Orange Duce

[njbill]

Well, they are at least still codefendants.

And they may have some more “codefendantcy” in their future.

[Kismet]

Remains of Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City NJ imploded today

[seacoaster]

Remains of Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City NJ imploded today

Cancel culture!!!

[Farfromgeneva]

Was hoping they were bombing all of AC. Made some trips down there when living in NYC which would be better for me if the town disappeared like in WandaVision.

[Brooklyn]

Want a good laugh?

Click on this below:



https://i.etsystatic.com/26480188/r/il/ ... 6_7joe.jpg

[seacoaster]

Update:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/nyre ... d=tw-share

"As the Manhattan district attorney’s office steps up the criminal investigation of Donald J. Trump, it has reached outside its ranks to enlist a prominent former federal prosecutor to help scrutinize financial dealings at the former president’s company, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.

The former prosecutor, Mark F. Pomerantz, has deep experience investigating and defending white-collar and organized crime cases, bolstering the team under District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. that is examining Mr. Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization.

The investigation by Mr. Vance, a Democrat, is focused on possible tax and bank-related fraud, including whether the Trump Organization misled its lenders or local tax authorities about the value of his properties to obtain loans and tax benefits, the people with knowledge of the matter said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation. Mr. Trump has maintained he did nothing improper and has long railed against the inquiry, calling it a politically motivated “witch hunt.”

In recent months, Mr. Vance’s office has broadened the long-running investigation to include an array of financial transactions and Trump properties — including Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, various Trump hotels and the Seven Springs estate in Westchester County — as prosecutors await a ruling from the United States Supreme Court that could give them access to Mr. Trump’s tax returns.

The prosecutors have also interviewed a number of witnesses and have issued more than a dozen new subpoenas, including to one of Mr. Trump’s top lenders, Ladder Capital, the people with knowledge of the matter said.

In addition, investigators subpoenaed a company hired by Mr. Trump’s other main lender, Deutsche Bank, to assess the value of certain Trump properties, one of the people with knowledge of the previously unreported subpoenas said.

Months earlier, Mr. Vance’s office had subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank itself, The New York Times previously reported. More recently, Deutsche Bank employees provided testimony to Mr. Vance’s office about the bank’s relationship with the Trump Organization, a person briefed on the matter said.

Still, despite the burst of investigative activity, prosecutors have said the tax returns and other financial records are vital to their inquiry — and the Supreme Court has delayed a final decision for months.

Manhattan prosecutors have also subpoenaed the Trump Organization for records related to tax deductions on millions of dollars in consulting fees, some of which appear to have gone to the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump.

The Trump Organization turned over some of those records last month, though the prosecutors have questioned whether the company has fully responded to the subpoena, the people with knowledge of the matter said.

Mr. Trump won an acquittal in his second impeachment trial last week, but remains the focus of at least two state criminal investigations. Besides the inquiry in Manhattan, prosecutors in Georgia are scrutinizing Mr. Trump’s effort to persuade local officials to undo the election results there. His departure from office has left him without the shield from indictment that the presidency provided.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has not accused Mr. Trump of wrongdoing and it remains unclear whether Mr. Vance, whose term ends in January, will ultimately bring charges against Mr. Trump or any Trump Organization employees.

The Trump Organization declined to comment, but in the past, lawyers for the company have said that its practices complied with the law and have called the investigation a “fishing expedition.”

Mr. Pomerantz, 69, was sworn in earlier this month to serve as a special assistant district attorney, according to Danny Frost, a spokesman for the district attorney, who otherwise declined to comment on the inquiry. Mr. Pomerantz will work solely on the Trump investigation.

The hiring of an outsider is a highly unusual move for a prosecutor’s office, but the two-and-a-half-year investigation of the former president and his family business is unusually complex. And Mr. Vance, whose office has had a few missteps in other white-collar cases, had already hired FTI, a large consulting company, to help analyze Mr. Trump’s financial records.

Prosecutors are scrutinizing whether the Trump Organization artificially inflated the value of some of his signature properties to obtain the best possible loans, while simultaneously lowballing the property values to reduce property taxes, the people with knowledge of the matter said. The prosecutors are also looking at the Trump Organization’s statements to insurance companies about the value of various assets.

