr heading the Justice Department, Mnuchin in Treasury, the Supremes and the Senate weighted on his side, and Democrats wringing their hands, Trump thinks he can get away with anything. He very well may. He wants to be King, and he may just get himself crowned.
9
Russian money, from natural resources, have been systematically looted and laundered through banks domestic and foreign into American real estate and businesses. The Republican Party in the form of Mitch McConnell, Don the Con, NRA, some members of the house and senate are in on the conspiracy of silence, criminality, obstruction and the trashing of the rule of law. The pieces are coming together and it’s too big to hide. These are just my thoughts of what I see.
11
Capitalism is alive and well in the World!
2
@Lois Lettini
One has to distinguish between capitalism and corruption. The latter makes no distinction between capitalist and communists.
1
@Kara Ben Nemsi
VEry good point made! !Explains why Trump admires Putin!
It should be a crime to hide or fail to report suspicious transactions, similar to obstruction of justice.
And there should be an investigation into Justice Kennedy's retirement. His son works with Trump at DB. Did Kennedy get some promise in exchange for retiring early so a far right wing judge could be appointed in his place?
11
It is time for the congressional oversight and state criminal investigations to ramp up and bring the dirt to light so the the Liar in Chief and his self-satisfied relatives can go on public trial.
8
and whose son works for Deutsche Bank, former Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy. So why exactly did he step down????
18
@Edward
An interesting insight. How about more on why the failed president's sister stepped down?
When and who will stop this type of corruption?
10
Ok enough.
Answer YES if you will vote for Trump in 2020.
... didn’t think so.
1
Keep up the great journalism on this topic NYT. Anyone that pathologically afraid of even just his tax forms aired has got some bad secrets.
15
How does somebody with Trump's record of dishonesty avoid scrutiny? It's disgusting.
11
Thank you, Tammy McFadden!
10
My favorite quote of the day: ‘The New York Times continues to create dots that just don’t connect.” Said the spokeswoman Karen Zabarsky of the Kushner Companies. Let this be her legacy. Put it on her tombstone.
9
Boycott all things Trump.
Boycott Deutsche Bank ....AND DB clients and customers.
Then the truth will come out.
Do what is right. Do it.
11
Follow the money.
9
They flagged transactions in 2017. The president and/or his son-in-law/senior advisor is laundering money for Russia from the White House.
14
Why isn't this story the top story, a headline in large type, across at the top of the front page of the New York Times?
13
Agreed Bruce- here are more items that should be front page until someone listens:
1- The letter from over 700 prosecutors saying Trump obstructed Justice
2- we know trump is lying when he said he didn’t want war with Iran, because it would decimate Mid East oil production, and the increase in oil prices would greatly benefit PUTIN !! So Putin is running our foreign policy? Really? What a surprise.
NYT your front page today? Taxi woes. College tuition? Really. You are like Nero fiddling while Rome is burning.
4
Simply shocking, but in this era of Trump, not unusual. Last night CBS showed the story of a whistle-blower at Danske Bank who uncovered a huge money laundering scheme which is still under investigation for further laundering. The sums which were Russian generated and paid out in USD due to the proximity to Russia as the branch of Danske Bank in Estonia continue to grown past several trillion, amazing the whistle-blower who with his family is rather secretive due to some fear. There is some relation to Putin, but none yet to Trump. We're definitely in the era where rules do not matter; it's all a matter of what can be done and certainly regulations matter but have no effect if not instituted. McFadden paid the price the fellow at Danske Bank did. These are two rather small fry in the shadowy world of trillions of dollars involved in schemes only very big boys can achieve.
15
The most striking aspect of this story: these incidents occurred with Trump in the Oval and Kushner in the West Wing. This in light of this President's "red-line" insisting his businesses not be investigated. With Barr and Mnuchin in place what are the odds these suspicious activities will be seriously investigated?
The Administration's tentacles can slow and obfuscate every investigatory path. The GOP has so far failed the Country, depriving us of the first line of defense. Bar and his ilk have decimated the second line of defense. At this point all that's left is SCOTUS, and Trump can tie things up to his advantage as a buffer against our only hope for truth, and justice.
14
"Follow the money."
---Deep Throat
8
If it first you don’t succeed try...try... again. Collusion didn’t work, obstruction didn’t work, dossiers didn’t work. Now we’ll try something else so maybe Deutsche Bank. I don’t think the New York Times likes President Trump.
2
@Piotr Many don't. For ample reason. Not enough space here to count the ways. A crook by any other name (including "president") is still a crook.
7
@Piotr Do you?
@Piotr. Maybe not...but with good reason. The nyt and people who side with justice and the rule of law want a truthful president whose hands are clean. Trump and his minions are the antithesis of those things.
1
A person is murdered. The investigators name a suspect. The suspect is arrested and a trial date is set. The trial last weeks and the suspect, the alleged murdered is found guilty but gets off on appeal based on a minor technical matter. The D.A>. decides not to retry the case. The murderer gets off Scott free.
Who is the murderer? Not the local black drug user of one ounce of pot. Not the woman who fought of a rapist. Not an immigrant arrested and charged by an American version of Clockwork Orange or Nazi Germany.
No, it is a banker who looks to make a lot of money in transactions that are morally wrong and illegal. Bankers have a free pass it seems.
So for those who want to get tough on crime, please stand and be counted.
6
I can't wait until Trump and his minions are thrown out of the White House. They will all be wearing orange jumpsuits before the sun rises on January 21, 2021.
11
money talks.
1
This kind of thing really makes me wonder if the conspiracy theories that say that Martin Bormann (head of the Nazi Party Chancellery) set up hundreds of shell corps and moved himself and the money overseas in summer of '45 aren't correct.
You have the rise of the far right again. The rise of antisemitism. The rise of hate speech and violence. And right at the center is Donald Trump. And at his back is the Deutsche Bank, covering his tracks and hiding the flow of money. Is this just a continuation of WW2, which was a continuation of WW1? This makes me so paranoid that that period of horror and its perpetrators live on in some shadowy underworld.
4
More fake news to disparage the President. How about an investigative report on the Clinton Foundation detailing its sources of funding and correlation with speaking invitations and uranaiim transactions?
2
Please read the Meuller report
1
@Juergen Granatowski The uranium story was debunked long ago. As to speaking engagements what's the matter with them, nothing illegal in being paid by people who want to hear you.
2
@Jane Schewior. Why? The mueller report came up negative on Russian collision. Can you move on and be part of ending the hate and resentment toward this president?
Kushner Co, mouthpiece says the NYT "creates dots that just don’t connect.” Wrong.
Seems to me the NYT simply reveals dots (illegal activities) that connect in multiple ways throughout the Trump & Kushner operations.
How disgusting that disreputable cheats are at the helm of our government, and still getting away with it. It would be beyond belief, except for the overwhelming array of dots and the flagrant attempts to hide evidence and obstruct justice.
11
This is a screaming wake up call for the regulators and legislators to provide strict oversight. Deutsche Bank's primary regulatory, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, should commence a targeted examination to determine why the bank deliberately and repeatedly ignored its own internal anti-money laundering controls in what appears to be a systematic fashion. The findings should determine whether Deutsche Bank should lose its license to do business in the United States, and whether the FRBNY's own Legal Group should recommend criminal cases for bankers who intentionally ignored sanctions laws.
From a legislative standpoint, this is where house sub-committees have clear mandates to follow the money between the Trump/Kushner loans and funds that passed through Russian entities. This is a critical point where we finally determine whether we have oversight that matters or regulators who repeatedly rubberstamp meaningless fines on repeat offenders who have little incentive to change their bad behavior and illegal practices.
10
Deutsche Banksters are the lender of last resort and the acknowledged favorite of money launderers globally.
Somebody has to help out the wealthy....
11
Is it any wonder that the next generation believes not in the banking system but in crypto currencies? What they don’t realize is that money and greed are two hands of the same body. It’s unlikely that the money train can be brought under control. It has been a runaway for years and shows no sign that it will ever slow down. Until it’s next crash. Then the financial wizards hoist the engine back on its tracks and off it goes speeding down the tracks. One day, all the money in the world will be used to mitigate climate change and its paths of destruction. Fire, cyclones, hurricanes, pestilence, extinctions.
4
The NYT, among many others, has done all the heavy lifting, devoting enormous time and resources to conduct investigations and gather facts and evidence, yet Democrats are unwilling to close the deal. Maybe it's because it's hard to do the right thing when wealthy and powerful donors don't want to rock the boat. The tax cuts and deregulation benefited wealthy Democratic donors, too.
17
@OldLiberal, I think Democrats are leaving it up to the prosecutors and their investigators. I agree with that plan of action. Instead of getting into a quagmire that would leave Democrats accused of partisanship, let the courts investigate. Give Trump enough rope and he will hang himself as his past transactions come to light.
8
Legislative value to House Banking Committee in this information is studying current system to consider changes:
(1) current system" "government regulations give banks leeway"
(2) method Deutsch Bank chose in overriding their own internal experts was markedly different than its usual method of review - choosing instead for its Private Bank folks - who have a vested interest in protecting potential money launderers - review - and deep six - the internal experts' view that red flags pointed to DB needing to file a Report with US Treasury.
Congressional Committees seeking DB records have a built in legislative imperative. See item #1 above- Change Lax Rules.
5
DB, the bank most favored by international crime syndicates.
The other part of this story is that real estate transactions are exempt from reporting regulations.
Make America Safe for Money Laundering.
Come on Congress. Do your job. Enact laws similar to those in other countries that require reporting large cash transactions, no exemptions. And laws that require shell companies to disclose the names of the ultimate investors.
We don’t want this country to be a safe haven for money laundering.
52
@Rita, I think the regulations are in place. DB just chose not to follow them.
3
Now I see why Trump is going to lengths to stop Deutsche bank from cooperating with Congress. If this all comes out I don’t see how he survives this. Although 26 percent of Nixon’s supporters still think he’s innocent. And Trump is way more popular to the base. He is probably correct to say he could “shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.”
39
@Oliver. Not if they shoot back...figuratively, of course. Lets hope that the house and the courts do just that.
