Checking
out Trump’s favorite German laundromat
By Dana Kennedy
 |
| Chanel 3000 graphic |
Before too many bankers started turning up dead, Trump dared reporters. Call her, he said, she is“the head” of the bank, “the boss.”
The good news is that Vrablic, 58, is alive.
That is not something to take for granted when you consider two dead Deutsche Bank executives. Each had ties to Trump, Russia and possibly to pedophile money man Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in jail. One banker was found hanged in 2014 and one in November.
That is not something to take for granted when you consider two dead Deutsche Bank executives. Each had ties to Trump, Russia and possibly to pedophile money man Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in jail. One banker was found hanged in 2014 and one in November.
Vrablic’s office picked up right away when this reporter called
following a Supreme Court’s
decision on Dec. 13. The justices agreed to take up Trump’s argument that he be
allowed to shield disclosure of his financial information from Congress and the
New York attorney general.
Not surprisingly, the woman who answered the phone in Vrablic’s
office refused to identify herself. Nor would she put Vrablic on to answer
questions about Trump.
Deutsche
Bank lent Trump millions after he defaulted on loans they
already gave him and after he once sued them in 2008.
She sounded flabbergasted that anyone from the public, much less the media, would be calling someone who is, for the most part, a mystery woman. And that is despite her role in approving about $300 million in allegedly suspect loans to Trump. That arrangement will be part of a quite likely historic oral argument by the Supreme Court in March with a planned June decision.
Refusing to transfer the call to a corporate spokesperson, the
person who answered the phone tried to imply that Vrablic no longer worked
there. Then she agreed to take a message that was never returned.
‘Global
Laundromat’
Deutsche Bank lent Trump millions after he
defaulted on loans it already gave him and after he once sued
the bank in 2008. Known derisively as a “global
laundromat,” the bank is facing U.S. and British legal actions over
its role in a $20 billion Russian money-laundering scheme.
Two Congressional
committees want the bank to release 10-plus years of records involving Trump
and his three oldest children.. This is as Congress probes Russian money
laundering and possible foreign influence involving Trump. White House lawyers
have fought the committees tenaciously.
It’s hoped that the Supreme Court’s verdict will end years-long
efforts on the part of U.S. officials to glean the truth about Trump’s
finances. Especially at issue is whether Russians interfered in the 2016
election and if that meddling was powered by Russian money funneled to Trump
through the giant, scandal-ridden German bank.
Teller
to Managing Director
Vrablic, a one-time bank teller turned Deutsche Bank private
wealth managing director, was Trump’s liaison at the bank. She sat in a hoodie
in the VIP section at the Trump inauguration.
Trump borrowed more than $2 billion in the past two decades.
Many allege the loans could hold the key to Russian funding of Trump.
Hired in 2006 with celebratory ads in The New York Times and a
sweet deal guaranteeing her $3 million a year, Vrablic raised the bank’s public
profile. First she was perceived in a good way. Now the opposite is true.
Trump burned through his relationships with bank investment and
commercial real estate departments because of his constant defaults and
failures. Then Vrablic stepped up in 2010.
The
Kushner Network
Trump’s daughter Ivanka had just married Jared Kushner, who was
a longtime client of Vrablic along with his mother Seryl. Ivanka steered
Vrablic in the private bank sector of Deutsche Bank her father’s way. It
turned out to be the financial lifeline crucial in helping him win the
election.
People at Vrablic’s level in the banking world, even when they
are swept up in international scandals, are rarely household names unless they
die suddenly… read suspiciously.
Even then, they are familiar to only the most
inside-baseball financial journalists. They are never part of the daily
Trump-Schiff-Pelosi-Schumer-AOC-Nunes-McConnell-etc. political narrative. Their
influence is often greater.
And circumstances of their deaths often remain murky. Supposed
details take on a life of their own on conspiracy websites but the actual truth
remains frustratingly out of reach – a bit like Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged jail
suicide.
A
Pair of Suicides
Thomas Bowers, 55, Vrablic’s former boss, ran the private wealth
division of Deutsche Bank and oversaw loans to Trump and reportedly to Epstein.
He left the bank, reportedly in 2015. It is said he
hanged himself at his Malibu home on Nov. 19.
His death was first reported in a tweet by David Enrich of The
New York Times, one of the foremost experts on Deutsche Bank.
“Dark Towers:
Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump and an Epic Trail of Destruction,” an upcoming book
by Enrich, focuses in part on the sudden death of another
banker.
William Broeksmit, a senior Deutsche Bank executive, was a
man who “knew too much,” according to Enrich. Broeksmit was found hanging in
his London home in 2014. Enrich calls the death a “mysterious suicide.”
Enrich previewed the deeply weird story of the Broeksmit
whistleblower, a troubled but possibly believable stepson of Broeksmit, in
a New York Times
Magazine story in October.
So far, though, he has done no more than
tweet about Bowers, first to announce his death, then to deny so-called rumors
that Bowers had been Epstein’s banker.
The
Epstein Connection
Enrich said on Twitter that
Bowers left Deutsche Bank in 2013, prior to Epstein becoming a client. Deutsche
Bank would not comment. Other reports say Bowers left Deutsche Bank in 2015
when Epstein was already a customer. Epstein, of course, allegedly
committed suicide while in jail in August.
One of Estonia’s
leading bankers, Aivar Rehe, apparently committed suicide in September in
Tallinn. Rehe ran Danske Bank which was used by clients in
Russia and Eastern Europe to launder billions of dirty dollars.
At the time of
the Rehe death, Frankfurt prosecutors were eyeballing Deutsche Bank for its
part in doing business with suspicious American customers, The New York
Times reported.
The Democratic-controlled House Financial Services and
Intelligence Committees issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank in April for the
records. In turn, Trump sued the bank to
prevent it from complying.
It’s believed that the bank has documents that would
show on how Trump made his money, with whom he partnered and extensive details
of what he borrowed and resulting transactions.
The subpoenas also included demands for information about
suspicious activity in Trump’s Deutsche Bank accounts.
Trump’s
Lender of Last Resort
In the late 1990s, Trump became a bad credit
risk, repeatedly defaulting on loans and declaring bankruptcy. No
U.S. banks would do business with him.
Deutsche Bank badly wanted to expand internationally, especially
into the United States. It saw an opportunity with Trump and became his chief
creditor despite his rank financial past.
Anti-money-laundering investigators at Deutsche Bank flagged
“multiple transactions” involving accounts controlled by Trump and Jared
Kushner in 2016 and 2017. They alerted bank executives who apparently ignored
the intel, The New York
Times reported in May.
“You present them with everything, and you give them a
recommendation, and nothing happens.” So said Tammy McFadden, a former Deutsche
Bank anti-money laundering specialist who reviewed some of the transactions, in
The Times.
“It’s the D.B. way. They are prone to discounting everything.”
Additional reporting by Matthew Reagan and Anna Sasser,
Occidental College, Los Angeles
