Donald Trump loves to talk up his business record, but he for some reason neglects to mention that his history of real estate investment in New York and New Jersey is inextricably linked to mob activity.
- There’s Roy Cohn, a known consigliere — think Tom Hagen from The Godfather — to the crime boss of the Genovese crime family. Cohn’s other employer? Donald J.Trump, for whom Cohn worked as a lawyer and “power broker.” Through Cohn,Trump hired a “mobbed up” concrete firm run by Antony “Fat Tony” Salerno — who later went to prison on racketeering charges — and Paul Castellano.
- And then there’s Felix Sater, who came to work for Trump after going to prison for “stabbing a man in the face with the stem of a margarita glass.” When Trump and Sater first started working together, Stater was “awaiting sentencing for his role in a Mafia-orchestrated stock fraud scheme.” Since then, Trump’s denied knowing Sater well, but that didn’t stop Trump from asking Sater to “escort his children Donald Jr. and Ivanka around Moscow. Or stop him from allowing Sater to carry “a TrumpOrganization business card with the title ‘Senior Advisor to Donald Trump.'”
- One more: when Trump first entered the Atlantic City scene, he partnered up with Kenneth Shapiro and Daniel Sullivan — the first, a “street-level gangster with close ties to the Philadelphia mob,” and the latter, “a Mafia associate.” To put this one in perspective: as Trump told a biographer in the early 2000s, “[T]hey say that Dan Sullivan was the guy that killed Jimmy Hoffa.”
Background:
Trump Ties To Organized Crime
Over four decades, Trump partnered and employed individuals with extensive connections to organized crime:
✓ In 2010, Trump business partner Tevfik Arif was indicted for charges relating to organized crime, prostitution and human trafficking.
✓ In 1973, Trump employed a known mob lawyer, Rob Cohn, to threaten his competitors.
✓ Cohn later helped Trump secure “union peace” and avoid a strike during the demolition of the Bonwit Teller Building (future site of Trump Tower), by contracting with S & A Concrete, a concrete firm controlled by the Gambino and Genovese families.Trump’s arrangement allowed him to hire 200 mostly-illegal Polish immigrants to work alongside 15 members of the Genovese family-controlled House Wreckers Union Local 95 without the threat of the strike.
✓ In the 2000s Trump acknowledged he employed, Kenneth Shapiro and Daniel Sullivan , men who were associated with organized crime, and claimed he heard Sullivan killed Jimmy Hoffa.
✓ In the 1990’s while building Trump Tower, Trump employed a concrete trucker’s union controlled by John Cody, a man later convicted of racketeering.
✓ In 2010, Trump hired as a senior advisor Felix Sater, despite knowing that Sater was plead guilty in 1998 for racketeering in connection to the the Genovese And Bonnano crime families.
✓ Although in 2016, Trump claimed that he “hardly knew” convicted felon Joseph Weichselbaum, Trump repeatedly employed Weichselbaum, even after his release from prison, vouched for him at his sentencing, and rented Weichselbaum apartments.
TRUMP BUSINESS PARTNER TEVFIK ARIF HAD TIES TO ORGANIZED CRIME
2010: Trump Business Partner Tevfik Arif Was Indicted For Charges Relating To Organized Crime, Prostitution And Human Trafficking. According to Daily News, ‘A business partner of Donald Trump has been charged for his alleged role in pimping out Eastern European models for sex parties aboard a yacht. Turkish prosecutors on Friday hit Tevfik Arif, 57, and five others with charges related to organizing a criminal gang, prostitution and human trafficking, according to media reports.’ [Daily News, 10/3/10]
TRUMP EMPLOYED A KNOWN MOB LAWYER, ROY COHN
Trump Employed Manhattan Lawyer Roy Cohn. In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “Another omen of the new mojo Donald brought to Fifth Avenue was the lawyer he had chosen to help him navigate Manhattan’s back rooms: Roy Cohn. Tan as a catcher’s mitt and as whippet-thin as Gollum, Cohn was a power broker who, until his death in 1986, prowled New York with a slippery, lethal pragmatism worthy of any Tolkien creation.” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
- Cohn Consulted Mafia Figures On Legal Issues. In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “Cohn sharpened his skills prosecuting Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for treason and helping Senator Joseph McCarthy round up alleged Communists in the 1950s before he turned his attention to counseling Mafia figures and fixing thorny legal woes that others shied away from handling.” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
- Cohn Had Been Sued, Acquitted For Fraud Three Times. In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “He had been sued and acquitted for fraud three times and was disbarred in New York shortly before his death for ‘particularly reprehensible’ conduct.” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