4
At the investment bank at which I work, even document production staff like myself are required do yearly e-learning on anti-money laundering awareness. We are required to report any suspicious activity.
Deutsche Bank deserves the huge hit to its reputation that it is about to receive.
77
Let's not forget Justice Kennedy's ties to Deutsche Bank via his son Justin Kennedy, global head of DB's real-estate capital markets division, responsible for the loans to DJT, and a probable -- worth investigating -- link from there to Justice Kennedy's decision to retire, paving the way for Kavanaugh. Another nail in the coffin of our democracy.
134
@sue denim Sue thank you so much....People are not connecting the dots nor following the money....Why did Justice Kennedy suddenly retire when 45 became President??!!
7
Deutsche Bank - once again - violated US Banking Laws. Reporting transactions that meet certain criteria does not mean anything will happen at the Federal level either - but reporting is not optional. Deutsche Bank continues to violate our laws and has been fined millions as a result. It hasn't brought their compliance. Why is this acceptable to bank regulators?
83
This is a tightly focused story on the facts and circumstances surrounding possible money laundering, and serves as a clear rebuttal to attempts by Donald J. Trump and his Republican congressional allies to paint subpoenas at both the federal and state levels as little more than a political hit job. One can only hope that this kind of information is part of the record as Trump’s efforts to quash the subpoenas works their way through the courts.
53
It is bad enough that Trump and his family are above the law. Even if the bank had taken McFadden's report to the Treasury Department, guess who would kill it on sight?
The worst part is that Trump and Kushner are at the top of America's national security system and we will never know how much they are sharing with their Russian friends or owners. We will never know if Trump and Kushner are getting money or election tampering from foreign entities.
There is no doubt in my mind that Congress should get the full Mueller report and all the Trump financial information they are demanding. The whole thing has the look and feel of organized crime.
121
Deutsche bank is not going to bite the hand that feeds them but it's things like this that say congress should be given copies of Trump's taxes.
60
@BTO --and copies of DT's Deutsche Bank records, to include those which were red-flagged but never submitted to Treasury.
2
Trump will skate like he always does. A different set of rules has been carved out for rich people and powerful politicians.
27
@Clark Landrum he will only skate because he has an intractable base that supports him no matter what. And even worse a Republican party that knows he is committing crimes but would prefer to go down in flames with him. If the American people wake up and come out to vote in 2020 and vote Trump out of office they might as well vote out the Republican senate and change it for a generation.
36
On 60 Minutes last night they reported on the largest money laundering scheme in history uncovered by one mid level bank manager working for a Danish bank in Estonia. The thieves were taking billions of Russian rubles and exchanging them for US dollars undetected for a number of years. One of the banks that wound up with that money was Deutsche bank in NYC. They are a money laundering machine and of course Trump and Kushner are huge customers. This is so disturbing.
77
I hope at the end of the day, when all of these allegations have been proven in a court of law, the American Justice system goes after Barr for shielding the most blatantly corrupt President from due process.
Of course, ultimately it will be up to the American people to say they've had enough. To go to their windows, throw up the sash and yell out, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
38
What is equally disturbing is the manner in which the U.S. bullies other countries, particularly small island developing states (SIDS) in the Caribbean, by threatening to deny them access to U.S. banks. These vulnerable islands consistently claim that they are not involved in anti money laundering (AML) activities but their protests fall on dead ears.
Meanwhile powerful people like the Trumps and the Kushners get away with actual money laundering. Congress will look toothless if it does not impose hugh fines on Deutsche Bank and others who allow AML activities to go on under their purview.
18
This article indicated that Kushner had made a large payment (or series of payments?) to Russians within the last 2 years, since he's been working at the White House. Is this one of the reasons why he didn't initially pass security clearance?
Both Kushner and Trump are making decisions about high-level security & economic matters impacting not only all Americans but affecting persons and countries globally.
For Kushner to send large sums of money to either an individual, private company or government agency in Russia while serving in highest levels of public office in the U.S. does warrant review. Under such conditions, reviews should be both standard and required. There could be serious conflicts of interest taking place.
For Deutsche to fail to send concerns about such potentially illegal activity after their own employees had alerted them was clearly wrong and sounds illegal.
Investigating this matter should be an immediate priority. If either Kushner or Trump is found to be financially beholden to Russian businesses or Russian government officials this would be a huge compromise of American security and safety.
54
It will be interesting to see if Trump's efforts to completely rig the system to protect himself are successful, or if, at some point, the levee breaks and he's washed away in the flood. So far, he has succeeded.
Those who dismiss Trump as stupid have fallen into his trap. A stupid person couldn't have pulled of this flimflam for all these years. The left has been severely underestimating Trump for years (as he wants it to), egged on by late night talk show hosts and other comedians who present him as a buffoon. Colbert's monologue each night and SNL openings are (often) funny, but very harmful.
Wise up people. The guy is smart in a PT Barnum a-sucker-is-born-every-minute kind of way, which means a combination of crafty and amoral. Deny that at our country's continuing peril.
31
@gleapman I have always said the grifter from Queens has one good talent-the hoodwinking of gullible people.
But then, it doesn't take a genius, a stable genius, to con those who are willing participants.
2
With any luck, these two will be doing their laundering someplace else in future. Hopefully, prison.
24
Sooo—She asked her supervisor if she the bank should make a SAR’s filing, and he determined they should not. This is news? How about a story on Trump’s cheating at Golf? Now that’s Big News!
4
@Pj Lit Very comparable, right? I mean, one could be a felony and the other is just money laundering.
This should be the main article on your front page. And why isn't the media following through on the Deutsche Bank connection and Justice Kennedy and his son and Justice Kavanaugh. Who paid off all of Kavanaugh's bills? Why did Kennedy decide to retire so unexpectedly, especially since he had hired his clerks for the next session? Something smells really rotten here.
37
How long can Trump hide?
13
@gc Way too long, unfortunately.
1
Did Barr squash the counter intelligence investigation into Trump?
17
I’ll be waiting for tomorrow’s news when Nancy Pelosi and Jerry Nadler spinelessly tell us that investigating this will be “too divisive” for the country.
7
Donald Trump,Sr is corruptly and cowardly hiding his profitable Trump Organization advantage arising from his occupation of the Oval Office of the White House from the American people in his income tax returns and business records.
Moreover, by failing to disclose and divest his assets into a blind trust you can't tell where Mar-a- Lago Trump ends and Trump 1600 Pennsylvania begins. An inherent conflict of interest.
Senior White House Adviser Jared Kushner is doing likewise.
Russis if you are listening please disclose this information to the American people. China? North Korea? Iran? Israel?
14
@Blackmamba
errata paragraph 4....Russia ….
erratum (singular), errata (plural).
@fFinbar
Thanks.
"It is small mind indeed who can think of only one way to spell a word' Andrew Jackson
Gee...which presidential contender has the most chance of ending the looting and larceny?!
Soo much of this criminal activity is written into our tax codes and is criminal justice system. On behalf of those whom advise and lobby (buy) our gov.
Who amongst the candidates is most likely to attempt to recticfy these wrongs on behalf of We The People?!
Worse yet...do any Americans really care?!
Has corruption and cheating become the American norm?!
8
I trust the Senate will ask Jr. about money laundering.
9
Re: Karen Zabarsky's statement: The word "allegations" is plural. Made-up needs a hyphen.
A spokesperson who can't spoke!
She also probably doesn't see this embedded in her defense: " ... Bank’s relationship with Kushner Companies which involved money laundering ... "
Hilarious!
4
I see pattern:
NY Times uncovers damming facts about 45;
NY Times readers express outrage;
45 says it’s fake news;
His base can’t read, won’t care;
Congress says there will be consequences;
Nothing happens;
45 is still president;
Repeat...
21
@AVT
You left out the part that almost every member of Congress refuses to uphold their oath of office, but expects us all to send money and vote for them.
10
Keep digging NYT, find the link that explains it all....the link to Anthony Kennedy's son, Kennedy's retirement and the Merrick Garland blockade. It's there, it's just a matter of turning over the right rock.
20
Connect the dots: Justice Anthony Kennedy's son Justin was trump's banker at Deutsche Bank. Justice Kennedy just happened to retire so Kavanaugh could be appointed.
Someone else complicit and brought down by the smell of trump? This whole thing stinks of money laundering and corruption. Everything he touches dies a horrible death.
28
Does America have an extradition arrangement with Germany? If so, it would be lovely to see our President extradited on charges of money laundering. Nah, won't ever happen but one can dream.
10
AG Barr's daughter recently transitioned to work for FinCen. https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/13/politics/barr-family-justice-department-moves/index.html Hmmm.
12
Methinks those senior bank managers at DB doth protest too much.
7
"Karen Zabarsky, a spokeswoman for Kushner Companies, said: “Any allegations regarding Deutsche Bank’s relationship with Kushner Companies which involved money laundering is completely made up and totally false. The New York Times continues to create dots that just don’t connect.”"
The lady doth protest too much: "completely made up and totally false" -- sounds like a kid with its hand well and truly caught in the cookie jar.
She also seems to have an aversion to dots. And hey, ain't that just the beautiful thing about dots? They DO end up connecting, if you get enough of them.
14
All you need to know about DB is that they kept lending money to Trump when no other bank would!
25
@AKJ Bingo!
PS: I've been a banker for 15 years and I know how it works... What you just said speaks volumes! Thank you.
3
The big story over the last few days in Europe has been the resignation of the Far Right Nationalist Vice Chancellor of Austria who stars in a videotape promising government contracts to a woman posing as a relative of a Russian oligarch in exchange for financial support of his party. In addition, the woman's purchase of a major Austrian paper and promise to shift support to the Vice Chancellor's party was discussed. France 24 has interviewed an expert who says the Russians are spending $2 billion annually on right wing propaganda. European news outlets are tracking down Putin's financial support of far right candidates throughout Europe ahead of elections there. So nationalist candidates are aligned with Russia. Why hasn't the NYT or WAPO made any mention of this? This story also links our nationalist President and his family to Russia. Putin's stage is much larger than just the U.S.
27
@Health Lawyer So, Russian $laundering schemes are being designed to support right wing candidates in western democracies. And these schemes are also flowing money into media outlets to support these candidates. If this is proven to be true anywhere, it will be easier to prove here. This may be it.
