Trump property sales cloak buyers in secrecy

70% of real estate deals keep buyers’ identities hidden

Since President Trump won the Republican nomination, the majority of his companies’ real estate sales are to secretive shell companies that obscure the buyers’ identities, a USA TODAY investigation has found.

Over the past 12 months, about 70% of buyers of Trump properties were limited liability companies — corporate entities that allow people to purchase property without revealing all of the owners’ names. That compares with about 4% of buyers in the two years before.

USA TODAY journalists spent six months cataloging every condo, penthouse or other property that Trump and his companies own and tracking the buyers behind every transaction. The investigation found Trump’s companies owned more than 430 individual properties worth more than $ 250 million.

Since Election Day, Trump’s businesses have sold 28 of those U. S. properties for $ 33 million. The sales include condos and penthouses in Las Vegas and New York and oceanfront lots near Los Angeles. Profits from those property sales flow through a trust run by Trump’s sons. The president is the sole beneficiary of the trust and can withdraw cash any time.

The increasing share of opaque buyers comes as federal investigators, members of Congress and ethics watchdogs ask questions about Trump’s sales and customers in the USA and around the world. Some Democrats have asked for more detail about buyers of Trump’s domestic real estate.

Their concern is that the sales create unprecedented potential for people, corporations or foreign interests to try to influence a president. People who wanted to court favor with the president could snap up properties or purposefully overpay without revealing their identity publicly.

Trump has never fully revealed the real estate cache and is not required by law to disclose it. Critics say it offers a unique opportunity for anyone to steer money to a sitting president. The increase in purchasers shielded by LLCs makes it far more difficult to track who pays the president and his companies for properties ranging in price from $ 220,000 to more than $ 10 million.

The clear post- nomination shift since last year to more shell company purchases is unique to sales by Trump’s companies, even in his own towers and neighborhoods. Condos owned by others in the same buildings, and sold during the same time period, were bought by LLCs in no more than 20% of the transactions. In some areas, the share was far less.

“If what’s going on is somebody is buying something from the Trump Organization to buy favor, there’s no way you’d ever figure out who that person is or what favor they’re trying to buy,” said Jack Blum, a Washington attorney specializing in offshore tax evasion.

The White House refers all questions about Trump’s businesses to the Trump Organization, which would not answer questions about the sales.

Experts in real estate and corporate law say there are many reasons to create an LLC and use it to buy property. Some buyers, including celebrities, foreign dissidents and police officers, use them to protect privacy. Former president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, are behind Homefront Holdings LLC, a corporation that bought the family’s home in Washington, according to property records.

There are more nefarious reasons to use LLCs, including to illegally hide assets, shield profits from taxation, and launder drug money or funds embezzled from a foreign company or government.

USA TODAY found no sales by Trump’s companies that were obviously above market rate, based on comparable sales in the same buildings and neighborhoods.

The Trump Organization announced in January that a new corporate ethics officer would screen real estate deals to prevent conflicts of interest.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D- R. I., who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russians during the 2016 campaign, raised concerns about the source of funds.

“Once you know — as we do — that corrupting influence by Russia is a matter of Russian practice through shell corporations, that puts a particular spotlight on transactions in which the president of the United States through his direct business interests is involved,” Whitehouse said.