TrumpNation: While Cohn Was Alive, Trump Would Take Out Picture Of Him And Ask His Competitors “Would You Rather Deal With Him?” In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “When Cohn was alive, Donald was known to whip out a picture of the lawyer and ask competitors with whom he was jousting: ‘Would you rather deal with him?’” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
With Cohn’s Help, Trump Contracted Mafia Heads Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno And Paul Castellano’s Concrete Company
Cohn’s Clients Included The Heads Of The Genovese And Gambino Crime Families
Cohn’s Clients Included “‘Fat Tony’ Salerno, Boss Of The Genovese Crime Family, The Most Powerful Mafia Group In New York, And Paul Castellano, Head Of What Was Said To Be The Second Largest Family, The Gambinos.” According to Politico, “Among other things Cohn was now a mob consigliere, with clients including ‘Fat Tony’ Salerno, boss of the Genovese crime family, the most powerful Mafia group in New York, and Paul Castellano, head of what was said to be the second largest family, the Gambinos.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Hired Salerno And Castellano’s Concrete Firm
Trump Hired “Mobbed Up Firms” Operated By Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno And Paul Castellano In Constructing His Trump Tower And Trump Plaza Apartment Building.According to Politico, “But Trump was not clean as a whistle. Beginning three years earlier, he’d hired mobbed-up firms to erect Trump Tower and his Trump Plaza apartment building in Manhattan, including buying ostensibly overpriced concrete from a company controlled by mafia chieftains Anthony ‘Fat Tony’ Salerno and Paul Castellano. That story eventually came out in a federal investigation, which also concluded that in a construction industry saturated with mob influence, the Trump Plaza apartment building most likely benefited from connections to racketeering.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Paid For “Inflated Prices” Of Ready Mix Concrete Through Salerno And Castellano’s S & A Concrete. According to Politico, “Salerno, Castellano and other organized crime figures controlled the ready-mix business in New York, and everyone in construction at the time knew it. So did government investigators trying to break up the mob, urged on by major developers such as the LeFrak and Resnick families. Trump ended up not only using ready-mix concrete, but also paying what a federal indictment of Salerno later concluded were inflated prices for it – repeatedly – to S & A Concrete, a firm Salerno and Castellano owned through fronts, and possibly to other mob-controlled firms. As Barrett noted, by choosing to build with ready-mix concrete rather than other materials, Trump put himself ‘at the mercy of a legion of concrete racketeers.’” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump’s Lawyer Roy Cohn Helped Him Negotiate The The Contract, And Secured Him Union Peace On The Job By Contracting The Mob-Controlled Companies
Trump Personally Met With Mobster Paul Salerno At Laywer Roy Cohn’s Townhouse. According to Politico, “This is part of the Donald Trump story that few know. As Barrett wrote in his book, Trump didn’t just do business with mobbed-up concrete companies: he also probably met personally with Salerno at the townhouse of notorious New York fixer Roy Cohn, in a meeting recounted by a Cohn staffer who told Barrett she was present. This came at a time when other developers in New York were pleading with the FBI to free them of mobcontrol of the concrete business.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Laywer Roy Cohn Helped Trump Achieve “Union Peace” By Purchasing Concrete Through Salerno And Castellano. According to Politico, “Salerno and Castellano and othermob families controlled both the concrete business and the unions involved in delivering and pouring it. The risks this created became clear from testimony later by Irving Fischer, the general contractor who built Trump Tower. Fischer said concrete union ‘goons’ once stormed his offices, holding a knife to throat of his switchboard operator to drive home the seriousness of their demands, which included no-show jobs during construction of Trump Tower. But with Cohn as his lawyer, Trump apparently had no reason to personally fear Salerno or Castellano—at least, not once he agreed to pay inflated concrete prices. What Trump appeared to receive in return was union peace. That meant the project would never face costly construction or delivery delays.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Was Able To Hire Illegal Polish Workers To Work Alongside American Workers Without A Risk Of A Strike Due As The Genovese Family Controlled The Union