8
@Health Lawyer Russia is really a third-world country with little free cash. That fact that they are spending it this way means they must totally capture our politicians and the trump family to remain solvent. They are very close and unless we speak up they will own the U.S.A. shortly.
6
@Health Lawyer, Yes, most pertinent! Thank you.
2
The truth will out.
5
"Real estate developers like Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner sometimes do large, all-cash deals, including with people outside the United States, any of which can prompt anti-money laundering reviews. The red flags raised by employees do not necessarily mean the transactions were improper. Banks sometimes opt not to file suspicious activity reports if they conclude their employees’ concerns are unwarranted."
*Yawn* Next groundbreaking story, please. Maybe NYT can find more obvious biased opinions and "unnamed sources" to create yet another flashy article title with no real substance.
2
Sure, trust them because everything that they say and do is always on the up and up. Trump always tells the truth and they both have so much credibility we should believe they are innocent because their finances are completely transparent. No need to look at anything because, after all, everything they are doing is in the best interests of the American people. And oh yeah they are making decisions that affect billions of people...sure, just trust them. Nothing to see here. Fire and demote the whistle blowers. That’s perfectly okay. Investigate the investigators; fire them a day before retirement and impugn their reputations after decades of looking into these very things in service of the US.
Sure...
14
@Nunya Business
Deutsche Bank is an "unnamed source?"
1
Last might “60 Minutes” had a segment about the money laundering of about $250B out of Russia via a Danske Bank branch in Estonia. Deutsche Bank, likewise has been engaged with the same Russian oligarchs laundering money for profit. That Trump and Kushner are again named parties of this network is neither new nor a simple rumor. Kushner’s companies have been near insolvency until “dirty money” was infused into the Kushner’s coffers.
Yet, now Kushner, with a straight face (pun intended), is rolling out the first tranche if his Middle East “peace plan” that involves financial investment. What and who are being targeted as the suppliers of the aforementioned money? And, what fees are the Kushners, Trump, Netanyahu and other financial “geniuses” be making?
11
The real business of the Trump Family is Money Laundering. Told you so, BEFORE his " Election ".
Seriously.
24
Deutsche Bank just playing along, being part of the Trump fiasco. The male DB players probably can’t stand women telling them what to do, either.
Trump will come up with some sort of twisted reason yet another person or persons are, of course, lying about him and his shenanigans. And then, you know, the NYT “fake news” relaying the tale. We can just imagine Trump’s rebuke.
Ivanka sure picks ‘em, too. Like father, like husband Jared.
7
@MIMA I wonder if Jared and Ivanka danced to a different version of an old song at their wedding: "I want a boy, just like the boy that married dear old mom."
Suspicious activity has surrounded Trump's real estate transactions for some time.
From a year ago ....
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article210477439.html
But overall this is all "smoke" and not "fire".
Long story devoid of significance other than a continuation of the NYT continued attacks on President Trump and his family. When you can actually report an actual wrong-doing, do so. Until then, find something positive to report, involving or not the President.
3
@Truthbeknown. If you haven't seen wrongdoing by this president, you are not looking for it. Now back to shrieking "Lock her up!" since you folks who spent a total of 12 years investigating the Clintons, and demanding more of Hillary, and finding a sex lie...and impeaching over it. I cannot for the life of me see how ANONE cannot see what a sleazy, dirty, criminal Donald Trump is. But then, you voted for someone who, during the campaign, was ordered to pay $25 million for defrauding Americans via a scam university, all the while calling his opponent crooked...and as usual, his supporters didn't bother with reality and adult thinking but rather kept watching the fun cartoon that is Donald Trump. Trump was right, once, when he said he could murder someone on Fifth Ave. and not lose one of his supporters. That is a cult, truthbeknown, as is turning a blind eye and deaf ear to the War-and-Peace size volume of Trump's criminal, amoral, juvenile, sleazy behavior while shrieking about mere hiccups in others.
3
@Truthbeknown
Be patient. This is akin to that little paragraph in the WP reporting that a group of men were caught broking into the Watergate office of the BNP.
2
Has anyone ever investigated the relationship between Justin Kennedy, a former Deutsche Bank employee, and Trump? Just wondering since Justin Kennedy is the son of the former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. The banker was involved in lending Trump millions.
At the time of the father’s retirement announcement there was reporting that the White House wasn’t surprised by this because the administration had worked to get Justice Kennedy to retire. I’ve always thought that there was something fishy about this.
SEE:
www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/politics/trump-anthony-kennedy-retirement.html
www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/business/dealbook/trump-deutsche-bank.html
14
Why does any "President" - of the United States of America - need to hide ANYTHING ?? The rest of us file our Taxes. Why not Trump ? And now, this. Billions of dollars, back and forth, like a laundromat.
How many hands in the cookie jar, how many blind-eye Bank Transactions can go unnoticed before these inside deals and well-heeled crooks are accounted for? What a Rat's nest !
Considering America's current "Attorney General", I fear the worst for bringing any kind of Judicial Clarity, Balance, or Justice to this, or any, critical situation.
14
All I can say is, "Well - FINALLY!"
Many of us having been wondering for 3 years when this story would finally gain legs. Craig Unger wrote about it in The New Republic back in July of 2017:
https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate
Someone smarter than me posted this about the Trump family: "Money laundering has always been the real family business. The rest is just for show. Real estate was a front, much like the olive oil businesses fronting the mafia in Sicily. The reason Trump is so comfortable with autocrats and gangsters is because they were and are his customers."
28
Once again another scary boogeyman Deutsche Bank story from the Times with no actual allegations of wrong doing or concrete facts. The entire point of this woman’s department is to review transactions for money laundering - that she reviewed a transaction and that her title was related to money laundering does not in fact means there was money laundering. This is like saying a traffic cop was watching you drive today and therefore you must have been speeding or doing something wrong. Also no coincidence the whistleblower has a history of suing her former employers for wrongdoing - fits the mold of someone looking for trouble. These stories are really poor - all smoke and mirrors and innuendo without any context or concrete facts
2
Then why so much effort to suppress and squelch the review process by D.B. and others? Open it up and SHOW us it’s a “nothingburger.” Oh, because it’s not really a nothingburger!
2
Hey anyone need to launder dirty money? Russians, Israelis, Saudis, just call the Trump-Kushner real estate conglomerate. Not only will your money come back clean, Trump and Kushner are offering a limited time bonus offer of a US foreign policy of your choice. This offer expires in November 2020.
11
There seems to be something here in the Russian mafia--Deutsche Bank--Trump Organizations shell game, and the NYT is to be congratulated for pursuing it.
However, please be wary of putting too much credence in Ms. McFadden's account. She obviously has an ax (or several) to grind, and Trump's defenders will exploit that fault and discredit her (and the NYT by association). More corroboration is needed, and I trust the NYT (and eventually prosecutors) to ferret that out.
2
Treasonous Trump..it was ALWAYS the money...follow the money and ye shall find Trump and Kushner in way deep and dirty. It is past time to stop this president from continuing to rip America apart only to serve his bottom-line. Thank you Ms. McFadden, I hope MORE people with a conscience like yourself will come forward, loud and clear....
14
"...should be sent to a unit of the Treasury Department that polices financial crimes."
We know why Trump picked Barr to be AG. Now we know why he picked Mnuchin to be Secretary of the Treasury.
7
Thank you, NYT, for reporting this.
10
It is time to shut-down this bank and kick them out of the U.S. Clearly a criminal organization, the go to place for criminals to launder money. The wrong personnel were fired. Everyone who rejected the whistleblowers' recommendations should be fired and barred from the industry. DRAIN THE SWAMP.
9
Is this Trump presidency the greatest "con" in American history, or what?
10
@Jim Steinberg Yes, due to the spinelessness of the republican party and the complacency of most media.
5
Got work NYT. Now you need a detailed article explaining in good ole boy plain English what "money laundering" is and how it works. Then we need to figure out how to get a trickle down effect going to get that info to Dirty Don's base.
10
No wonder why Trump is doing everything humanly possible to block the House Democrats investigating his finances. Like in Watergate, the key is to follow the money. The Republican Party is more than willing to go down with Trump than admit Trump's criminality just as they get their tax cuts and win the war on women. It all starts with the Faustian Bargain made by Mitch McConnell to subvert our democracy in the cause of putting more Federalist Society jurists on the federal bench, men and women who believe in presidential autocracy. All McConnell and his allies have to do is to look the other way as Trump and the Trump family illegally enrich themselves with the help of Russia. What's so bad about that since Trump now has "his Roy Cohn" running the DOJ?
16
What Elizabeth Warren has been saying about too big to fail banks and the need for tighter regulations is true.
14
And yet again, no one held DT accountable. If the author of this article or me we're to do so, the least of our worries would be that our loan application would be rejected. Not DT. There are people with more money and influence than DT in the world. Like many, I'm tired of reading that DT yet again got away with something. We want to know why. Why is it that banks, the legal community, even a Congress won't hold him accountable? Ever?
22
@Ken
Republicans have been accepting Russian money through PACs and the NRA for some time now.
Trump will never be held accountable because much wealthier and more powerful people than him use Trump for their purposes. The Russians, the Russian oligarchs, the Saudis, and even the Republicans can't let Trump be convicted because the trail will lead back to them.
12
Picture a pile of complaints against members of the First Family. Rather substantial don't you think? But nothing will become of it. Powerful officials in the federal government will ignore any wrong doing. And as for the United States Senate, they are there to protect the President and little else.
Investigate? Not in Mitch McConnell's wheel house, he wants to get back to business of governing. Which means doing nothing.
12
This isn't the first report about alleged money laundering by Trump. He is working overtime to keep this and other evidence of illicit behavior from we the people. How much more criminality and obstruction of justice are we going to accept? . There is so much sleaze surrounding this "president" the country is drowning in it. Congress must impeach
9
Sigh* - yet another example of how the wealthy join ranks in spite of obvious irregularites (to put it mildly). In my opinion, this is disgusting and proof that conservative politics promoting free markets with ever less control from government is something mankind cannot handle.
