As the story of allegedly deceased, billionaire and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein continues to unfold, more and more people are turning up dead who are linked to him. The latest to leave the planet is Corporate banker Thomas Bowers, who ran the US division of private wealth management for Deutsche Bank AG. After allegedly being found swinging from a rope, his death was ruled a suicide. However, he wasn’t just tied to Epstein. He was also tied to President Donald Trump.
First, The Daily Mail reports:
Thomas Bowers, 55, hanged himself on November 19 at his Malibu home.
The banker was not working for Deutsche Bank at the time.
He is among a handful of people who signed off on loans totaling $2 billion to Trump in the decades before he became president, even after other institutions turned him down.
True Pundit adds that there was an investigation being conducted by the FBI into bank loans that he approved for Epstein and some of his many companies.
The news of yet another mysterious Epstein-linked death comes shortly after the FBI was seeking to interview the bank executive about loans he approved for Epstein and the indicted child trafficker’s labyrinth of US-based and offshore companies.
…
Bowers headed the private wealth banking division for Deutsche Bank and signed off on millions in loans to Epstein. Bowers, prior to taking over the private banking arm at Deutsche Bank, served in the same top position at Citibank, as the head of the bank’s private wealth arm. Citigroup also made massive loans to Epstein, according to records and banking sources who spoke to True Pundit.
True Pundit founder Mike “Thomas Paine” Moore previously headed anti-money laundering for a major Citigroup division during the time frame Citi commenced large loans to Epstein.
The loans to Epstein were personal and commercial,” Paine confirmed. “The Citi loans I can confirm were for more than $25 million. Some were secured, some were not.”
Did Citi bend its lending rules for Epstein? Paine said that appears “quite likely,” with Bowers and other Citi executives he later recruited to work for him at Deutsche all working to secure the approvals regardless of compliance-related red flags.
And sources said Citi loaned Epstein much more money, eclipsing $100 million and also allowed Epstein to use the bank to send thousands of wire transfers from his accounts. Bowers, who turned up dead just days ago, brokered the loans for Epstein, sources said.
Bowers was the chief of Deutsche Bank’s Private Wealth Management division and worked from the bank’s Park Avenue offices in New York City. At Citi, Bowers served as the chief of the The Citi Private Bank and previously ran Citigroup’s Global Markets and Wealth Management businesses.
And when Bowers left Citi for Deutsche Bank, Epstein followed.
Meanwhile, Epstein stopped making payments on his millions in outstanding Citi loans. But that mattered little because Bowers approved new high-risk loans and credit lines from Deutsche Bank, sources said.
And that relationship with Epstein continued until Bowers left Deutsche Bank in 2015. By that time, Epstein had chalked up untold millions in loans with the help of Bowers who recruited many of his top private wealth top bankers from Citi to Deutsche Bank.
The FBI who was interested in interviewing Bowers, sources confirm. The FBI subpoenaed Deutsche Bank in May for all loans and accounts linked to Epstein and there were many unanswered questions. Deutsche Bank closed out Epstein’s accounts weeks after the bank was served federal subpoenas.
Federal law enforcement officials said the FBI planned to interview all Wall Street wealth fund managers who worked for Epstein. Bowers included.
Several people tied to the Epstein case have met their deaths prior to the alleged demise of Jeffrey Epstein.
That’s not all.
President Donald Trump also is tied to Bowers, and an investigation by the FBI is ongoing into his dealings with Deutsche Bank.
Forensic News reported, “Bowers was the boss of Donald Trump’s banker Rosemary Vrablic, according to a New York Times article in early 2019. Vrablic approved over $300 million dollars in high risk loans for Trump starting in 2010. Bowers personally signed off on the Deutsche Bank loan for Trump’s Doral resort, according to the New York Times report. Vrablic’s other clients have included Jared Kushner and Stephen M. Ross.”
Additionally, The Daily Mail added, “A former Deutsche Bank executive who signed off on several controversial loans to Donald Trump was being discussed as part of an FBI probe into the bank where he acted as a ‘gatekeeper’ for its wealthiest customers before his death.”
The UK outlet also wrote:
He is among a handful of people who signed off on loans totaling $2 billion to Trump in the decades before he became president, even after other institutions turned him down.
Trump’s dealings with Deutsche Bank is under investigation by two Congressional committees and the New York Attorney General, The New York Times reported.
Investigators are seeking to use Deutsche Bank to probe Trump’s personal and business finances.
A source with knowledge of an FBI investigation into Deutsche Bank said that federal investigators had asked about Bowers and documents he might have.
What’s interesting is that the FBI is examining whether Deutsche Bank complied with laws meant to stop money laundering.
According to a Reuters report:
The inquiry follows a report by the New York Times last month about bank employees in the U.S. compliance division who had flagged suspicious financial transactions to their superiors, who then opted not to escalate them to government authorities.
The transactions were notable because they were linked to companies controlled by President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, according to the report.
All indications are that this is nothing more than a routine investigation and President Trump has dismissed claims that he acted inappropriately saying that he didn’t need banks because he had so much cash on hand. He also denied that money came to him from Russia.
However, if that is the case, why did he need to borrow hundreds of millions from George Soros to build?
Here’s just a few items of interest concerning that. According to TrumpSorosChicago:
- In 2005 Trump started construction on his skyscraper the Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago)
- To build the tower, Trump received a loan from Deutsche Bank for $650 million
- Trump also received a $160 million mezzanine loan* from a group of private investors including George Soros, Fortress Investment Group and Blackacre Capital (The loan was estimated by the Wall Street Journal of having a total value as high as $360 million with accrued interest)
- By October 2008 Trump had sold nearly $600 million in condo and condo-hotel units, more than half of the total value of all the units in his tower
- After seven years (2005-2012) Trump was on his way to paying off his main construction loan to Deutsche Bank
- For reasons unexplained to the public, the majority of Trump’s mezzanine loan was quietly forgiven by the loan’s original lenders
- No media outlet covering the deal has put together the pieces and told the public that George Soros let Donald Trump off the hook for what has been valued between $82 and $312 million in debt
Too much cash on hand and don’t need banks, eh? Come on.