The Trump Organization’s lawyers are likely to argue to prosecutors that it could not have duped sophisticated financial institutions that did their own analysis of Mr. Trump’s properties without relying on what Mr. Trump’s company told them. The company’s lawyers are also likely to emphasize that the practice of providing such differing valuations is widespread in New York’s real estate industry.

Deutsche Bank has said it is cooperating with the investigation. A spokesman for Ladder Capital, which securitized the loans years ago and thus no longer owns them, declined to comment.

Mr. Pomerantz, who has been helping with the case informally for months, has taken a temporary leave from the law firm Paul Weiss to join Mr. Vance’s office. Among other tasks, he will likely handle interactions with key witnesses.

Mr. Vance also retained veteran constitutional lawyers to work on the briefs filed in the 18-month legal battle over the office’s subpoena for Mr. Trump’s tax returns and other financial records, which has twice reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was argued by Mr. Vance’s general counsel, Carey Dunne, who is helping to lead the investigation.

The court could rule for a second time on the matter soon, potentially putting eight years of Mr. Trump’s personal and corporate tax records and other documents in the hands of prosecutors for the first time, a development that Mr. Vance’s office has called central to its investigation.

Mr. Pomerantz, a leading figure in the New York legal circles, clerked for Judge Edward Weinfeld in Manhattan and Justice Potter Stewart on the Supreme Court. He then became a federal prosecutor in the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, where he rose to lead the appellate unit before leaving in 1982.

In private practice, he developed a specialty in organized crime and was involved in a 1988 case that helped determine the legal definition of racketeering. His former law partner, Ronald P. Fischetti, estimated they tried nearly 25 cases that involved organized crime in some form or another.

Mr. Pomerantz returned to the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office to head the criminal division between 1997 and 1999, overseeing major securities fraud and organized crime cases, perhaps most prominently against John A. Gotti, the Gambino boss.

He later joined Paul Weiss, one of the best-known law firms in New York, where he defended Robert Torricelli, the New Jersey senator accused of campaign finance violations.

“He worked both sides of the street, so he’s not going to be biased by virtue of temperament,” said Robert S. Litt, a former general counsel for the Director of National Intelligence, who has known Mr. Pomerantz since 1976."

[RedFromMI]

The hiring of Pomerantz is a signal that there is some real meat in Vance's investigation to finish tracking down. And they don't yet have complete Trump tax returns...

[CU88]

What are the odd's on the SCOTUS ruling to grant Vance access to 2x IMPOTUS tax records?

[njbill]

Boy, back last fall I would’ve said close to 100%. It seemed that the court was simply sitting on the case until after the election at which point (I thought) they would deny the request for a stay. And Vance would get the returns.

But something funky is clearly going on. I saw a report that the deadline to apply for cert does not expire until next month. Didn’t look that up, but that sounds awful long to me. I would’ve thought it would’ve expired a while ago.

Seems that Roberts is not scheduling the stay petition for decision at a conference.

Can’t really read the tea leaves here. Are there four votes for cert (once applied for) but not five votes for a stay?

I’ll bet Vance is kicking himself for not putting an outside time limit on his agreement not to pursue the returns until the Supreme Court ruled on the stay request. But who could have predicted this really long delay?

[Kismet]

Boy, back last fall I would’ve said close to 100%. It seemed that the court was simply sitting on the case until after the election at which point (I thought) they would deny the request for a stay. And Vance would get the returns.

But something funky is clearly going on. I saw a report that the deadline to apply for cert does not expire until next month. Didn’t look that up, but that sounds awful long to me. I would’ve thought it would’ve expired a while ago.

Seems that Roberts is not scheduling the stay petition for decision at a conference.

Can’t really read the tea leaves here. Are there four votes for cert (once applied for) but not five votes for a stay?

I’ll bet Vance is kicking himself for not putting an outside time limit on his agreement not to pursue the returns until the Supreme Court ruled on the stay request. But who could have predicted this really long delay?

So much for an "independent judiciary".