Deutsche Bank is out of the question for me and my futile hope would be that their decent clients take their business elsewhere.
8
Cash is good for money laundering, it is also good for paying bribes.
8
The Trumps live the Art of The Shady Deal.
6
From Russia to Estonia to the Cayman Islands to Panama.
Then, create phony shell companies and phony LLCs that hide the owner's names on multiple accounts.
Incorporate in Nevada, and move the money everywhere but.
Own nothing, control everything.
We know who they are, and we know who plays this con-game.
And, some hide their money in apartments at Trump Tower.
We will flush them out as they begin to scamper.
7
From Russia to Estonia to the Cayman Islands to Panama.
Then, create enough phony shell companies and phony LLCs that hide the owner's names on the multiple account. Incorporate in Nevada, and move the money everywhere but.
Own nothing, control everything.
We know who they are, and we know who plays this con-game.
And, some hide their money in apartments at Trump Tower.
We will flush them out as they begin to scamper.
3
Ms. McFadden, a longtime anti-money laundering specialist in Deutsche Bank’s Jacksonville office, said she had reviewed the transactions and found that money had moved from Kushner Companies to Russian individuals
All one must do is follow the money. The sooner Bank Regulators tear apart all of Trumps financial records, the sooner his career as a Russian and Putin enabler becomes known.
Trump is a scourge upon the US and he will be unmasked as a traitor. It’s just a matter of time.
15
And this is where Muller failed!
8
So how far are we willing to go to collect dirt on an individual? You just hit the mire level. We have laws to protect our privacy and you just trashed them. What were you paid?
2
@Barry Gardner
This is not “dirt”. This is an investigation of alleged criminality by the President of the United States. It needs to go as far as is legally allowable. That you may find it distasteful is of no relevance.
He surrounds himself with criminals, liars, sex workers, cheats, abject racists and pity hires. But somehow a portion of voters are convinced he is the victim.
It would make a bad novel at best.
3
@Barry Gardner
'One individual?'
He's the PRESIDENT.
If he is using the power we imbued him with to profit, launder money, or commit crime he is abusing the power. If he is millions of dollar in debt, he is controlled by who he owes the money to--that is corruption. If he is controlled by any interest other than ours, we are at risk. This is not 'collecting dirt,' this is a criminal investigation to protect democracy and ultimately the 330 million people who live in the US.
Yes, we have laws 'to protect privacy,' but when the are involved in the investigation of a crime of this magnitude, those rights don't apply. Conducting an investigation isn't 'trashing' rights--it's folllowing the rule of law, otherwise law is meaningless.
You act like this article is investigating a few parking tickets of the town dog catcher. Watch something other than FOX.
2
There must be legions of Americans out there who are hoping and fervently praying that finlly this is the smoking gun that will bring down the rotten edifice of the Trump empire once anf for all. I am one of them.
9
I would call Tammy McFadden a "hero" for the principle of law.
A committee in the House of Representatives should investigate all of the facts of this story.
No person should be beyond the reach of the law in a democracy.
9
Let's see...
Bank employee discovers and reports suspicious activity from prominent Americans
Employee recommends alerting the authorities.
Bank buries the report, fearing backlash from same prominent Americans.
Prominent Americans avoid consequences, and one of them gets elected President of the United States.
And the hits keep on rollin'... !
9
This guy will probably be defeated in 2020, if not term limited in 2024 and with the help of republicans we delay with lawyers and obstruction all the numerous charges against him.
However, after that, State and local gov't and the federal gov't if dems take over should pursue these charges and others.
Nobody if above the law.
Due to his age, Trump will probably be giving a term equal to life.
Listen to Lincoln, with malice toward none with charity for all, only punish the worst.
Ok, let him live out his life in Club Fed, where some of his ex pals are like Flynn and Cohen.
4
Deutsche Bank's story sounds familiar. Think Danske Bank and their money laundering schemes although, it seems they were a bigger operation as far as money laundering is concerned.
It took a whistle blower and time (years) before authorities took notice and action. Unfortunately Deutsche Bank has NO whistle blowers and Trump is trying with all his might to stop Deutsche Bank from revealing Trump's passed transactions. On the other hand Deutsche Bank does not want to rock the boat and risk the ire of Trump, hence Deutsche Bank is reluctant to comply with the Congressional Democrats demands. Lastly, where are Bank's, the Treasury's and Tax department's oversight committees? Nowhere to be found. Is it because they all fear Trump and his ire and his Republican ilk?
How can all the people on these oversight committees trust this lying and dishonest President, how?
6
This demonstrates the value of whistleblowers. They need to be protected. As for Deutche Bank:
"But former Deutsche Bank employees said the decision not to report the Trump and Kushner transactions reflected the bank’s generally lax approach to money laundering laws."
The reason is simple: Deutsche Bank is, and has been for some time, technically bankrupt. Its managers are desperate for business and continually ignore the consequences. I joked with a friend, who was considering buying DB shares in 2010 at EUR 45, that I would only buy it at EUR 2.50. It is now EUR 6.70 and sliding inexorably towards my target. Why buy it at all? Because the name alone is worth EUR 2.50, and eventually it will be bailed out by the German government.
Unfortunately, the German banking industry (I was the former Chief Representative of Dresdner Bank) is occupied by "Idiots In Pin Striped Suits" (the title of a book by Professor Guenter Ogger), and Deutsche Bank is arguably the worst of the worst, feverishly catching small fish while throwing bigger fish back into the sea. The bank needs a complete shake-up.
10
The very same bank that corrupt retired supreme court 'justice' Anthony Kennedy's son worked for. who would imagine a connection such corruption. Shame on the fraud Kennedy.
9
Who is surprised? No one's surprised. The Trump Family is a crime syndicate and their bankers are, too.
By the way, Justice Kennedy's son worked there when he retired from the bench. "Nice boy you got there," Trump said to Kennedy. Message received.
11
Trump has long operated at the limits or beyond the law.
Kushner's family has a criminal history, and Jared also operates at the limits or beyond the law.
Kushner's good friend Netanyahu is under criminal investigation nationally and under investigation for crimes against humanity internationally.
Trump's good friend the Saudi MBS is recognized as a torturer and murderer.
Trump, Kushner, Netanyahu, and MBS are the principals in putting together Trump's "Deal of the Century". How on earth can they expect any credibility !!
10
Trump and his family, show themselves to have no boundaries when it comes to corruption.
8
Will anyone stop the corruption among the plutocrats?
9
Everyone in the banking community understand how corrupt this bank has always been. Not only are their monetary practices always under suspicion but their diversity numbers are horrific. Minorities who have the nerve to actually do there jobs are forced out . Risk management doesn’t exist at Deutsch Bank. It’s a culture of greed, corruption, part of the Wall Street culture right in your face. Another example of financial turn a blind eye, silent approval. Ms Warren can tell you all about the financial institutions if we just listen and learn.
Trump and his slum landlord son in law are everything that is anti democracy and in American.
Trump illegal drama is everywhere .
558
@Tony
Ms Warren seems to be one of only a few presidential candidates, perhaps B Sanders, too, whole know how govt really works, and it’s not for most of us out here.
25
@Tony except that Deutsche Bank is not the only bank to indulge in such practices. Other banks do similar things and get away with it until it collapses on them and then, because of how things work, on us. Every time our politicians give into demands from the financial industry about oversight and rules, consumers lose, Americans lose. The biggest mistake Clinton made was repealing the Glass Steagall act. It had been in force since 1933. Once it was gone the banks were free to engage in all sorts of risky behavior with our money.
21
@hen3ry The mayhem created by american banks between 1999 to 2008 is a good example on how banks perceive their so called "to big to fail" status which helps them doing whatever they wanted. At the end of the line it is consumers and taxpayers who ended up with the bill. Have you ever see the FED doing anything against any bank or CEO among all others that contribute to the loss of citizens property in the past ?
9
I have little faith that anything of substance will be seen, no investigation, nothing.
After all, who would dare investigate allegations of money laundering and other possible fraudulent actions against the grifter from Queens and his possibly equally guilty prince.
This piece, however, does confirm the suspicions of many that Trump's and Kushner's hands are as dirty as the oligarchs they are friendly with and needed assistance in cleaning a little bit of money, and who better to clean the money than two real estate "developers" who were, and possibly are, in need of money...
402
Yet there’s no valid legislative reason to look into their finances? Give me a break! Open their books and their background investigations, intelligence investigations, coverups, witness tampering, election fraud - all of it! We demand answers. The public who they are supposed to represent have a right to know. The legislators we elected in a landslide have both the law and the majority on our side. Make them accountable to the laws they swore an oath to uphold.
66
@Dan
O Ye of little faith!
Rumor has it that Deutsche has already begun turning over Trump documents to the NY AG. We have to remember that there must be at least one reason for Trump to say "I'm [fornicated]" and there are probably many. This report should be treated like a "fish on" alert. We've seen the "Money Laundering News" seagulls diving into the water all round Trump for long enough to know that sooner or later we'd hook up with some actual evidence. You don't land every hooked fish and this one is a strong fighter, but the NY AG is a highly able fisherwoman. There will be sushi for everyone eventually.
32
@Rusty Carr...Cool. Witch hunts. Phishing expeditions. What's next, Rusty, a wild goose chase? Or, maybe some good old snipe hunting....Better make sure your sushi chef did up the blow phish properly.
This article is a bit below the NYT's standard for completeness.
I would have like to have seen Ms. McFadden's college degree if any. Is she a CPA or have any financial background besides on the job training ?
I myself was in the financial world myself for 35 yeas in clerical
positions until I became a stockbroker
While I saw less shennanigans than this I saw a few and brought them to the attention of my bosses. If they ignored it in time I moved on but I maintained a good reputation so I
always had a better job to move on to.
Like some other readers mentioned about the 60 minute broadcast there is a lot of this stuff going on with the amounts staggering in scope and the people at the highest level sanctioning this.
I read the articles about taxi medallions as well and saw similar parallels when it came to who is overseeing credit unions. It appears NO ONE is !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have we learned nothing from the Savings & Loans debacles in the 80's and 90's. Or the Great Recession in 2008. When there are niches to be exploited or bent there are people like the upper echelon at Wells Fargo to do it. Some of these folks need to go to jail.