The site goes on to point out:
In 2005, when Trump began financing the construction of the tallest residential tower on the North American continent the Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago), he needed more than just the basic loan he had received from Deutsche Bank. Trump needed what is called a “mezzanine loan”, a loan which is far more expensive than a regular bank loan. This kind of loan needs to be paid off more quickly to avoid high interest payments. It also needs to be paid back in full to keep the lender from taking ownership of the underlying asset.
“Mezzanine financing is basically debt capital that gives the lender the rights to convert to an ownership or equity interest in the company if the loan is not paid back in time and in full…
…Since mezzanine financing is usually provided to the borrower very quickly with little due diligence on the part of the lender and little or no collateral on the part of the borrower, this type of financing is aggressively priced with the lender seeking a return in the 20-30% range.” 1
Soros along with Fortress and Blackacre came to Trump with just such a loan at a costly $160 million principal*. The The Wall Street Journal had valued the loan at as much as $360 million, depending on the length of time it accrued interest.
“Donald Trump has lined up three New York hedge funds, including money from billionaire George Soros, to invest $160 million in his Chicago skyscraper, a key piece in perhaps the largest construction financing in the city’s history, according to real estate sources and public documents… The massive financing, which sources say also will include a $650 million construction loan from Deutsche Bank…” 2
“Big names back Trump tower” Chicago Tribune – October 28, 2004
“A loan document says Mr. Trump could have to pay Fortress as much as $360 million, depending on how long the loan accrues interest. Combined with the Deutsche Bank senior loan, he would owe more than $1 billion in total.” 3
“In Chicago, Trump Hits Headwinds” The Wall Street Journal – October 29, 2008
By October 2008, the tower was almost complete and Trump had sold nearly $600 million in condo and condo-hotel units, more than half of the total value of all units in the tower.
“So far, Mr. Trump has lined up buyers for a bit less than $600 million of condo units and condo-hotel units in a residential market that has virtually seized up… He has closed around $200 million in sales so far, with roughly $380 million still in contract.”3
“In Chicago, Trump Hits Headwinds” The Wall Street Journal – October 29, 2008
In 2012, Trump continued to owe money to his lenders but sales of his condominiums had picked up and his tower had a 69% occupancy rate. As Crain’s Chicago put it: “The region’s housing and condo market is still mired in a historic slump. But when it comes to buying and selling in Chicago’s high-end condo market, life is surprisingly good… Condominium owners at the $850 million Trump International Hotel & Tower and other newer top-end buildings have, more often than not, experienced value appreciation when they sold in recent years.” 4
While Trump was not yet making a profit on his tower, his sales and value appreciations were such that his building was generating significant revenue, more than enough revenue to pay back to his lenders large portions of his loans. As former New York real estate developer David Rose writes in his article “How to pay off a Skyscraper”:
“After a number of years have passed, several things are likely to have happened: 1) the mortgage has been significantly paid down; 2) the value of the underlying building has increased; and 3) the owner has waited for a time in the economic cycle where mortgage rates are low. At that point [they] will ‘refinance’ the original mortgage, and put the balance to work somewhere else where it can make even more money.” 5
“How Long Does It Take To Pay Off a Skyscraper?” Slate – July 12, 2012
(Fortunately for Trump, favorable financial conditions existed in 2012. 6 By all accounts, including his own, Trump was ready and able to pay off the loans for his Chicago tower. 7)
Yet Trump did not have to worry about paying back the majority of his mezzanine loan. A special group of lenders came in and erased a significant portion of this obligation.
That group was the original mezzanine loan lenders: Soros, Fortress and Blackacre; all of whom decided to forgive Trump’s future interest payments on the loan, selling it to him at the massively reduced price of $48 million. To put that in starker terms, Soros and the others effectively gave Trump possibly hundreds of millions of dollars in debt forgiveness, while cutting down the principal of his loan by $82 million**. Basically, Soros and the others forgave Trump as much as $312 million for no apparent reason.
“Donald Trump has paid $48 million to buy out junior creditors on his 92-story Chicago condominium and hotel project… The New York developer says he bought the debt, which had a face value of $130 million, back from a group of creditors led by Fortress Investment Group.” 8
“Trump buys out tower creditors” Crain’s Chicago Business– March 28, 2012
In a further twist to the story, in the same article from Chicago Business revealed: “After buying out the junior debt [the mezzanine loan], Mr. Trump says he now owes about $120 million on the building that comes due in 1½ years.” 8
The aforementioned shows us that in 2012 Trump had already paid off most of the Deutsche Bank loan before Soros, etc. came in and wiped out most of his mezzainine debt. This raises the question, why wasn’t Trump expected by Soros, Fortress and Blackacre to pay back their riskier, high-interest mezzanine loan? Also, how was Trump able to pay down his Deutsche Bank loan – demonstrating the means to pay off all his loans – yet still have Soros and the others give him somewhere between $82 million and $312 million in debt forgiveness?
That’s a lot of money people! I think it probably deserves an answer considering that he spent several hundred million of his own money to run for president. I simply ask the question, is it possible that that debt forgiveness was to cover his presidential race the first time around? I’m just asking here.
Source: SonsOfLibertyMedia.com