Trump Hired Illegal Polish Workers To Work Alongside Union Workers At The Bonwit Teller Demolition; Worked Proceeded Because The “Genovese Family Principally Controlled The Union.” According to Politico, “There were other irregularities in Trump’s first big construction project. In 1979, when Trump hired a demolition contractor to take down the Bonwit Teller department store to make way for Trump Tower, he hired as many as 200 non-union men to work alongside about 15 members of the House Wreckers Union Local 95. The non-union workers were mostly illegal Polish immigrants paid $4 to $6 per hour with no benefits, far below the union contract. […] Normally the use of nonunion workers at a union job site would have guaranteed a picket line. Not at this site, however. Work proceeded because the Genovese family principally controlled the union; this was demonstrated by extensive testimony, documents and convictions in federal trials, as well as a later report by the New York State Organized Crime Task Force.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Salerno Was Later Convicted For Racketeering Related In Part To The $8 Million Contract A Trump Plaza
Salerno Was Later Convicted For Racketeering Related To The $8 Million Contract For Concrete At Trump Plaza. According to Politico, “The indictment on which Salerno was convicted in 1988 and sent to prison, where he died, listed the nearly $8 million contract for concrete at Trump Plaza, an East Side high-rise apartment building, as one of the acts establishing that S &A was part of a racketeering enterprise. (While the concrete business was central to the case, the trial also proved extortion, narcotics, rigged union elections and murders by the Genovese and Gambino crime families in what Michael Chertoff, the chief prosecutor, called ‘the largest and most vicious criminal business in the history of the United States.’)” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Worked With Alleged Mob Member John Cody, Who Was Convicted Of Racketeering, In The Construction Of Trump Tower
Trump Worked With Cody, “ Head Of The Union Representing Concrete Truckers,” When Building Trump Tower. In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “There were other powers Donald had to consider, however. In an unusual move, he built Trump Tower largely with concrete rather than the steel framing used in most modern skyscrapers. […] But when Donald was building Trump Tower, the mob still had full sway. Few people symbolizedmob control better than John Cody, head of the union representing concrete truckers. Cody died in 2001 after serving prison terms for racketeering and other crimes, but Donald had to deal with him when he built his dream tower.” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
John Cody Ran Concrete Truckers Union, Which Was Under Mob Control. In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “The concrete unions, and many of the concrete companies themselves, were mobbed up at the time and could shut a project down anytime they wanted. The city later started its own concrete plant on the West Side in the late 1980s to try to make a dent in the mob’s monopoly, to no avail. Ultimately, prison terms did the trick. But when Donald was building Trump Tower, the mob still had full sway. Few people symbolizedmob control better than John Cody, head of the union representing concrete truckers.” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
Trump Worked With Mob Associates in His Atlantic City Dealings
Trump Purchased Land In Atlantic City From Nick Scarfo Hitmen Salvy Testa And Frank Narducci Jr.
Trump Purchased Land In Atlantic City From Nick Scarfo’s Hitmen Salvy Testa And Frank Narducci Jr., “Known As The Young Executioners.” According to Politico, “In Atlantic City, Trump built on property where mobsters controlled parts of the adjoining land needed for parking. He paid $1.1 million for about a 5,000-square-foot lot that had been bought five years earlier for just $195,000. The sellers were Salvy Testa and Frank Narducci Jr., a pair of hitmen for Atlantic City mob boss Nicky Scarfo who were known as the Young Executioners. For several adjoining acres, Trump ignored the principal owner of record and instead negotiated directly in a deal that also likely ended up benefiting the Scarfo mob. Trump arranged a 98-year lease deal with Sullivan, the FBI informant and labor fixer, and Ken Shapiro, described in government reports as Scarfo’s ‘investment banker.’ Eventually the lease was converted into a sale after the Division of Gaming Enforcement objected to Sullivan and Shapiro being Trump’s landlords.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Partnered With Two Mob Associates In Atlantic City
Trump Partnered With Kenneth Shapiro And Daniel Sullivan For His First Atlantic City Venture. In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “But Donald’s partners in his first Atlantic City venture, Kenneth Shapiro and Daniel Sullivan, were more curious choices.” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
- Shapiro Was Street-Level Gangster With Philadelphia Mob Ties. In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “Law enforcement officials and gambling regulators said both men were familiar with Atlantic City’s underbelly—Shapiro as a street-level gangster with close ties to the Philadelphia mob and Sullivan as a Mafia associate, FBI informant, and labor negotiator.” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