While I have been watching the folks who have been caught paying excessive fees to get their kids into highly ranked universities the movement of monies via wire transfer to unknown havens is much more sinister.
10
The woman’s degree is irrelevant. The information she found was repressed by higher ups. Why? That’s the story - keep focused on the facts and what is important. Beware the grifters and money laundering going on under our noses.
@Jonathan John , John, John.
It's hardly irrelevant if you're taking someone who might have c's or d's in high school and then put them into a low end clerical job.
Even if she did move up the ladder at Bank of America she might have had an attitude that led to her termination there.
The awards that she got at D Bank they hand out by the hundreds. Makes management and employees feel good and is cheaper than giving merit raises. Lucite and bronze are pretty cheap.
My point is that the NY which I admire and which I subscribe to because I trust their vetting should have done more investigative work. If she even has two or four semester in a community college that would be satisfactory to me.
I doubt that she is a CPA or has taken a course in forensic accounting otherwise that would have been mentioned.
1
So the ultra wealthy escape while the rest of us pedestrian types pay for much less "wrongdoing." Nothing has changed here in a thousand years. And yet I was taught, and believed, the United States was different. I was taught everyone is equal. I was taught justice for all. Now the curtain is pulled back and the sham exposed. I will pick myself up and continue on - as we all will. I'll take my walks in nature, enjoy what is left of this beautiful planet and treat my friends with kindness. And I will continue to endeavor to hold strength in the belief in the inevitability of equality, justice, fairness and kindness because it is within my power to do so. The only thing that can't be taken from me is my commitment to the value of the good, the beautiful, and the truth. But stories like this, a president like ours, and the demise of so much life on this planet make faith tough at times, don't they?
23
What a mess!
If the German government retains any regulatory interest in Deutsche, its reaction will be almost as interesting as that of Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), chair of the Senate committee variously called Financial Services; Banking; and Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
Keeping the "full faith and credit of the United States" free from taint should be way beyond ideology, and any officeholder (of any political persuasion) who doesn't grasp that is not fit to serve.
12
There are reasons why money laundering operations do their business with Mr. Potter's Deutsche Bank as opposed to George Bailey's Savings & Loan.
8
Inquiring minds want to know what Trump has on Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s son, former Deutsche Bank employee Justin Kennedy. Justin Kennedy served as Trump’s banker while he was employed at DeutscheBank. Justice Kennedy’s swift departure and demeanor around Trump afterwards have a tale to tell. If so, we are in full autocratic government mode.
25
Trump and Kushner are not Deutsche Bank's only unsavory clients. On their books they likely also have numerous, truly wealthy Russian oligarchs (i.e. actual multi-billionaires). Upsetting these kleptocrats might be more damaging to the bank's bottom line.
Why alert nosy federal fraud investigators to potential illegal money flows by the Trump crime family if that might cause unwanted ripple effects for these more powerful and more lucrative customers.
10
610 days left. Hoping. Fingers crossed.
8
If there were not money laundering by trump and kushner, they would not have fought the subpoena.
17
These folks don’t claim to have been fired for anything to do with Trump or his son in law and are disgruntled former employees who didn’t become whistle blowers until they had an axe to grind.
2
@Stephen Gianelli
Did you read they article?
The timeline you describe appears nowhere in it. They became disgruntled AFTER they reported the suspicious activity, and were then fired and nothing was done about the possible crimes. That then became the very axe they had to grind, because it is unjust and could be evidence of money laundering.
Got it?
4
And you know all this how? Do you have facts to back up your statements (or is it assumptions)?
Follow the money has always been the most effective way to attack the dragon Trump. Sadly, the Dems have focused on talking to the media - something Trump beats them at all day every day - and ignored forensic accounting.
5
@Jeff Atkinson The one who has not ignored forensic accounting in her committee work is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
13
It’s pretty obvious DeutscheBank is going to go bankrupt. Possibly the German government will bail it out, but yet another example of being destroyed by “the DTs”.
6
Just follow the money. The Trump and Kushner families are too short on intelligence to effectively cover up their corruption, and it is there just waiting to be discovered. If it's not, why are they fighting with everything they have to keep the details secret?
12
Trump's entire business operations have been kept out of bankruptcy only through a steady infusion of money from Russian organized crime figures. Since Trump could not legally accept this dirty money, he relied upon dishonest bankers to facilitate the greatest money laundering scheme in history.
No honest bankers would do business with Trump, but he luckily found some co-conspirators at places like Deutsche Bank & the Wilbur Ross haven, the Bank of Cyprus. Honest employees like Ms. McFadden were punished for trying to thwart Trump's money laundering. Congress must fully investigate the extent of Trump's dirty dealings.
16
Right after congressional investigators issued a subpoena to Deutsche Bank in mid April, Trump filed a lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan, seeking to block DB and other financial institutes from sharing documents that shed light on his dubious business dealings. This is a clear evidence of power abuse.
Trump’s lawyers said the subpoenas were not legitimate, and he didn’t want his finances be scrutinised just for “political gain.”
But employees at Deutsche Bank raised red flags on multiple occasions because they thought some of his and Jared Kushner’s transactions appeared suspicious and they smelled a rat.
These people are anti-money laundering specialists, and they believed that the transactions deserved the attention of a federal financial-crimes watchdog.
Trump never makes an effort to debunk rumours that he rubbed shoulders with mobsters and laundered their money. And he constantly refuses to release his tax returns. He can't be trusted.
Last week, Austria called for a snap election after the resignation of its vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, who was bribing a Russian operative to help him come to power, while trying to portray his far-right party as squeaky-clean.
Both Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and President van der Bellen said it was important to regain trust and restore Austria’s international reputation. How about the Republicans?
13
Thank goodness for the honest brokers inside Deutsche Bank who tried to do the right thing. One way or another, all of dirty deals Trump and family did will eventually become public. With 20 investigations under way (at least the ones we know about), Trump's demise will be death by a thousand cuts. Public testimony, on TV, so the American public can truly understand the depth and breath of Trump's depravity.
9
So, Mary Daly - Barr's daughter landed a job transfer a day before her daddy was confirmed; working in the very department tasked with rooting out foreign and domestic money laundering. She is now senior adviser to Steve Mnuchin working in the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network: Her background is in Narcotics enforcement.
It is quite clear no one in the Trump administration bothers to disguise their intent.
20
If Trump and family are innocent, why are they blocking release of their bank records to Congress?
14
Deutsche Bank apparently needs Russian money just as much as Trump. DB seems to be one conduit by which Russian subversion is being spread around the world. Fines are obviously not an adequate means to stop their criminal activity. Some prison time for senior management is needed. If that fails they need to be put out of business.
7
Just as we suspected, Trump was involved in money laundering and fraud. Of course he doesn't want his banking records made public.
12
Interesting that this item should appear the morning after a 60 Minutes expose’ of Danske Bank in which senior managers ignored whistle-blower warnings about suspected Russian money laundering activities at its branch in Estonia.
Perhaps the segment’s closing tie-in to ‘expensive New York and London real estate’ suggests other similarities, as well.
6
When there is all this talk about the POTUS family ties to possible money laundering, it’s a real coincidence that the new AG, William Barr, has a daughter, Mary Daly, who was just hired to be the the new counsel for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), with the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit. The FinCEN mission is to safeguard the financial system from illicit use, combat money laundering, and promote national security through the strategic use of financial authorities and the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence.
And at the same time her husband, William Barr’s son in law, Tyler McGaughey, has been hired to the White House counsel's office.
It just seems like there is a lot going on that is behind the scenes.
25
@Bob. Interesting.
1
I have seen tweets that states that the person who sign off on these loans at Deutsche Bank was former Justice Kennedy's son. Any truth to this?
5
Yes, we all like to hear from fired employees or anonymous sources. They have so much credibility, right?
3
@Jackson When we have abundant evidence that the employer in question is corrupt (Deutsche Bank has already had to pay multiple fines for unlawful practices), yeah, fired and anonymous employees blowing the whistle on their employer’s corruption do have credibility.
3
This story is potentially enormous. I hope that lawmakers are somehow able to subpoena these records.
The amount of evidence linking Donald Trump and his associates to Russia, historically one of our biggest adversaries, is bordering on absurdity.
10
Keep following the money and everything will become clear..!
There WILL be a way out of this, you must believe it people.
5
"...Deutsche Bank, which had been caught laundering billions of dollars for Russians..."
Is that the reason Deutsche Bank is about the only bank willing to continue do business with the Trump's and Kushner's...
5
The nature of the human animal is tribal, which means that it protects its own, and the interests of that particular tribe. In this case, the tribe was the amount of money loaned to both the Trump and Kushner companies, by Deutsche Bank, which was considerable. It is mostly the underlings, who are the honest ones doing the work in businesses that should be applauded, and sadly aren't listened to. In 1968, while working for an investment company in New York City, at the age of 20, I was listened to, after discovering a poorly written computer program the company had bought to put their accounts online, not any particular fraud. What we are finding out about Deutsche Bank, New York state, and New York city, in general, is they protect their own, their money, their political party in power, no matter the fraud. If the fraudsters support the current political party in power, they don't want to ruffle the feathers, as most everything business, or political is all intertwined. It leaves one knowing that those who like Colleen Rowley at the FBI in Minneapolis, just before 9-11, are ignored because of arrogance, which is really stupidity, and Deutsche Bank ignored Ms. McFadden as well. It is the American people, who in the end suffer. The suffering of our whole country is going on because of years of covering up, and pushing it under the rug, what both the Kushner holdings, and Trump organization were up to over the years. New York should be ashamed of themselves.
9
Deutsche Bank should be boycotted for irresponsibly loaning money to trump, and then covering up his very suspect financial transactions.
2
If only Congressional Republicans had the ethics of the women who pressed her bosses to pursue the Trump/Kushner suspicious bank transfers.
9
If there exists a "deep state" it is surely embodied in the international banking system. Therein are hidden all the darkest secrets of its loyal clientele, including Trump, Russian oligarchs and other organized state criminals.
