TRUMP’S TRAIL OF UNPAID BILLS
PLUMBERS, WAITERS, PAINTERS CLAIM THEY GOT STIFFED
During the Atlantic City casino boom in the 1980s, Philadelphia cabinet builder Edward Friel Jr. landed a $400,000 contract to build the bases for slot machines, registration desks, bars and other cabinets at Harrah’s at Trump Plaza.
The family cabinetry business, founded in the 1940s by Edward’s father, finished its work in 1984 and submitted its bill to the general contractor for the Trump Organization, the resort’s builder. Edward’s son, Paul, the firm’s accountant, remembers the amount more than 30 years later: $83,600. The reason: The money never came.
“That began the demise of the Edward J. Friel Co. … which has been around since my grandfather,” he said.
Donald Trump portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will “protect your job.” But a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades — and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans, like the Friels, who say Trump or his companies refused to pay them.
At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments and other government filings reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK, document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. Painters. Waiters and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs. Real estate brokers. And, ironically, several law firms that once represented him in these suits and others.
Trump’s companies have been cited for 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act since 2005 for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage, according to U.S. Department of Labor data. Those cases were resolved by the companies agreeing to pay back wages.
In addition to the lawsuits, the review found more than 200 mechanic’s liens — filed by contrac-
“I’ll deduct from their contract, absolutely. That’s what the country should be doing.” Donald Trump
tors and employees against Trump, his companies or his properties claiming they were owed money for their work — since the 1980s. The liens range from a $75,000 claim by a Plainview, N.Y., air-conditioning and heating company to a $1 million claim from the president of a New York City real estate banking firm. On one project, the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, records released by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 1990 show at least 253 subcontractors weren’t paid in full or on time, including workers who installed walls, chandeliers and plumbing.
The actions paint a portrait of Trump’s sprawling organization failing to pay small businesses and individuals, then tying many of them up in court and other negotiations for years. Some gave up the fight or settled for less; some went out of business.
Trump and his daughter Ivanka, in an interview with USA TODAY, shrugged off the lawsuits and other claims of non-payment. If a company or worker he hires isn’t paid fully, the Trumps said, it’s because the Trump Organization was unhappy with the work.
“Let’s say that they do a job that’s not good or a job that they didn’t finish or a job that was way late. I’ll deduct from their contract, absolutely,” Trump said. “That’s what the country should be doing.”
‘VISIBLY WINCED’
Trump and his companies prevailed in many legal disputes over missing payments or reached settlements that cloud the terms reached by the parties.
However, the consistent circumstances laid out in those lawsuits and other non-payment claims raise questions about Trump’s judgment as a businessman and as a potential commander in chief. The incidents suggest that either his companies have a poor track record hiring workers and assessing contractors or that Trump businesses refuse to pay or change payment terms after work is done, as is alleged in dozens of court cases.
In the interview, Trump said the cases were “a long time ago.” However, even as he campaigns for the presidency, new cases arise. Last month, Trump Miami Resort Management settled with 48 servers at his Doral golf resort over not getting paid overtime for a special event. The settlements averaged about $800 for each worker and as high as $3,000 for one, according to court records. Some workers put in 20-hour days over the 10-day Passover event at Trump National Doral Miami, the lawsuit contends. Trump’s team blamed a contractor and countersued that contractor.
“Trump could have settled it right off the bat, but they wanted to fight it out, that’s their M.O.” said Rod Hannah of Plantation, Fla., the lawyer who represented the workers, who he said are forbidden from talking about the case in public. “They’re known for their aggressiveness, and if you have the money, why not?”
Last month, Trump’s Doral golf club’s refusal to pay one Florida painter more than $30,000 led the judge in the case to order foreclosure of the Miami resort if the contractor isn’t paid.
Juan Carlos Enriquez, owner of The Paint Spot, has been waiting more than two years to get paid. The Paint Spot first filed a lien against Trump’s resort, then filed a lawsuit asking a judge to intervene.
In courtroom testimony, the manager of Doral’s renovation admitted that a decision was made not to pay The Paint Spot because Trump “already paid enough.” As the construction chief spoke, “Trump’s trial attorneys visibly winced, began breathing heavily and attempted to make eye contact” with the witness, the judge noted in his ruling.
Trump’s attorneys have since filed a motion to delay the sale, and the contest continues. Enriquez still hasn’t been paid.
UNPAID HOURLY WORKERS
The lawsuits show Trump’s organization wages Goliath vs. David legal battles over small amounts of money that are negligible to the billionaire and his executives — but devastating to his much smaller foes.
In 2007, dishwasher Guy Dorcinvil filed a federal lawsuit against Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club resort in Palm Beach, Fla., alleging the club failed to pay time-and-a-half for overtime over three years and the company failed to keep proper time records.
