[Then Trump fixer, Michael Cohen] helped initiate a relationship between Signature [Bank in New York] and Mr. Trump, and the bank became an unlikely go-to lender for the future president and his extended family.
The bank helped finance Mr. Trump’s Florida golf course. It lent money to Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and to Mr. Kushner’s father, Charles. It provided Mr. Trump and his business with checking accounts. And Ivanka Trump sat on Signature’s board of directors while the bank was lending to her father and her husband, Mr. Kushner.
Signature provides a window into the intersecting financial interests of Mr. Cohen and the Trump and Kushner families. With Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner working in the White House, and Mr. Cohen under criminal investigation, Signature’s interactions with some of its most famous clients are attracting attention from regulators.
[...]
[Regulators are] now looking into whether Signature lent money to real estate developers — including the Kushner family’s business, Kushner Companies — knowing they planned to use abusive tactics to push out low-rent tenants and then charge more, according to two people familiar with the review. It is focused on whether Signature’s loans were overly risky and violated laws intended to prevent predatory behavior.
NYT
The Trump taint.
“We recognize we are not perfect,” Signature’s chairman, Scott A. Shay, said in a statement. “However, any allegation that we knowingly or somehow actively abet tenant harassment is frankly a slander against Signature Bank and an unfair impugning of the reputations of many hardworking colleagues who strive to be a positive force for not only our shareholders and depositors but our community as well.”
Pretty sure Signature bank wouldn't be dealing with the Trump cabal unless it was involved in some seriously shady shit.
Signature announced on Friday that it was stepping up efforts to make sure its lending doesn’t lead to the displacement of tenants.
I bet they're stepping up efforts in a number of areas.
Mr. Cohen had joined the Trump Organization in 2007 as an executive and was on the condominium board of Trump World Tower, across from the United Nations. In December 2009, Signature lent $800,000 to the building, managed by the Trump Organization, to refinance the mortgage on the superintendent’s apartment.
A former Signature employee said Mr. Cohen had helped arrange the loan. Signature executives say they have no record of Mr. Cohen’s involvement.
[...]
In September 2011, Signature named [Ivanka] Trump, who was 29, to its board. She was paid $198,875 in 2012 in cash and stock.
Mr. Shay said Ms. Trump had been invited onto the nine-member board as part of an effort to recruit younger directors and to give it a second woman.
Simply coincidental that it was Ivanka Trump.
Giving seats on the board of a publicly traded company like Signature to people directly connected to large clients is generally frowned on.
Really? Can't imagine why.
Signature nonetheless designated Ms. Trump as an independent director and assigned her to board committees that set executive compensation and monitored risks.
The bank continued to do business with her family. It renewed credit lines to the Kushners, who by the end of 2012 owed the bank $4 million.
Mr. Shay said that Ms. Trump had recused herself from decisions involving her family and that the transactions hadn’t been large enough to compromise her independence.
Sure.
Before Mr. Trump became a Signature client, he fought the bank. The 2007 skirmish involved a construction company that Mr. Trump had hired to help build a golf course. After Mr. Trump refused to pay the company’s bills and sued it for subpar work, the company went bankrupt. It owed Signature money. Mr. Trump’s and Signature’s lawyers argued in court that their clients were both entitled to the same funds from the bankrupt company.
Mr. Trump and Signature settled in September 2009. Three months later, the Trump Organization started borrowing from Signature.
[...]
The bank also became known for doing more than rivals to accommodate customers.
For example, Signature allowed some business clients to withdraw cash even when their accounts were empty, creating overdrafts of tens of thousands of dollars without formal loan agreements, according to a former employee and a client who said he routinely did this. That attracted clients with irregular cash flow.
Nothing suspicious there.
Last week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said the state was opening an investigation into allegations, filed in a lawsuit, that Kushner Companies illegally harassed low-rent tenants to get them to leave.
Christine Taylor, a Kushner Companies spokeswoman, said, “All our business with Signature Bank has been entirely appropriate.” She added that before Mr. Kushner joined the White House, “we never had these type of inquiries which appear to be solely for political reasons.”
Sad!
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