The deep state is the deep criminal enterprise that international banking openly enables. Without the knowing participation of the banks they could not operate their illegal enterprise. That's how you know that they are hiding the secrets of Trump. Trump is no less than a Russian agent. His back channel is the banking system through which he communicates with criminal enterprises all over the world.
That is why we can't do anything to solve the existential problems that face us. The deep state fears change and anything that they perceive as unprofitable. They are corporations. They only believe in profit as do all corporations.
So far no candidate has spoken directly to this single most important issue or as I call it The One Issue to Rule Them All. Undo the corporate grip on our elected officials. Until then nothing will get done. The real problems will never be fixed or even mentioned. Go back to sleep America. Read your alt-right propaganda. Go to a Pro Choice rally. Send a check to the NRA. Join an evangelical christian church. Go to a Biden rally. Go to a Trump rally.
Pay no attention to the banks behind the curtain.
9
Amen! And, to learn more and act on how to challenge those "behind the curtain," Move to Amend" wants to abolish corporate personhood AND declare that money is not free speech. Move to Amend (based in Sacramento but with affiliates in many states, including Ohio) is working toward a constitutional amendment that would do those two things. I believe the website is movetoamend.org
2
@Patricia Also American Promise americanpromise.net
1
So who is President Trump's new fixer? Who does he now have behind the scenes helping to smooth over bumps in the road like this one? He certainly is smart enough not to do it himself, so who is? This is going to need massaging before he leaves office, so who is his masseuse?
1
@Richard McLaughlin It appears that William Barr has shouldered some of that burden. Then there’s Steven Mnuchin.
3
What did you think- this bank is a criminal organization helping other criminals. If this was not the Trumps World we now live in this bank should be dissolved and put out of business in this country. Fines are just not sufficient because it is just the cost of doing business. If you want to stop DB-seize the bank and put them out of business.
7
Connect the dots:
1. Deutsche Bank is beholden to Russian money and caught by the Fed laundering Russian money.
2. Bank of Cyprus is a known launder of Russian money.
3. Bank of Cyprus has on its board previous KGB agent and Putin friend, Vladimir Strzhalkovsky plus Viktor Vekselberg, a Kremlin oligarch.
4. Also on the Bank of Cyprus board as Vice Chairman, Wilbur Ross, who Trump appointed United State Sec. of Commerce.
5. Wilber appointed Josef Ackermann, previous CEO of Deutsche Bank as Cyprus' CEO.
6. Manafort used Cyprus for his business transactions, 15 accounts.
7. Trump established two companies in Cyprus, one Trump Construction was founded there in 2008, two months after his sale of Maison de l'Amitie in Palm Beach. Trump paid $41.35M for it in 2005. Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev bought it in the 2008 crash for $95M.
8. All information about Trump's Cyprus companies and their activities are secret.
9. Deutsche Bank employees report, Trump and Kushner not be flagged for possibly illegal foreign transactions. Reports not sent to Treasure for investigation.
10. Past Deutsche Bank employees state DB investigates the financial transactions of politicians
11. Recently retired Supreme Court Justice Kennedy's son worked in Deutsche Bank's Private Banking and supported Trump banking activities. Could activity by Kennedy's son have been used to force an early retirement of his father and open the bench for Kavanaugh?
Time for the US and EU united again!
19
Some things are criminal if certain people do them but not if other people do them. This isn’t how the USA is supposed to operate but it does. We are already so far down the rabbit hole one wonders if this can be fixed.
Enough is enough.
7
When a disgruntled bank employee with a history of malcontent snatches an opportunity for her 15 minutes of fame, those facts must be weighted more heavily before launching an attempt to tarnish the reputation of the President and his family.
Hidden in the national article raising this issue lies some dark nuggets about Ms. Tammy McFadden. She was apparently fired from Bank of America in 2005. She later sued for racial discrimination and wrongful termination.
Ms. McFadden was terminated from Deutsche bank in April 2018. The bank told her that she was not processing enough transactions or not doing her job.
How can her accusations be trusted? I do not.
2
"Suspicious activity reports are at the heart of the federal government’s efforts to identify criminal activity like money laundering and sanctions violations. But government regulations give banks leeway in selecting which transactions to report to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network."
Ah yes, leeway. Guidelines, recommendations... We respect your rights to do as you please. After all we, the government of the United States, work for you you wonderful German bankers.
173
@dave Sort of like giving Boeing oversight over its own planes" safety. And similar other practices by the Federal Govt.
9
Ultimately, it is money laundering that will land Mr. Trump in the most trouble. Russian oligarchs likely laundered massive sums of dirty money through Trump's real estate projects, both domestically and internationally. The question is whether Trump was complicit.
Deutsche Bank for its part is a textbook case of money and politics taking precedence over compliance and internal controls. Any compliance professional knows that an AML department must be independent from operational management. This was a failure of corporate culture, and it came from the very top.
500
@KMJ. Trump’s ongoing bromance with Putin and the 90-min phone calls with him after the Mueller report was released tells us DJT is in on the money laundering.
57
@KMJ
There's no question that Trump was "complicit." With his background, he probably suggested the "deal" in the first place.
28
@KMJ I've been saying this ever since he took office. The facts about Trump's involvement in money laundering have long been in plain sight. It's been frustrating to see how little coverage this aspect of Trump's broader criminality has received.
56
It seems odd to me that a bank employee would first seek permission to file a SAR. I cannot recall one time during my 16+ years in banking that I was told to first ask permission to file a SAR. The culture at Deutsche Bank, if the article is accurate, seems odd and out of synch with federal regulations.
10
@ricocatx Agree. As 33 year former federal bank regulator I find the bank's policy upside down. It has been my experience that management typically encourages AML folks to be overly cautious and file way too many SAR's. Looks like Duetsche Bank continues its illicit ways. Time for the Fed and the OCC to move in.
5
Trump is being scrutinized from so many directions it will be almost impossible for him to escape facing criminal charges at some level along the way. He can't stonewall every investigation, from Congress subpoenas for his bank and accounting records to his tax returns, forever. The clock is ticking. He will have to face the music. You can take that to the bank.
9
@Rob Or.... Trump could negotiate a plea deal for immunity of all crimes in exchange for resigning. That's how it normally works in America. Only the low hanging fruit does time.
5
This article made me glad that NY's AG is also investigating the role of Deutche Bank for Trump's potentially illegal transactions regarding the Inauguration and the now closed Foundation.
But we need more, and on a national level, because if the president and son in law have committed money laundering offenses, they're no more than garden variety felons.
But even more important is how Deutche Bank seems to be working in concert with the administration to quash oversight of potential crimes.
If Donald Trump was corrupt before gaining political power, he's now using his office to cover up his behavior.
No president (or son in law) or bank should be above the law.
24
This is only a beginning of the story which the Times is doing a great service to pursue. Who is making the decisions at the upper echelons of Deutsche Bank to grant loans to a man who has had 5 bankruptcies and who is untouchable to Wall Street bankers? And why are they making these loans? And then suppressing their own internal money laundering detection processes for this highly questionable borrower? What do they or other actors stand to gain? It’s another time to ‘follow the money.’
15
For Trump to have laundered money through these accounts with Deutsche Bank, others in his employ would have had to have known about it.
How were these transactions recorded in Trump’s accounts? How did they appear on bank reconciliation statements?
The one person who knows beyond a shadow of a doubt is Trump’s CFO, Allen Weisselberg. So far, Mr. Weisselberg has offered up limited information; he was given immunity in order to testify in the Michael Cohen investigation, which had nothing to do with money laundering.
Could be that Mr. Weisselberg, still an employee of the Trump organization, is a person of interest. Watch for any subpoena for him to appear before the Congress be rejected by the Trump Administration.
10
Apparently there is a very messy bed with a three-way that includes Deutsche Bank, Trump and Russia. The Muller investigation must have peeked under the covers and I assume this is one of the ongoing investigations.
If not then why not.
18
This is why it's important to network, people! The more friends and support you have in the world, the better your chances of getting away with something illegal.
6
@Eyes Wide Open Yup. That gazillionaire dollar dollar media company, Fox "News" and the rest of the right wing media do manufacture outstanding propaganda, 24/7, along with a so-called press secretary.
2
So many of the comments below are along the lines of "We must enforce the law! Go get him!" I am not now, and I have never been, any kind of defender of Trump. But the real scandal is that what he and his family has done for half a century and more is almost certainly perfectly legal. When you are that rich you can afford lawyers and accountants and politicians so that there is a little clause on page 738 of the tax code which has escaped everyone's attention ("It doesn't apply to me so why should I bother to understand it?") but which is worth millions (billions?) to you.
Despite all the evidence, Mueller could not find enough to satisfy the prosecutor's mind set: enough to convince a likely jury beyond a reasonable doubt. I suspect that the same is true of his finances. Moral, responsible and ethical? Don't make me laugh. Legal? Probably.
4
@Andrew Simply stating that you are not a Trump defender and then defending him with lies? How perfectly Trumpian. You conveniently, deliberately ignore the DOJ "practice" of not indicting a sitting president, and you also ignore the letter signed by 1000 federal prosecutors stating that Trump's actions are criminal. Change the channel, Sir.
7
@Andrew
"Despite all the evidence, Mueller could not find enough to satisfy the prosecutor's mind set: enough to convince a likely jury beyond a reasonable doubt."
Perhaps this applies to the collusion aspect, but I don't think it's accurate with respect to obstruction. Mueller did not recommend charges on obstruction because he believed that DOJ policy prevented it. He went as far as he could without recommending indictment.
5
@Andrew, I would take issue your take on the Mueller findings. An actual reading of his report suggests that he found multiple items worthy of prosecution in the obstruction side of the investigation, but clearly stated that he felt that he could not indict based upon the DOJ's Inspector General ruling that the Justice Department should not indict a sitting president. In addition, on the matter of conspiracy, while he could not find irrefutable proof of the intent portion, he did site numerous activities of the Trump campaign seeking out help from Russian agents. The bottom line, is that Mueller laid out a case that in normal times, should lead to impeachment, which is the course which he believes this case should follow.
5
Wish this article was more specific about the particular transaction and why it was flagged for money laundering. Something, anything which could be used to spur a congressional investigation.
If it was just a normal business transaction at a larger investment bank, I don’t think it should/would warrant a front page article.