- Sullivan Was Mafia Associate, FBI Informant, And Labor Negotiator. In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “Law enforcement officials and gambling regulators said both men were familiar with Atlantic City’s underbelly—Shapiro as a street-level gangster with close ties to the Philadelphia mob and Sullivan as a Mafia associate, FBI informant, and labor negotiator.” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
Trump Testified About Shapiro And Sullivan: “I Don’t Think There’s Anything Wrong With These People.” In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “But early on, when he was first testing Atlantic City’s waters, Donald told casino regulators that he thought his real estate partners were model citizens. ‘I don’t think there’s anything wrong with these people,’ Donald said of Shapiro and Sullivan in public testimony during his licensing hearings in 1982. ‘Many of them have been in Atlantic City for many, many years and I think they are well thought of.’” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
- Trump, 2000s: “They Say That Dan Sullivan Was The Guy That Killed Jimmy Hoffa.”In his book TrumpNation, Timothy L. O’Brien wrote, “And when Donald reminisced with me more than two decades later about his first Atlantic City partners, his opinion of them had evolved even further. ‘Some of those guys were tough guys. Shapiro. They were tough guys. In fact, they say that Dan Sullivan was the guy that killed Jimmy Hoffa,’ Donald told me. ‘They were tough guys and not good guys.” [TrumpNation, 1/1/05]
Trump Partner Felix Slater WAs Linked To A Mafia-Related Fraud Scheme
Trump Knowingly Appointed Mafia-Tied Felix Sater To A Senior Business Advisor Position
2010: Trump Named Felix Sater As A Senior Business Advisor. According to New York Daily News, “But Trump reportedly named Sater as a senior business adviser in 2010. The Russian émigré carried a Trump Organization business card with the title ‘Senior Advisor to Donald Trump’ and appeared in numerous photos with Trump.” [New York Daily News,12/10/17]
1998: Felix Slater Pled Guilty To Racketeering In A Fraud Scheme Involving The Genovese And Bonnano Crime Families; Five Years Prior, Sater Had Been Sentenced In New York For Stabbing A Man In The Face. According to New York Daily News, “Sater pleaded guilty in 1998 to one count of racketeering for his role in a $40 million stock fraud scheme involving the Genovese and Bonanno crime families, according to court records. Prosecutors called the operation a pump-and-dump scheme, in which insiders manipulate the price of obscure stocks and then sell them to hapless investors at inflated prices. Five years earlier, a New York State court had sentenced Sater to more than a year in prison for stabbing a man in the face with a broken margarita glass.” [New York Daily News, 12/10/17]
Reports Showed Trump Knew About Sater’s Criminal Record, Yet Tapped Him For Several Important Trump Projects And A Senior Advisor Position In The TrumpOrganization. According to US News, “The AP reported in December that, even after learning about Sater’s criminal background, Trump tapped Sater to prospect for business on his behalf, giving Sater the title of senior adviser and an office in the Trump Organization’s headquarters near to his own. The Trump Organization has downplayed the significance of the role, which it says never produced any business deals.” [US News, 5/10/16]
Court Documents Revealing Sater’s Past Were Expected To Be Released In 2016.
May 2016: Documents Revealing A Criminal Past Of A Former Trump Business Partner Could Be Released In The Coming Weeks. According to US News, “A federal judge agreed Tuesday to a request by The Associated Press to unseal about 240 court documents in a case related to the criminal past of a former business partner to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. U.S. District Justice Brian M. Cogan said he will decide within two weeks whether to unseal 38 other documents in the case. But Cogan said during a hearing in Brooklyn federal court that he was leaning toward keeping those private because their disclosure would ‘deter cooperation and will jeopardize ongoing investigations.’” [US News,5/10/16]
Two Lawyers Could Be Held In Criminal Contempt For Revealing Details About The Mafia-Linked Fraud Scheme Devised By A Former Trump Business Partner—Felix Sater.According to US News, “The unusual case involves whether two lawyers should be held in criminal contempt for revealing details about the role of Felix Sater, a former Trump business associate, in orchestrating a Mafia-linked stock fraud scheme and his subsequent cooperation with the U.S. government.” [US News, 5/10/16]
1988: Trump Contracted With Convicted Extortionist Jack Schwartz And Theif John Staluppi To Develop The Trump Golden Series And Trumpexecutive Series Limousines
