Trump’s Doonbeg hotel is subject of letter to FBI
THE American Democracy Legal Fund, a self-described government watchdog group, has sent letters asking officials to investigate the Trump Organisation and its international golf courses, including its course and hotel in Doonbeg, Co Clare, for apparent fraud and asset inflation.
The left-leaning group sent the letters, which have been seen by The Sunday Independent, to the FBI and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office last week. It claimed that the Trump Organisation had “repeatedly reported fraudulent financial details to the US Office of Government Ethics, while reporting a different set of numbers to UK and Irish regulators”.
Both of the letters relate to investigations into the company’s hotels in the UK and Ireland. They reference Trump International Golf Links and Hotel Doonbeg Ireland, owned by President Trump since 2014.
Regarding Trump’s hotel in Doonbeg, the letters alleged misstatements between what the holding company of the hotel, TIGL Ireland Enterprises Limited, filed with the Companies Registration Office and what President Trump’s annual financial disclosure report states.
The letter claims that from 2014 to 2018 Trump Doonbeg had reported a loss each year, totalling €10.4m. It then goes on to claim that Trump, in the annual financial disclosure report, has represented that during the same period Doonbeg “generated an income in excess of $10.5m each year, totalling $62.7m”.
The letter to the FBI calls on Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, to have the agency open an investigation into “apparent inconsistencies” with President Trump’s annual financial disclosure filings of his golf courses in the UK and Ireland.
In its letter to Cyrus Vance, the district attorney for Manhattan, New York, the watchdog offered its research into the Trump Organisation’s international golf courses. It claims the research shows how the company has a “history of inflation regarding its overseas golf courses”.
Earlier this month, Vance indicated in a court filing that he is investigating President Trump for bank and insurance fraud as the prosecutor battles to obtain access to eight years of financial records related to Trump and his businesses. Both the Trump Organisation and the American Democracy Legal Fund failed to respond to a request for comment.