4
Great reporting. Keep digging.
Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the transactions between Mr. Trump, Mr. Kushner, and entities tied to foreign states were otherwise above board and not illegal.
It doesn't matter. They happened well into 2017, after Mr. Trump was in office.
The Founders, in their wisdom, wanted to prevent even the appearance of a conflict of interest in foreign affairs.
Emoluments Clause, U.S. Constitution
"[N]o Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
31
@Eyes Wide Open
Mr. Trump does business with Saudi Arabia.
He literally let them get away with murder.
You have to admit there is at least the appearance of a conflict of interest there.
1
@Eyes Wide Open
"Plus this manufactured attack will never damage him in any way politically - his supporters aren't listening to his enemies."
I agree with you on that point.
And therein lies the problem: blind faith in Dear Leader™.
1
You could make reporting suspicious activity reports mandatory. You don't even need to disclose the specific details of the report. Simply have banks notify the Treasury Department of suspicious activity and name the entities involved. The government makes a determination whether further investigation is warranted. If there's a pattern of suspicious activity, you'll know.
A few small problems though. From a systems perspective, mandatory reporting is just going to push the system failure further down the flow chart. Instead of suppressing suspicious activity reports, Deutsche Bank is going to discourage employees from ever generating them. They already do. That behavior will become much more aggressive. The suppression will continue down the process chain until there is no more regulation. If Deutsche wants to launder money, they're going to do it.
Second, the United States government has little means of enforcement anyway. Deutsche Bank obviously violated their own protocol by sending a private bank suspicion report to private bank executives for oversight. There's nothing the Treasury Department can do to stop them. Fines are clearly meaningless. The government doesn't actually want to damage Deutsche Bank's interests. Too big to fail again.
Even if you hand the suspicious activity report to the Treasury, there's going to be little incentive to pursue an investigation. As we can see from the current political climate, the Treasury may be openly hostile to investigation.
20
Deutsch Bank needs to be held accountable for covering up criminal activity. Of course, if Federal charges are dropped, Trump will pardon them.
It's scary to read how often this goes on and how deeply our President and his family are involved. It's more frightening to find out how much is covered up by him and his wealthy buddies.
Honest people can't get small loans because they are a 'risk factor', but Trump and Kushner get exorbitant loans? Let's hope that Deutsch Bank executives don't try to swindle honest, hard-working people out of their money to make up for the millions that they may not get from T & K.
Let's watch to see if T & K steal tax payer money to pay off their debt.
40
@Louise
You know the saying,
If you owe the bank a small amount of money it’s your problem(results in bankruptcy and forfeiture of assets). If you owe the bank a lot of money it’s their problem. (Results in Renegotiation of the loan, lower interest rates, longer term, loan forgiveness, larger loan, ..)
23
@Eyes Wide Open
Of course I am. Every day, we hear of more facts that T & company are trying to cover up.
1
It is so obvious Trump and Kushner are united on multiple levels, among them is how to work the system. Deutsch Bank has to cover any illegal activities lest they provoke Trump's ire or his bullying methods. It is basically all about greed which one could attribute to both, the bank and its lucrative clients
. However Proving it ,as with many other obstructions of justices accusation is another matter. Granting a carte blanche to Trump by the GOP is most intoxicating to Trump affirming he may continue to abuse the system however grievous the outcome.
27
Simple.... if they didn’t do anything, the bank could be perceived as cutting a lucrative break for Mr. Trump, whose administration wields regulatory and law enforcement power over the bank.
16
From the article:
"Mr. Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank spans two decades...Deutsche Bank lent Mr. Trump and his companies a total of more than $2.5 billion...When he became president, he owed Deutsche Bank well over $300 million... In the past few years, United States and European authorities have punished Deutsche Bank for helping clients, including wealthy Russians, launder funds..."
If you were wondering why President Trump has such a subservient attitude towards Vladimir Putin and Mohammad Bin Salman, now you know why.
I'm starting to think congress should begin articles of impeachment against Trump right away and let the exposure of the evidence change minds in the Senate.
Trump is using his authority as President to profit personally at the expense of the National Security of the USA. It has to be stopped. ASAP.
90
@JimmySerious
Sadly, the GOP has heard and ignored many pieces of evidence and many, many lies by Trump and they are still standing by him, even telling more lies to obstruct the truth.
7
@Louise
Admittedly the GOP has ignored their responsibility to the country in favor of loyalty to the party. But the added focus of televised impeachment hearings could spark public outrage and demonstrations. Once Republicans no longer believe Trump can keep them in power, they will turn on him.
Vladimir Putin was a KGB operative at the time of the fall of the Soviet Union. He blames the USA for the humiliation of his country and considers doing likewise to America fair game. He's using Trump to accomplish that goal and Trump doesn't care because Putin is making him rich.
4
Somehow, Mitch McConnell is mixed up in this. There is a story there.
3
This is why the congressional subpoena for release of Trump's Deutsche Bank financial records must be honored. The American people have a right to know why Deutsche Bank continues to finance Trump's businesses, when nearly no other bank will. If nothing illegal has occurred, the President will be exonerated. Yet he and his supporters resist. Why?
88
@James Peri
The District Court Judge should be ruling on Trump’s Challenge of the Mazar Subpoena this week. His opinion will probably destroy the Trump defense which claimed Congress had no authority to investigate criminal activity of the executive branch. It will also establish the justification that the Southern NY District Court will use when the opinion is issued for Trump’s challenge to the Capital One and Deutsche Banks subpoenas. We should be hearing more about this because the House Lawyers requested the judge to fast track the hearing/case.
16
Hopefully further reporting provides some context about how unusual DB's treatment of Trump and Kushner were compared to its other clients, and how DB's anti-money laundering practices compare to its competitors.
What percentage of comparable transactions get flagged by the computer system?
Of the transactions reviewed by compliance staff, what portion are sent up the chain for further review?
How often do senior managers overrule the compliance staff's recommendations to file suspicious activity reports with the Treasury Department?
And, assuming other large banks employ similar anti money laundering processes as Deutsche, how likely would it have been that transactions comparable to Trump's and Kushner's would have triggered a report to the Treasury Department?
This reporting could have greater impact if it could demonstrate that DB's treatment of Trump and Kushner was truly an outlier, compared to its other wealthy clients, and those serviced by other banks. Otherwise, it's too easy for Trump's defenders to claim the DB employees were disgruntled Democrats, and that everything described here is just standard (albeit sketchy) industry practice.
17
We are going to lose America definitively, once and for all, if we continue to allow the selective application of laws, regulations and rules about acceptable behavior.
Trump has been allowed to flout the law for far too long. Look where this has brought him! And look where it has taken us!
Unless the Constitutional order, the laws of the land and the balance of power between the branches of government are scrupulously defended, we will find ourselves living in a full-bore tyranny before you can say, "Elections? What elections?"
Enforce the law! And make sure your so-called 'law enforcement' officers are not actually pursuing some other agenda.
78
@Maria Ashot
Indeed, for ordinary citizens who receive subpoenas or otherwise are called to justice, why should they respond to the call of lawful process? I read stories in the back pages of our local newspaper about folks who run afoul of the law (quaint phrase given our current President) and even sometimes about folks receiving a subpoena. What social or legal pressure is on them to comply when the President, his family and his minions laugh at the law?
24
Any chance Ms. McFadden is a serial filer of such suits? After reading the article, including the quick mention of her background at BofA, and understanding the pressure DB is under to toe the line, count me as a skeptic that her accusations have merit. She's looking for a settlement.
8
@JPE Clearly you have missed the many reports of Trump's involvement with Russian money, spurious financial statements and numerous associates placed in jail. That leaves questioning Ms. McFadden's veracity?
52
@JPE
You are not alarmed by the fact that "important" Russians are given preferential treatment, basically allowing them to routinely ignore all international financial statutes?
You are OK with one set of laws for Russian kleptocrats, and another for everyone else?
4
@JPE
McFadden was not the only Deutsche Bank employee who was a source for the article. Also, her immediate superiors must have thought highly of her work as they recognized her thru multiple awards.
Sure sounds like the bank firing an employee to coverup their own lax processes. Allowing the division that authorized and made the suspicious transaction to spike the resulting “suspicious report” without any independent review process is like putting the Fox inside the hen house to guard it.
One has to be suspicious of the “Private Banking Division” as well as wonder how many reports a month they kill and whose names are attached to those that they kill?
5
If Trump and Jared have been money laundering for people then surely someone, somewhere is going to start to get a little nervous that they may be exposed. I wonder who is going to throw DJT or Jared under the bus to protect themselves?
I keep wondering if Ivanka will see an opportunity and drop a few phrases here and there to get her brothers, her husband, and her father locked up so she can take over what's left of the family business.
14
Wouldn't that be a fitting beginning of season two of this tragic and filthy reality tv show?
Why are we hearing about so much of this 2 years after the election? Where was the investigative reporting before the election? Trump played the press. He shocked everyone with his name calling and diverted attention away from looking into his business deals with his crass behavior.
80
@Jennifer
The investigative print press did cover some of Trump’s questionable finances as well as his regular stiffing of his subcontractors. They also wrote about Trump’s many failed real estate developments, failed businesses, and bankruptcies.
Of course back then, the bulk of the media was busy covering Trump’s daily tweets, the Republican Benghazi investigation’s, Hillary’s Private email server, and the DNC stolen and leaked emails.
I find it funny that no media or House investigative committees has locked onto the Trump Whitehouse and Cabinet proliferate use of Private email accounts used to conduct government business.
14
@Jennifer
I have posted the same question in comments to past articles several times except I’ve placed blame directly with the New York Times as being more responsible than the rest of the media.
It’s known and written about Trump as an outsized figure in local New York society for decades. He lived literally 1.5 miles away from the Times offices. It was an open secret known to even casual culture observers like me on the West Coast that his dealings were shady for decades. Don Jr. was even on tape stating blithely that the bulk of Trump Org money came from the Russians. And I’d bet big money that dedicated reporters on the front line were already on it but were held back by the owners and leaders of the paper because they flat-out wanted Trump elected.
