The President helped build a hotel in Azerbaijan that appears to be a corrupt operation engineered by oligarchs tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The Trump Tower Baku was never opened. Trump partnered with an Azerbaijani family that U.S. officials called notoriously unethical. The Azerbaijanis behind the project were close relatives of Ziya Mammadov, the Transportation Minister and one of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful oligarchs. According to the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, Azerbaijan is among the most corrupt nations in the world. Its President, Ilham Aliyev, the son of the former President Heydar Aliyev, recently appointed his wife to be Vice-President. Ziya Mammadov became the Transportation Minister in 2002, around the time that the regime began receiving enormous profits from government-owned oil reserves in the Caspian Sea. At the time of the hotel deal, Mammadov, a career government official, had a salary of about twelve thousand dollars, but he was a billionaire. But the Mammadov family, in addition to its reputation for corruption, has a troubling connection that any proper risk assessment should have unearthed: for years, it has been financially entangled with an Iranian family tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the ideologically driven military force. The U.S. has imposed various sanctions on Iran since the Islamic Revolution, in 1979. In 2008, the year that the tower was announced, Ziya Mammadov, in his role as Transportation Minister, awarded a series of multimillion-dollar contracts to Azarpassillo, an Iranian construction company. The Trump Organization may have broken the law in its work with the Mammadov family. According to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), passed in 1977, it is a crime for an American company to unknowingly benefit from a partner’s corruption if it could have discovered illicit activity but avoided doing so. This closed what was known as the “head in the sand” loophole. In May, 2012, the month the Baku deal was finalized, the FCPA. was evidently on Donald Trump’s mind. In a phone-in appearance on CNBC, he expressed frustration with the law. “Every other country goes into these places and they do what they have to do,” he said. “It’s a horrible law and it should be changed.” If American companies refused to give bribes, he said, “you’ll do business nowhere.” He continued, “There is one answer—go to your room, close the door, go to sleep, and don’t do any deals, because that’s the only way. The only way you’re going to do it is the other way.” http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?forums/bbs-hangout-debate-discussion.28/create-thread
Does it matter? People who see Agent Orange as corrupt are not going to be surprised. Fanbois of his like RL don't really care so long as he just tweets some bullshit a couple times a day.
But that Clinton Foundation.... using Saudi money to treat children with Aids.... WAY WORSE. (oh... and her emails)
Interesting also to note that Trump thinks that Bribes are synonymous with "Deals". I've worked in Sales for more than a decade now negotiating "Deals" with bodies of government and CEO's nationally & internationally. At least once a year we are given ethics training and go over sanctions and ethics laws. The BRIBERY portion of our training is so cut and dry and nonsensical that I could never in a million years see a seasoned sales rep that wants to keep their job ever bribing their customer. Maybe tickets to a Rockets game or something but even then, its always monitored in every company & taken seriously as FOR US (the normal companies) it's a serious issue to get caught, and can be devastating for any business. A bribery case could put a billion dollar company out of business in less than 6 months. Normal companies take this S$%# super super serious. To see a CEO & Owner of a company do this and then get elevated to President of the United States just makes my head spin. How depressing is it when you get backhanded with the truth every day that the rules don't apply to those in charge in Washington. Our democracy has never been this much of a joke.
I used to know an Azerbaijani in Houston who moved to Baku to work in his parents' real estate business. Wish I could remember his name....
If this was a business the Clintons had any connections with at all what type of scandal would this be with the Right Wing media. The Trump organization’s licensed business is literally a haven for fugitives, the Russian mob, and many other criminal enterprises. However I bet this story barely makes it on the CNN ticker
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/world/middleeast/trump-iran-revolutionary-guard-corps.html Trump said on Monday that he was designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization, the first time that the United States has named part of another nation’s government as that type of official threat. The designation imposes wide-ranging economic and travel sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as well as organizations, companies and individuals with ties to it. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards carry out operations across the Middle East, train Arab Shiite militias and oversee businesses in Iran.
Billions dollar companies have been hit with FCPA violations and haven't come anywhere close to - -> "billion dollar corporation out of business in 6 months" - it's an economic calculation by major international corporations to deal in systemic bribery. The potential of fines is worth the profit. To operate in many places in the world it's well understood bribes must be paid. Huge companies do it every single day. Odds are nothing will ever happen. What % of crimes are ever identified and prosecuted? A very small %.
If a company gets caught it pays a fine. That’s how it works. I suppose sometimes a person might get thrown under the bus too.
I say it like its a reality of the world. It is certainly business as usual. The world is extremely corrupt. That may come as news to you.
Putin and Chavez both raked in BILLIONS from graft and embezzlement. Donnie wan get paid, libruhl buzzkill
HTM, I've been around for a long time and I am keenly aware of the widespread corruption that plagues so much of the world, but it certainly isn't "business as usual" here, as much as trump might wish it to be. He appears to be irritated as hell that we aren't like Russia or Turkey, two countries with corrupt governments and very corrupt leadership that he openly admires. I think the man will eventually find himself in a federal prison for crimes like tax evasion and corrupt business practices, and quite possibly for being a traitor to the United States.
Look, I’m just telling you what I see in B2B everyday high level corporate selling. As I mentioned, yes there are giveaways to clients all the time (mentioned Rockets tickets) but true bribery is very uncommon with C level companies. Of course I’m not privy to the regular ethical dilemmas of slum lord real estate developers who get into bed with terrorist organizations to get financial backing to build a building where rich oil executives can get a decent rub n tug while in the Middle East for work. So there’s that. I should clarify a major bribery prosecution could put MY company out of business and violating sanctions is something every company I’ve been with takes pretty damn serious and something I always get yearly training on. A Big 4 firm or an IBM... no.. of course they could and do likely do sustain hits regularly I’m sure. But it’s nothing like this and other Trump like deals. It’s a shame blue collar Trump voters just assume all of us are out there cutting bribery deals with the Iranian national guard or the Kremlin every day like it’s just business as usual.
