Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Trump Baja Illustrates Pattern In Presidential Candidate's Business Record Of Leaving Long Trail Of Angry Customers & Vendors

A recent story in the Los Angeles Times describes the financial disaster that befell about 250 apartment buyers who bought into the now-defunct Trump Baja hotel-condominium project in Mexico, thirty minutes south of San Diego, that never got off the ground, and ties the failure to some of the other high-profile failures that have left unwitting people extremely unhappy, to say the least, when doing business with Donald Trump. An excerpt:
  • The Trump Baja fiasco(1) fits a pattern in the Republican presidential candidate’s business record. Over decades of building a business empire in real estate, casino gaming, golf resorts, reality television and the sale of clothing and other merchandise, Trump has left a long trail of angry customers and vendors who accused him in court of cheating them.

    Condo buyers at troubled Trump towers in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., claimed in lawsuits that they too were misled and lost deposits. Students at the defunct Trump University say in fraud suits that they wasted money on worthless real-estate training. Trump’s string of business bankruptcies has stuck suppliers with unpaid bills and banks with uncollectible debts.

    Trump has denied wrongdoing in every case, and he argues in the campaign that his success as a businessman qualifies him to run the country.

    Most of the Trump Baja condo buyers accused Trump and two of his adult children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., of duping them into believing that Trump was one of the developers, giving them confidence that it was safe to buy unbuilt property in Mexico.

    “We were conned out of $140,000 in cash,” said buyer Sandra Sapol, 46, of Carlsbad. “That was hard-earned money, down the drain.”
For more, see Trump's failed Baja condo resort left buyers feeling betrayed and angry.
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(1) See Trump Baja venture leaves buyers high and dry (Deposits totaling $32.2 million are lost in the collapse of the celebrity developer's hotel-condo project).