Mar-a-Lago agreed to pay Dorcinvil $7,500 to settle the case in 2008. The terms of the agreement includes a statement that Mar-a-Lago does not admit fault and forbids Dorcinvil or his lawyers from talking about the case.
Developers with histories of not paying contractors are a small minority, said Colette Nelson, chief advocacy officer of the American Subcontractors Association. Late or missing payments devastate small businesses.
“Real estate is a tough and aggressive business, but most busi- nesspeople don’t set out to make their money by breaking the companies that they do business with,” she said, stressing that she couldn’t speak to Trump’s record. “But there are a few.”
In the interview, Trump said complaints represent a tiny fraction of his business empire and dealings with contractors and employees. He insisted all are paid fairly.
“We pay everybody what they’re supposed to be paid, and we pay everybody on time,” he said. “And we employ thousands and thousands of people. OK?” THE SLOT MACHINE CABINETS
Despite Trumps’ assertion that his companies refuse payment only “when somebody does a bad job,” he has sometimes offered to hire those same contractors again.
It’s a puzzling turn of events, since most people who have a poor experience with a contractor, and who refuse to pay and even fight the contractor in court, aren’t likely to rehire them.
Nevertheless, such was the case for the Friels. After submitting the final bill for the Plaza casino cabinet-building in 1984, Paul Friel said he got a call asking that his father, Edward, come to the Trump family’s offices at the casino. There Edward and other contractors were called in one by one to meet with Donald Trump and his brother, Robert.
“He sat in a room with nine guys,” Paul Friel said. “We found out some of them were carpet guys. Some of them were glass guys, plumbers, you name it.”
In the meeting, Donald Trump told his father that the company’s work was inferior, Friel said, even though the general contractor had approved it. Trump told Edward Friel the company wouldn’t get the final payment. Then, Friel said Trump added something that struck the family as bizarre. Trump told Edward that he could work on future Trump projects.
“Wait a minute,” Paul Friel said, recalling his family’s reaction to his dad’s account. “Why would the Trump family want a company who they say their work is inferior to work for them in the future?”
Asked about the meeting this week, Trump said, “Was the work bad? Was it bad work?” After being told that the general contractor had approved it, Trump said, “Well, see, here’s the thing. You’re talking about, what, 30 years ago?”
Ivanka Trump said any number of disputes over late or deficient payments that were found over the past few decades pale in comparison with the thousands of checks Trump companies cut each month.
“But it would be irresponsible if my father paid contractors who did lousy work,” she said. “And he doesn’t do that.”
But the Friels’ story is similar to experiences of hundreds of other contractors over the casino boom in Atlantic City. Legal records, New Jersey Casino Control Commission records and contemporaneous newspaper stories recounted many tales about the Trumps paying late or renegotiating deals for dimes on the dollar.
In 1990, the casino commission records revealed that Trump’s companies owed a total of $69.5 million to 253 subcontractors on the Taj Mahal project. Some had sued, the state said; others were negotiating with Trump to recover what they could. The companies’ hundreds of workers had installed walls, chandeliers, plumbing, lighting and even the casino’s trademark minarets.
One was Marty Rosenberg, vice president of Atlantic Plate Glass, who said he was owed about $1.5 million for work at the Taj Mahal. Rosenberg took on an informal role representing about 100 to 150 contractors in negotiations with Trump.
“Yes, there were a lot of other companies,” he said. “Yes, some did not survive.” TURNING ON LAWYERS
Even Trump’s own attorneys, on several occasions, sued him over claims of unpaid bills.
One law firm that fought contractors over payments and other issues for Trump — New York City’s Morrison Cohen — ended up on the other side of a similar battle in 2008. Trump didn’t like the firm using his name in news releases touting its representation of Trump in a lawsuit against a contractor that Trump claimed overcharged him for work at his golf club. As Trump turned his ire on his former lawyers, Morrison Cohen countersued. In court records, the firm alleged Trump didn’t pay nearly a half million dollars in legal fees. They settled their dispute out of court, confidentially, in 2009.
Edward Friel hired a lawyer to sue for the money the company was owed for the casino work, Paul Friel said. The attorney advised him that the Trumps would drag the case out in court and legal fees would exceed what they’d recover.
The unpaid bill took a huge chunk out of the bottom line of the company. “The worst part wasn’t dealing with the Trumps,” said Paul Friel, who lives on Merritt Island in Florida. After standing up to Trump, Friel said, the family struggled to get other casino work in Atlantic City. “There’s tons of these stories out there,” he said.
The Edward J. Friel Co. filed for bankruptcy Oct. 5, 1989.
The founder’s grandson says, “Trump hits everybody.”
“It would be irresponsible if my father paid contractors who did lousy work. And he doesn’t do that.” Ivanka Trump