Despite this, Vance's office is moving forward with their inquiry

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tru ... SL1N2KP00V

Pomerantz, newly hired white collar/organized crime litigator was part of a team that interviewed Michal Cohen yesterday. He once served a criminal division head at SDNY and is an expert on RICO statutes.

The former DOPUS must be more than a little worried.

[cradleandshoot]

Boy, back last fall I would’ve said close to 100%. It seemed that the court was simply sitting on the case until after the election at which point (I thought) they would deny the request for a stay. And Vance would get the returns.

But something funky is clearly going on. I saw a report that the deadline to apply for cert does not expire until next month. Didn’t look that up, but that sounds awful long to me. I would’ve thought it would’ve expired a while ago.

Seems that Roberts is not scheduling the stay petition for decision at a conference.

Can’t really read the tea leaves here. Are there four votes for cert (once applied for) but not five votes for a stay?

I’ll bet Vance is kicking himself for not putting an outside time limit on his agreement not to pursue the returns until the Supreme Court ruled on the stay request. But who could have predicted this really long delay?

So much for an "independent judiciary".

Despite this, Vance's office is moving forward with their inquiry

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tru ... SL1N2KP00V

Pomerantz, newly hired white collar/organized crime litigator was part of a team that interviewed Michal Cohen yesterday. He once served a criminal division head at SDNY and is an expert on RICO statutes.

The former DOPUS must be more than a little worried.

Isn't Cohen the type of witness all you lawyers salivate over? A congenital liar how can he have any credibility about what he might testify to? So Pomerantz would have to determine if Cohen was lying before but telling the truth now. That is a bit of a conundrum.

[RedFromMI]

Boy, back last fall I would’ve said close to 100%. It seemed that the court was simply sitting on the case until after the election at which point (I thought) they would deny the request for a stay. And Vance would get the returns.

But something funky is clearly going on. I saw a report that the deadline to apply for cert does not expire until next month. Didn’t look that up, but that sounds awful long to me. I would’ve thought it would’ve expired a while ago.

Seems that Roberts is not scheduling the stay petition for decision at a conference.

Can’t really read the tea leaves here. Are there four votes for cert (once applied for) but not five votes for a stay?

I’ll bet Vance is kicking himself for not putting an outside time limit on his agreement not to pursue the returns until the Supreme Court ruled on the stay request. But who could have predicted this really long delay?

So much for an "independent judiciary".

Despite this, Vance's office is moving forward with their inquiry

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tru ... SL1N2KP00V

Pomerantz, newly hired white collar/organized crime litigator was part of a team that interviewed Michal Cohen yesterday. He once served a criminal division head at SDNY and is an expert on RICO statutes.

The former DOPUS must be more than a little worried.

Isn't Cohen the type of witness all you lawyers salivate over? A congenital liar how can he have any credibility about what he might testify to? So Pomerantz would have to determine if Cohen was lying before but telling the truth now. That is a bit of a conundrum.

He is best used as a guide to where to look and what to look for. You get the printed goods, so to speak and use it to confirm what he is telling you.

Certainly there are means of attack for the other side if Cohen is a witness at trial, but the real use is in using him to lay out the case and let the documentation do the talking...

[dislaxxic]

If there's all sorts of dodgy stuff in T****'s tax returns, wouldn't the IRS have flagged them for violations and potential crimes? I mean, they've been under audit for what? 20 years or so??

Always wondered about that...

..

[njbill]

Boy, back last fall I would’ve said close to 100%. It seemed that the court was simply sitting on the case until after the election at which point (I thought) they would deny the request for a stay. And Vance would get the returns.

But something funky is clearly going on. I saw a report that the deadline to apply for cert does not expire until next month. Didn’t look that up, but that sounds awful long to me. I would’ve thought it would’ve expired a while ago.

Seems that Roberts is not scheduling the stay petition for decision at a conference.

Can’t really read the tea leaves here. Are there four votes for cert (once applied for) but not five votes for a stay?

I’ll bet Vance is kicking himself for not putting an outside time limit on his agreement not to pursue the returns until the Supreme Court ruled on the stay request. But who could have predicted this really long delay?

So much for an "independent judiciary".

