Intentional calculated fraud
We knew they knew, but now there’s even more evidence that they knew.
Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump took part in a fraudulent scheme to sell units in a luxury New York condominium-hotel and “knew they were lying”, according to a new book that explores how the current US president built his business empire.
Questions have long surrounded a criminal investigation into the Trump family’s dealings around the Trump SoHo that was dropped in 2011. Public disclosure of email correspondence revealed that Don Jr and Ivanka knowingly used figures that exaggerated how well the condos were selling in a ploy to lure more buyers.
Also how would they not know, also it was their responsibility to know. If you’re going to tell buyers a thing that will make them want to buy what you’re selling, you have a responsibility to make sure the thing you’re telling them is not a lie. I think it’s a legal responsibility as well as a moral one, because there is such a thing as fraud, and there are known ways to ensure one is not committing it. Step one: don’t just make shit up to flog your wares.
The episode is re-examined with fresh reporting by the journalist Andrea Bernstein in her book American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps And The Marriage Of Money And Power, a copy of which was obtained by the Guardian.
…
The Trumps left a damaging email trail, first reported by the ProPublica website in 2017, that Bernstein writes “showed a coordinated, deliberate and knowing effort to deceive buyers. In one email, the Trumps discussed how to coordinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. Because the sales levels had been overstated at the beginning of the sales process, any statement showing a lower level could reveal the untruths.”
The author continues: “In another email, according to a person who read them, the Trumps worried that a reporter might be on to them. In yet another email chain that included Don Jr and Ivanka, the younger generation of Trumps issued the email equivalent of a knowing chuckle, saying that nobody would ever find them out, because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception.
Hur hur. I bet their lives have been full of knowing chuckles. Princess Barbie Doll is a knowing chuckling crook, and the weirdly smooth hair can’t hide that.
“There was ‘no doubt’ that the Trump children ‘approved, knew of, agreed to, and intentionally inflated the numbers to make more sales,’ one person who saw the emails said. ‘They knew it was wrong.’ ‘It couldn’t have been more clear they lied about the sales and knew they were lying,’” another person said.
“Yet another said, ‘I was shocked by the words Ivanka used.’ Was there any doubt the Trumps knew they were lying and that it was wrong? ‘Ten thousand percent no.’”
Now the Princess has a security clearance. Isn’t life interesting?
A recent poll of Republican voters revealed that both Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka were among the top four potential candidates favored for president in 2024, #2 and #4 respectively. Others were Pence and Nikki Haley.
Now that this scandal is being exposed, however, they should shoot to the top as #1 and #2.
As Donald Rumsfeld said, there are known knowns, and known unknowns. The trick is to find the unknown unknowns, and left it open as to the unknown knowns. But I would say that unknown knowns are now emerging as a major Trump philosophical breakthrough. Unknown to all except Trump and Invanka the Terrible..
I don’t know the law here, so maybe there’s some dollar value where this becomes legally problematic, but it seems to me that this technique is used all the time:
“Hurry, supplies are limited!”
“Act now, they’re selling fast, and once they’re gone, they’re gone!”
“This event is expected to be a sellout, so get your tickets while you still can!”
The Simpsons did a take on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMf_4-doa2I
Basically a lot of marketing seemed geared toward getting people to think everyone else is buying something and they’re going to miss out if they don’t jump on the bandwagon.
I’m not saying it’s right, but it sort of seems to be accepted that marketers are going to exaggerate in this way.
Oh come on.
A generalized “They’re selling fast” in a media ad is one thing, and giving specific untrue figures to prospective buyers is quite another. This wasn’t Ivanka gushing “They’re very popular!” it was lying about the numbers.
This is more like McDonald’s sign – 90 gazillion gazillion sold – if they’d actually only sold about 500,000.
I believe that there was a story about the investigation on this very blog in which alleged, actual (though untrue) percentages were being bandied about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffery is apparently a recognised concept.
YNnB – I know I’ve posted about it at least once before. I wonder if I can find it…
This one shares a Pro Publica article on their pattern of lying about sales on various projects, SoHo being just one:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2018/they-helped-mislead-investors-and-buyers/
This one quotes Virginia Heffernan on SoHo and more:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2018/she-washes-and-gilds-all-she-touches/
Adam Davidson in the New Yorker:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2018/a-high-likelihood-of-rampant-criminality/
Also
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2019/still-the-case-dragged-on/
Ah here’s the one with percentages, via Pro Publica again:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2019/hot-opportunities/
More percentages:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2017/possess-your-own-soho/