Trumpter Fire

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Trumpter Fire

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:35 am

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Trump Tower fire leaves 1 resident dead, 6 firefighters hurt: Officials
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-tower-fi ... d=54311061


Trump Tower fire is second 2018 blaze in sprinkler-free residential tower
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-towe ... residence/


Deadly fire at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan under investigation
http://abc7ny.com/fdny-investigating-ca ... r/3315453/


Trump was among those who lobbied against forcing the installation of sprinklers in existing buildings when the code was updated in 1999.

One resident said she didn’t get any announcement about leaving after the fire started, and that when she called the front desk no one answered.


Caroline O.

The fire in Trump Tower started on the 50th floor.

The guy who lives on the 51st floor went to prison (now released) for his role in a high-stakes gambling scheme that laundered money through Cyprus to Russia.

The guy convicted of running a gambling ring that laundered money through Cyprus to Russia owns the entire 51st floor of Trump Tower.
APR 16, 2013 @ 10:47 AM
Billionaire Heir Helly Nahmad's Art Gallery Raided By Feds In Russian Mob Gambling Sweep


Richard Behar , CONTRIBUTOR
Contributing Editor of Investigations, Forbes magazine

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Billionaire scion Helly Nahmad (photo: Getty Images)
UPDATE, 4:41 pm: The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York issued a statement alleging that one enterprise in this global gambling scheme laundered tens of millions of dollars through Cyprus shell companies and bank accounts -- and into the U.S. Once in America, the funds were further laundered into investments such as real estate and hedge funds.

A 32-year-old JPMorgan Chase branch manager in New York is alleged to have helped a major defendant structure transactions in order to avoid bank reporting requirements. [It's worth noting to readers that Cyprus' financial system has long been a haven for Russian organized crime, and that the country has declined to rein it in, despite a pending $13 billion bailout of its economy by the EU and IMF.] The statement added that a second enterprise was allegedly financed by Helly Nahmad's art gallery. Arrests have occurred today in Detroit, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, in addition to the New York raid. Nahmad is expected to surrender later today in LA.

**

EARLIER: Art dealer and collector Hillel ("Helly") Nahmad, the 34-year-old scion of the billionaire Nahmad art dealer family, received the jolt of his career this morning, and there was nothing abstract about it.

As part of a massive $100+ million money-laundering case against illegal gambling rings operated by Russian organized crime, FBI agents made busts at numerous locations in New York and elsewhere in the U.S. this morning. A 32-year-old banker at JPMorgan Chase was among those arrested. And the famed Helly Nahmad Gallery on Madison Avenue, a longtime tenant of the luxury Carlyle Hotel, was among the locations raided.

Helly's family is one of the richest and most powerful art-dealing dynasties in the world. Forbes estimated his father, David's, fortune at $1.75 billion as of last month (while it's believed the entire family is worth more than $3 billion). Reached in London, David Nahmad says "I know almost nothing" about the raid this morning on his son's gallery. As for allegations that the raid is connected with Russian organized crime, he said, "I think it's totally stupid."

The feds allege that Helly made two separate wire transfers -- totaling $1.35 million -- from his father's bank account in Switzerland to a bank account in the U.S. to help finance the gambling scam.


Raid scene (photos: Richard Behar)
Helly himself has not returned phone calls. "He's not here right now," says a man who answered the phone at the gallery while the raid was taking place. "Call back later." Told that Forbes would be going to press momentarily, he adds, "We have no comment." (Helly's lawyer, Richard Golub, echoes that sentiment.)

A paper sign on the front door reads "WE ARE CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS. PLEASE RING THE BELL OR CALL." But it's unlikely the Nahmad family expected that the feds would be helping with the remodeling.

[See page 2 for more Forbes photos of the raid.]

Thirty-four people have been indicted in the case today, including Nahmad, but he's not been arrested yet. The U.S. Attorney's office in New York is expected to issue a statement later today. Law enforcement sources tell Forbes that the gambling dens were very popular with prominent Wall Street bankers, Hollywood stars, and sports figures.