Despite this, Vance's office is moving forward with their inquiry

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tru ... SL1N2KP00V

Pomerantz, newly hired white collar/organized crime litigator was part of a team that interviewed Michal Cohen yesterday. He once served a criminal division head at SDNY and is an expert on RICO statutes.

The former DOPUS must be more than a little worried.

Isn't Cohen the type of witness all you lawyers salivate over? A congenital liar how can he have any credibility about what he might testify to? So Pomerantz would have to determine if Cohen was lying before but telling the truth now. That is a bit of a conundrum.

He is best used as a guide to where to look and what to look for. You get the printed goods, so to speak and use it to confirm what he is telling you.

Certainly there are means of attack for the other side if Cohen is a witness at trial, but the real use is in using him to lay out the case and let the documentation do the talking...

I agree. Cohen may be able to point the feds to where the bodies are buried. Once you find the bodies, you can develop evidence largely independent of Cohen.

Will be interesting to me if Cohen is used as a witness. Yes, he has serious credibility problems. Plus he is so unlikable. Can’t always pick your witnesses, but you certainly don’t like to have to put someone on the stand as unlikable as Michael. But then he is a more likable than T****.

[njbill]

If there's all sorts of dodgy stuff in T****'s tax returns, wouldn't the IRS have flagged them for violations and potential crimes? I mean, they've been under audit for what? 20 years or so??

Always wondered about that...

..

The reporting I have seen suggests that Vance’s subpoenas also cover the accountants’ internal records and communications with T****. It is suspected that there may be gold in the communications.

Not familiar with what is on New York state tax returns, but you certainly would think the investigators have those. Is there more substance on the federal returns or is the info essentially equivalent? Don’t know.

The IRS would only be working with the returns, themselves, that is, unless they have launched their own investigation. If they have, they have done a really good job of keeping it quiet. As they should.

[Kismet]

Boy, back last fall I would’ve said close to 100%. It seemed that the court was simply sitting on the case until after the election at which point (I thought) they would deny the request for a stay. And Vance would get the returns.

But something funky is clearly going on. I saw a report that the deadline to apply for cert does not expire until next month. Didn’t look that up, but that sounds awful long to me. I would’ve thought it would’ve expired a while ago.

Seems that Roberts is not scheduling the stay petition for decision at a conference.

Can’t really read the tea leaves here. Are there four votes for cert (once applied for) but not five votes for a stay?

I’ll bet Vance is kicking himself for not putting an outside time limit on his agreement not to pursue the returns until the Supreme Court ruled on the stay request. But who could have predicted this really long delay?

So much for an "independent judiciary".

Despite this, Vance's office is moving forward with their inquiry

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tru ... SL1N2KP00V

Pomerantz, newly hired white collar/organized crime litigator was part of a team that interviewed Michal Cohen yesterday. He once served a criminal division head at SDNY and is an expert on RICO statutes.

The former DOPUS must be more than a little worried.

Isn't Cohen the type of witness all you lawyers salivate over? A congenital liar how can he have any credibility about what he might testify to? So Pomerantz would have to determine if Cohen was lying before but telling the truth now. That is a bit of a conundrum.

He is best used as a guide to where to look and what to look for. You get the printed goods, so to speak and use it to confirm what he is telling you.

Certainly there are means of attack for the other side if Cohen is a witness at trial, but the real use is in using him to lay out the case and let the documentation do the talking...

I agree. Cohen may be able to point the feds to where the bodies are buried. Once you find the bodies, you can develop evidence largely independent of Cohen.

Will be interesting to me if Cohen is used as a witness. Yes, he has serious credibility problems. Plus he is so unlikable. Can’t always pick your witnesses, but you certainly don’t like to have to put someone on the stand as unlikable as Michael. But then he is a more likable than T****.

Nobody liked Sammy The Bull Gravano either. But he turned out to be the witness who finally led to the ultimate conviction of The Dapper Don - John Gotti.

[cradleandshoot]

Boy, back last fall I would’ve said close to 100%. It seemed that the court was simply sitting on the case until after the election at which point (I thought) they would deny the request for a stay. And Vance would get the returns.

But something funky is clearly going on. I saw a report that the deadline to apply for cert does not expire until next month. Didn’t look that up, but that sounds awful long to me. I would’ve thought it would’ve expired a while ago.

