NEW YORK (Diya TV) — President-elect Donald Trump has business interests in at least 20 countries, in addition to the multitude of real estate and hotel holdings he has in the United States, according to a recent analysis of his financial disclosure report.
The globe is dotted with potential conflicts of interest for the billionaire real estate mogul, most of his business focuses on the developing world, including outposts in nations like India, Indonesia and Uruguay, according to a New York Times analysis of his presidential campaign financial disclosures.
However, the true reach of his financial portfolio remains unknown, since he has refused to release his tax returns and has not made public a list of his lenders.
In an interview with the Times last week, Trump bragged about the global reach of his business, and the abilities of his family members to keep it running smoothly while he’s in office.“I’ve built a very great company and it’s a big company and it’s all over the world,” Trump said, adding later: “I don’t care about my company. It doesn’t matter. My kids run it.”
In a written statement, his spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said Trump and his family were committed to addressing any issues related to his financial holdings. “Vetting of various structures and immediate transfer of the business remains a top priority for both President-elect Trump, his adult children and his executives,” she said.
However, the review conducted revealed the exact opposite.
In Brazil, for example, the beachfront Trump Hotel Rio de Janeiro — one of Trump’s many branding deals, in which he does not have an equity stake — is part of a broad investigation by a federal prosecutor who is examining whether illicit commissions and bribes resulted in apparent favoritism by two pension funds that invested in the project.
Several of Trump’s real estate ventures in India — the same nation that he has the most projects happening in outside of North America — are being constructed by companies with family ties to India’s most important political party. This makes it more likely that Indian government officials will do special favors benefiting Trump’s projects, including pressuring state-owned banks to extend favorable loans.
Builders must obtain as many as 60 permissions and building permits from government officials, including bureaucrats “whose main goal in life is to attract rent,” said Saurabh Mukherjea, the chief executive of institutional equities at Ambit Capital, a leading investment bank in India.
One of Mr. Trump’s projects, Trump Towers Pune, is in fact under investigation by local authorities after another builder alleged that one of its permits was fraudulent.
Information from the New York Times contributed to this report.
