Trump’s Company Paid Bribes to Reduce Property Taxes, Assessors Say

Trump, Inc.

WNYC Studios

Don, Trump, News, Business, Jared, Ivanka, Jr, Politics, Business News, Government, Eric

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2020

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Trump Organization paid bribes, through middlemen, to New York City tax assessors to lower its property tax bills for several Manhattan buildings in the 1980s and 1990s, according to five former tax assessors and city employees as well as a former Trump Organization employee. Two of the five city employees said they personally took bribes to lower the assessment on a Trump property; the other three said they had indirect knowledge of the payments. The city employees were among 18 indicted in 2002 for taking bribes in exchange for lowering the valuations of properties, which in turn reduced the taxes owed for the buildings. All of the 18 eventually pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan except for one, who died before his case was resolved. No building owners were charged, though the addresses of some of the properties involved became public. Trump’s buildings were not on that list. No evidence has emerged that Donald Trump personally knew of or participated in the alleged bribery. Trump denied any wrongdoing at the time, and the Trump Organization reiterated that position in response to questions for this article. “To be clear, at no time did the Trump Organization or any of its employees or principals ever pay anyone for the purpose of unlawfully obtaining a lower tax valuation,” Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, wrote in a statement. “This was corroborated by multiple investigations which found no evidence of any wrongdoing by the company or any of its principals. ... If anything, the Trump Organization was a victim of the scandal.” (Here is the company’s full statement.) Read the full print version of this story at ProPublica. Special thanks to former New York Times reporter Charles Bagli, who first reported on the bribery scheme in 2002. Sign up for email updates from Trump, Inc. for the latest on WNYC and ProPublica's investigations Related episodes:• The Numbers Don't Match• Trump’s Company Is Suing Towns Across the Country to Get Breaks on Taxes• Pump and Trump

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 7.36 a.m. A young man walks through the World Trade
0:08.7	Center concourse by the pack of Marlboro's. A music version of a Rod Stewart song plays
0:14.8	in the background. The man works with his dad. Their business is tax consulting, getting
0:22.6	property tax bills lowered. In the concourse, the consultant meets another guy, a New York
0:28.8	City Tax Assessor. They walk to a restaurant in a nearby hotel, sit down, glasses clink,
0:36.4	and people laugh. I love this place, the consultant says. Isn't it great? The Assessor replies,
0:45.9	this assessor had been on the take, accepting cash to lower property tax assessments.
0:52.3	At 8.46 a.m., there's a far off muffled boom, then a louder and closer explosion. It lasts
1:05.5	for 28 seconds. The hotel's alarm blairs. We know all this because one of the guys was
1:15.4	wearing a wire. The FBI was recording the breakfast. The tape is the only uninterrupted
1:23.0	audio recording of the 9-11 attacks. The whole thing was later revealed by the New York
1:29.3	Daily News. Let's get out of here, the consultant shouts. The two men split up. The consultant
1:37.9	runs to West Street at the edge of Lower Manhattan. Oh my God, he says. As he looks up
1:43.6	at the North Tower of the World Trade Center, there's another explosion. It's now 9.03 a.m.,
1:50.6	the tape is still rolling. The consultant and the assessor both survive.
2:06.3	Just under six months later, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, James
2:10.8	Comey, announces 18 arrests. Comey says, quote, for decades, New York City tax assessors,
2:19.2	as well as some representatives of owners of commercial and residential properties throughout
2:24.0	New York City, have been unjustly enriching themselves at the expense of the people of this
2:30.2	magnificent city. The tape made on 9-11 was evidence in the case.
2:40.8	Hello and welcome to Trump Inc., a podcast from WNYC and ProPublica that digs deep into
2:53.9	the business of Trump. I'm Andrea Bernstein. When the arrests were announced, you could
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