Nothing else explains the monumental journalistic fail and no journalistic entity is more responsible than the New York Times. It is the nation’s paper of record, a great paper most of the time, but it alone bears the brunt of responsibility as Trump’s august, hyper-capable hometown paper for leading the nation’s media off the cliff of democracy.
As the passage of time revealed the corrupt power of the newspaper barons of the early 20th Century, I suspect in time we will learn of the dealings behind the scenes of the New York Times that made it seem to be asleep on the 24/7 job of the Fourth Estate.
5
@Jennifer
Those who wonder why we're just hearing about this haven't been paying attention. For a long time now investigators have been writing about the Deutsche Bank/Trump Corp. money laundering.
Here's an article I saved from The New Republic by Craig Unger back in July of 2017. It's well worth reading:
https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate
12
Between this report, the obvious years of tax fraud reported extensively, the excellent work by the New Yorker on the offshore financial deals in Azerbaijan etc., it seems obvious that the Trump organization laundered Russian money.
When he brags about flipping properties for millions in cash profit, it is money laundering he is actually telling us about.
And yet Democrats sit on their hands hoping for absolute proof and dither around with electoral crimes when there's a gold mine of financial frauds to highlight.
My view is that the suburban districts that turned the House blue in 2018 will not vote out Trump in 2020 over collusion/conspiracy. However, if they might not be able to stomach a 20-30 year history of financial crimes ...
82
@Gregg54 Please point out where anything about this story made it, "obvious" Trump laundered Russian money. It doesn't. It does, however, say this:
"Real estate developers like Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner sometimes do large, all-cash deals, including with people outside the United States, any of which can prompt anti-money laundering reviews. The red flags raised by employees do not necessarily mean the transactions were improper. Banks sometimes opt not to file suspicious activity reports if they conclude their employees’ concerns are unwarranted."
Define, "nothingburger."
6
@Nunya Business He said between this report & a list of others things. As in, the combined facts. For example, the lack of oversight of Trump’s DB transactions revealed here + the known transactions in which Trump was paid ludicrous amounts by Russians (like Dmitry Rybolovlev) for properties worth nowhere near the amounts paid. Those facts together point persuasively to MONEY LAUNDERING.
10
Nothingburger. Derisive term used by supporters of Donald Trump to demean critics pointing out clear and obvious evidence of rampant criminality. An evasive tactic; see Crooked Hillary, Slow Joe, Fake News, etc.
10
The President of the United States, the Republican Party, all Republican voters and the Attorney General of the United states (and therefore the Justice Department, ergo all Federal law enforcement agencies) are all firmly united in the belief that the President is not subject to the laws of our nation.
The majority of the US Senate and Supreme court agree with this view and will take any steps necessary to enshrine it. The President is in fact above the law, and there is nothing that anybody can do about it. This truth applies retroactively to all aspects of the President's life and all of his activities prior to his election and inauguration as President.
Under the letter of the law, the President may be a criminal. But to those responsible for interpreting and enforcing the law, the President cannot be a criminal.
The more evidence we uncover, the more fervently Trump's minions defend him. We merely increase the intensity, volume and urgency of their arguments. The public has lost all interest in news and evidence regarding Trump's crimes, because there is simply too much of it.
The point of no return will come when Trump's supporters finally openly admit that Trump is guilty of criminal activity. Instead of denying his crimes, they will argue that said crimes are his right and his prerogative. At long last, the law will be rendered utterly meaningless. Trump will have unlimited power and he will rule over us like a god.
61
Is it possible that the DOJ can ignore the information in this article and not initiate an official investigation? Unfortunately, I am afraid that the answer is yes, they can. We already know that Barr will never prosecute Trump. He surely will not prosecute Kushner either.
69
Barr will open an investigation of the whistleblower.
5
@TH
Please, NYT, what would impeachment of the attorney general look like? (Take out the folks in that office propping up and protecting Don the Con.)
5
And just who will authorize opening an investigation - DJT’s personal att’y, Wm Barr, the GOP-controlled Senate? Really?
4
From another article today:
"After more than two years of study and deliberation, President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have decided to take a businessman’s approach to Middle East peace: They will try to buy their way to a deal."
It cannot be mere coincidence that the two individuals named in this money laundering article and the two who have this financial incentive idea about Middle East Peace are the same. These two "business men" (one of whom managed to lose $1.2 BILLION dollars in ten years) are exactly the kind of snake oil salesmen one who would be expected to come up with a "money buys everything" solution to a cultural and political problem.
81
Anonymous sources propelled us through the Mueller investigation, which provide a feeling of progress towards impeachment, went nowhere. Isn't it about time to get some people on record?
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@Tom Tammy McFadden, a former Deutsche Bank anti-money laundering specialist who reviewed some of the transactions, is *on record* in *this* article. There is a photo of her, too, right under the title of the article.
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@Tom
But Sir, the woman did go on record in the article - there is even a photo of her. It is just that the superiors stopped the reporting.
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@Jennifer Yeah, the disgruntled ex-employee who has filed multiple grievances against their former employer.
Couldn't imagine they would be dishonest to try and use Trumps media unpopularity against the bank. No way...
NYT's sources or unnamed sources the past two years have not helped their un-fake news status and obvious bias in the least.
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Please explore any involvement of Justin Kennedy at Deutsche Bank with the special treatment received in withholding the normal reporting of suspicious accounts. My gut tells me there’s no coincidence that Justice Kennedy’s unexpected retirement and his son’s involvement in loans to the Trump family aren’t connected. Where’s this generations Woodward/Bernstein team?
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@Jay Trainor
I'm sure they are out there - but in different outlets. Gotta do a bit more reading.
For Woodward it was a scoop. Nothing more. He later proved to be a Bush sycophant, drumming for attacking Iraq - which any way you look at it was an unprovoked invasion.
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Law and Order and Evangelical Inferno... but only for the others.
In the corrupt world of Donald Trump all NDAs are intended to suffocate potential or imminent SARs but what they cannot ever achieve is the suffocation of integer people like the brave and patriotic Ms. McFaden - or even not so integer people, like General Flynn or Michael Cohen, when confronted with severe punishment by the Justice.
Sending such SARs to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is like setting the fox to guard the henhouse. The Trump clan will keep refuting any charges of wrongdoing as „fake news“ until proved otherwise but prophylactically have already sued the Deutsche Bank not to fulfill the Congress subpoena on the clan's accounts.
The dilemma of the Deutsche Bank is described in the article: „Senior executives worried that if they took a tough stance with Mr. Trump’s accounts — for example, by demanding payment of a delinquent loan — they could provoke the president’s wrath. On the other hand, if they didn’t do anything, the bank could be perceived as cutting a lucrative break for Mr. Trump, whose administration wields regulatory and law enforcement power over the bank.“
Soon Mr. Steven Mnuchin will be commanded by the President to do his "suffocating" bit.
Luckily - not only for America – the responsible and patriotic work of Congress and the liberal Press will inexorably lead to the excision of this metastatic cancer from the current US politics.
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@Manu2019
Can an NDA (nondisclosure agreement) with corrupt intent--an illegal intent, really be enforced?
2
@Linea
Dear Linea, an NDA is no more than a contract and like all contracts, it cannot be enforced if the activities covered by it are felonies. Much depends on the contractual formulation and since Trump has been life-long protected by a battery of Lawyers it can be assumed that the NDAs he signs are waterproof in his favor.
Stormy Daniels had to sign an NDA for Michael Cohen as Karen McDougal had to sign one for the lawyer of the National Enquirer Keith Davidson, forcing them to keep their affairs with Trump secret. These NDAs were not hiding felonies but misdemeanors, whereas Trump's NDAs with his financers and counselors most presumably hide felonies.
I still remember the last sentence of Trump's letter firing Mr. Comey:
"I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. REMEMBER YOU SIGNED AN NDA."
Best wishes!
The fact that Trump has been in the pocket of the Russians because he was money laundering for the oligarchs is nothing new.
The fact that he got away with it is nothing new. The American banking system is based on money laundering and tax evasion.
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Jon Snow did the right thing too, and, like other moral actors like Ms. McFadden, they are left out in the cold!
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Why is it such a surprise to be getting the truth about Deutsche banks relationship with Kushner and Trump.
For years here in Europe every bank approached by them have turned them down because they all knew that neither of them or their companies paid back loans.
There are still numerous law suits against Trump for that reason and how many individuals does he owe for work done at one of his properties?
No big eye opener. Once you deal with crooks it is bound to come around to the source and hopefully this will do so.
They ALL belong in jail so "LOCK THEM UP".
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Thank you for speaking up Ms. McFadden. It is not an easy thing to do and it has cost your job at the bank. Like you said, you have done the right thing.
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Why hasn’t Tammy McFadden already been given an invitation to The Press Club in D.C.?
How are all the lawyers fighting congressional subpoenas into Trump’s ongoing private business affairs being paid?
There should also be an inquiry into what goes on during Executive Time. Maybe Trump is still running the family business in plain sight...during Executive Time, not just watching Fox n Friends and doing his hair.
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@BBB
Honestly, in his defense the hair has to take a LOT of time.
4
@BBB
Doing his hair takes a long time for this 'man'.
3
Trump is trying to do everything he can to control the Fed. Another avenue into the Trump administration begging for investigation.
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Of all the banks he could have worked for, Justice Kennedy's son, he went to Deutsche Bank worked for Deutsche Bank. All of all the banks Trump could have borrowed money from, he went to Deutsche Bank. When I was a soldier, our ethical code of conduct prohibited improper conduct and anything that would create the appearance of improper conduct. Who knows how illegal Trump and DB have been but it certainly creates the appearance!
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There is a no tipping off rule under AML laws i.e. under most circumstances banks are not allowed to disclose to their clients if transactions are flagged, being investigated or if a suspicious activity report (SAR) was filed. So, of course, the Trump Organization had no idea if there were any flagged transactions.
14
Unless they were told by "a little birdie."
1
Trump and his relatives, as well as his closest business partners, need to be scrutinized by money laundering enforcement lawyers. Real estate transactions with shell companies is a well recognized method of taking illicit money and making it be legitimate money. Let’s hope more folks will decide to come forward soon so we can know the facts before 2020!
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