1988: Trump’s Golden Series And Trump Executive Series Limousines Were Retrofitted By Dillinger Coach Works, A Company Owned By Convicted Extortionist Jack Schwartz And Thief John Staluppi. According to Politico, “Even after he got his license, Trumpcontinued to have relationships that should have prompted inquiries. For example, he made a deal to have Cadillacs dolled up with fancy interiors and exteriors beginning in 1988, marketing them as Trump Golden Series and Trump Executive Series limousines. The modifications were made at the Dillinger Coach Works, which was owned by a pair of convicted felons, convicted extortionist Jack Schwartz and convicted thief John Staluppi, who was so close to mobsters that he was invited to the wedding of a mob capo’s daughter. New York liquor regulators proved tougher than those in New Jersey, denying Staluppi, a rich car dealer, a license because of his rap sheet and his extensive dealings with mobsters, as Barrett’s former reporting partner Bill Bastone found in public records.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Was close Friends With Convicted Felon Joseph Weischselbaum
Trump Repeatedly Hired Convicted Felon Joseph Weichselbaum
Trump Was Close Friends With Joseph Weichselbaum And Hired His Helicopter Firm To Fly Customers To Trump Casinos In Atlantic City. According to Politico, “And then there was the case of Joseph Weichselbaum, an embezzler who ran Trump’s personal helicopter service and ferried his most valued clientele. Trump and Weichselbaum were so close, Barrett reported in his book, that Weichselbaum told his parole officer about how he knew Trump was hiding his mistress, Marla Maples, from his first wife, Ivana, and tried to persuade Trump to end their years-long affair. Trump’s casinos retained Weichselbaum’s firm to fly high rollers to Atlantic City.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Weichselbaum Pleaded Guilty To Two Felonies. According to Politico, “Weichselbaum, who in 1979 had been caught embezzling and had to repay the stolen money, pleaded guilty to two felonies.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Continued To Employ Weichselbaum’s Firm After Being Notified Is Drug Trafficking Indictment In October 1985. According to Politico, “Weichselbaum was indicted in Ohio on charges of trafficking in marijuana and cocaine. The head of one of Trump’s casinos was notified of the indictment in October 1985, but Trump continued using Weichselbaum—conduct that again could have cost Trump his casino license had state regulators pressed the matter, because casino owners were required to distance themselves from any hint of crime.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Paid Weischelbaum’s Firm Even After It Went Bankrupt
Trump Paid Weichselbaum’s Firm After It Went Bankrupt. According to Politico, “Trumpalso continued paying Weichselbaum’s firm even after it went bankrupt.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Rented An Apartment To Weichselbaum
Trump Rented Apartment In Trump Plaza, Manhattan To Weichselbaum And His Brother Two Months After Wiechselbaum’s Indictment. According to Politico, “Just two months laterTrump rented an apartment he owned in the Trump Plaza apartment building in Manhattan to the pilot and his brother for $7,000 a month in cash and flight services.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Vouched For Weischselbaum At His Sentencing
At Weichselbaum’s Sentencing, Trump Said He Was “A Credit To The Community” Who Was “Conscientious, Forthright, And Diligent.” According to Politico, “Donald Trumpvouched for Weichselbaum before his sentencing, writing that the drug trafficker is ‘a credit to the community’ who was ‘conscientious, forthright, and diligent.’” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Hired Weichselbaum After He Was Released From Prison
Trump Hired Weichselbaum After He Was Released From Prison. According to Politico, “And while Weichselbaum’s confederates got as many as 20 years, Weichselbaum himself got only three, serving 18 months before he was released from the urban prison that the Bureau of Prisons maintains in New York City. In seeking early release, Weichselbaum said Trump had a job waiting for him.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Appeared To Have Sold An An Apartment To Weichselbaum’s Girlfriend Without Public Record After Weichselbaum Was Release From Prison
Weichselbaum Moved Into Trump Tower After His Release From Prison When His Girlfriend Bought Two Apartments For $2.4 Million, Though There Was No Public Record Of The Payment. According to Politico, “Weichselbaum then moved into Trump Tower, his girlfriend having recently bought two adjoining apartments there for $2.4 million. The cash purchase left no public record of whether any money actually changed hands or, if it did, where it came from. I asked Trump at the time for documents relating to the sale; he did not respond.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Trump Claimed He Hardly Knew Weischelbaum
2016: Trump Said He “Hardly Knew” Weichselbaum. According to Politico, “Trump, in his phone call to me, said he ‘hardly knew’ Weichselbaum.” [Politico, 5/22/16]
Published: Jun 22, 2016