Seems that Roberts is not scheduling the stay petition for decision at a conference.

Can’t really read the tea leaves here. Are there four votes for cert (once applied for) but not five votes for a stay?

I’ll bet Vance is kicking himself for not putting an outside time limit on his agreement not to pursue the returns until the Supreme Court ruled on the stay request. But who could have predicted this really long delay?

So much for an "independent judiciary".

Despite this, Vance's office is moving forward with their inquiry

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tru ... SL1N2KP00V

Pomerantz, newly hired white collar/organized crime litigator was part of a team that interviewed Michal Cohen yesterday. He once served a criminal division head at SDNY and is an expert on RICO statutes.

The former DOPUS must be more than a little worried.

Isn't Cohen the type of witness all you lawyers salivate over? A congenital liar how can he have any credibility about what he might testify to? So Pomerantz would have to determine if Cohen was lying before but telling the truth now. That is a bit of a conundrum.

He is best used as a guide to where to look and what to look for. You get the printed goods, so to speak and use it to confirm what he is telling you.

Certainly there are means of attack for the other side if Cohen is a witness at trial, but the real use is in using him to lay out the case and let the documentation do the talking...

Makes sense as long as he does not have to testify.

[cradleandshoot]

If there's all sorts of dodgy stuff in T****'s tax returns, wouldn't the IRS have flagged them for violations and potential crimes? I mean, they've been under audit for what? 20 years or so??

Always wondered about that...

..

You and me both. The IRS has to know where he stands.

[MDlaxfan76]

If there's all sorts of dodgy stuff in T****'s tax returns, wouldn't the IRS have flagged them for violations and potential crimes? I mean, they've been under audit for what? 20 years or so??

Always wondered about that...

..

You and me both. The IRS has to know where he stands.

I dunno...the fraud aspects would likely be on the basis of valuations, which the IRS wouldn't necessarily know without knowing also that Trump and Co was making very different statements of value for other purposes, two sets of books...gotta actually have both to nail the perp for that, not just a hunch.

and apparently he's been very, very slippery with them over the years, argue, whine, argue some more...huge amounts of paper...

[Farfromgeneva]

It’s not even really the valuations, that only really would be cap gains issue in taxes and while lenders obtain appraisals they are supposed to make their own independent judgement of collateral value and marginability of it. Reality is most balance sheet lenders just take the “as is “ appraised value and in the capital markets lending (originate and distribute where the loan doesn’t stay in the books but sold off in bonds or some other manner) will actively manipulate the values often. There’s an old joke in the CMBS world that MAI (appraiser certification) stands for made as instructed. Perfect example was a 150,000 ish sq ft marginal class B office building in N NJ I financed when in that business. Draft appraisal from CBRE comes in lower than needed as our app was “not greater than 80% LTV and min 1.30x DSCR (Debt service coverage ratio - off net cash flow including reserve replacement escrows for lease rollover and capital expenditures based on ten year schedules). I call the appraiser and mention this value in the draft and how the “Market comparable sets for rent and sales seem off including one or two converted single tenant telecom buildings not suited for cutting floors into multi tenant usage”. Appraiser goes “yeah I hear you let me take a look”. 45 min later I get an email with a new draft with different comparables and a higher valuation to support the loan terms we apped the borrower at. Never once said I needed a higher value, just discussing the support of their conclusion which was equally as valid as the new ones, and he knew the game. This happens all the time on the CMBS side.

Anyway, more likely the fraud is around cash flows and falsified financial statements. Their not certified audited, agree CRE properties often can still get away with reviewed financials. Sounds like he elevated cash flows at properties that were not accurate and that would more likely be the issue than valuation. The difference between tax return cash flows and what they supplied lender ton support maximum loan proceeds.

Here’s an example of lender fraud in western NY by a firm called Morgan Properties (near cradle). They’d provide BS rent tolls to lenders including some who got apartment building “insurance”/wrap from Fannie Mae. Apparently when the lender or affiliate did a property inspection as required the borrower turned radios on in empty units and out sneakers out front of doors. Ultimately the FBI kicked in their doors and some guys are going to the booty house.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdny/pr/ro ... aud-scheme