Homewreckers
Reveal
The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
4.7 • 8K Ratings
🗓️ 19 October 2019
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After the housing bust, a group of men profited by destroying the American dream of homeownership for hundreds of thousands of families. On Reveal, we learn how these Homewreckers -- many of whom are close to President Donald Trump -- did it and meet a woman who fought back.
This episode is based on Aaron Glantz’s new book, “Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal. I'm Al Edson. |
| 0:07.0 | And this week we're starting to show a little different. We're taking the stroll |
| 0:12.0 | through one of America's wealthiest neighborhoods, Manhattan's Upper East Side. |
| 0:17.0 | In this part of the city, you'll find museums like the Guggenheim and the Met. |
| 0:21.0 | And if you make your way up park Avenue, two blocks over from Central Park, |
| 0:25.0 | what you'll really notice along this tree-lined boulevard are these imposing residential buildings. |
| 0:31.0 | Full of apartments bigger than most people's houses. Reveals airing plants is in front of one of them right now. |
| 0:37.0 | Hey, Aaron. Hi Al. I'm in front of 740 Park Avenue. It's known as the World's Richest Apartment Building. |
| 0:44.0 | It's a gorgeous Art Deco building built back in the 1920s. |
| 0:48.0 | Once it was home to John D. Rockefeller Jr. |
| 0:51.0 | and now it's home to a lot of Donald Trump's closest friends and advisors. |
| 0:56.0 | In fact, I'm looking down the street right now and I can see the gold of Trump Tower. |
| 1:00.0 | Okay, so who exactly lives at 740 Park Avenue? |
| 1:03.0 | Treasury Secretary Steve Manuchin for one. |
| 1:06.0 | So does Steve Schwartzman, founder of Blackstone, the giant private equity firm, |
| 1:11.0 | Mogul Tom Barak, one of Donald Trump's closest friends? |
| 1:14.0 | He has an apartment in the neighborhood too. |
| 1:16.0 | Aaron, I know you've been investigating these guys for years. |
| 1:19.0 | They don't just have Trump and a fancy address in common though. |
| 1:22.0 | So what's the real story here? |
| 1:24.0 | I'm here because the people who live in this building, |
| 1:27.0 | they're the people who hoovered up the wealth of hundreds of thousands of people. |
... |
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