"Taiwanchik" (photo: Interpol)
Listed at the top of the indictment, which was unsealed several hours after the raid, is 64-year-old Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (a/k/a "Taiwanchik"), who Forbes included on its World's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list in 2011. The feds maintain that he was the leader of the gambling operation, overseeing the laundering of its proceeds for Russian oligarchs overseas. In 2002, Tokhtakhounov was indicted by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan on allegations he helped rig the results of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in ice dancing and pairs figure skating. (He was arrested in Italy in July 2002, but the Italian government refused to extradite him to the U.S. to stand trial.)

As for Helly Nahmad's New York art gallery, "they've been very good tenants [for decades]" says Victor Romero, the Carlyle hotel's director of security, on the sidewalk while the raid was occurring. "It goes to show what you don't know."

In a profile of the family in 2007 titled "The Art of the Deal," Forbes senior editor Susan Adams detailed how the Nahmads are among the world's most influential megadealers of modern and impressionist art. They boast an arsenal of well-known names, from Monet and Matisse to Renoir and Rothko. While they conduct most of their buying and selling through the Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses, a good deal of art is also sold though Helly's New York gallery, as well as the gallery of a cousin (also named Helly Nahmad) in London.

The Nahmads descend from a prosperous banker from Aleppo, Syria. Today, their art inventory takes up 15,000 square feet of a duty-free building next to Geneva's international airport. Three sources in a position to know told Forbes' Adams that the warehouse in 2007 contained between 4,500 and 5,000 works of art, worth between $3-4 billion at the time. (The holdings included 300 Picassos, worth some $900 million.)

Arrests and search warrants in the massive sweep are still unfolding throughout the country today. Sources tell Forbes that an investigation by the FBI's Eurasian Organized Crime Squad uncovered high-stakes poker and sports-betting dens that were frequented by prominent New Yorkers in the financial, sports and entertainment fields. "Today's charges demonstrate the scope and reach of Russian organized crime," noted George Venizelos, the FBI's Assistant Director-in-Charge of the bureau's New York office. "Crime pays only until you are arrested and prosecuted."



One defendant, 32-year-old Ronald Uy, a Vice President and Branch Manager for JPMorgan Chase, allegedly provided advice on how to structure transactions in order to avoid bank reporting requirements. In his bio on LinkedIn (see right), Uy boasts that he's a "highly accomplished banking professional with solid and progressive experience" who has been "repeatedly promoted into leadership roles."

According to the feds, most of the defendants were born in the former Soviet Union and regularly traveled to Russia and Ukraine. The alleged second-in-command of the enterprise (Vadim Trincher, age 52) is based in New York, where he oversees a high-stakes illegal sports-betting operation that caters to oligarchs living in Russia and Ukraine. He is said to be a dual-citizen of the U.S. and Israel, and is a well-known poker champ.

Prosecutors say that Trincher was caught on months of wiretap recordings threatening violence against gamblers who didn't pay their debts. On those recordings, he allegedly referenced an enforcer named "Maxim" who collected the money owed.

Others among the nearly three-dozen defendants include Joseph ("Joe the Hammer") Mancuso; Stan ("Slava") Greenberg; Noah ("The Oracle") Siegel; Dmitry ("Blondie") Druzhinsky; Alexander ("Murushka") Katchaloff; Anatoly ("Tony") Golubchik; David ("D.A.") Aaron; and Edwin ("Eddie") Ting.

One of the flashiest defendants is 34-year-old Molly ("Poker Princess") Bloom, the sister of Olympic skier Jeremy Bloom. For years she has organized high-stakes poker salons in lavish homes and hotels on both coasts of the U.S. (The secret games were sometimes secured by armed guards, according to one attendee.) Molly's alleged staple of players has included celebs Leo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Tobey Maguire, and athletes Alex Rodriguez and Pete Sampras. Whether any of these stars indulged in games sponsored by today's busted-up global enterprise remains to be seen. Perhaps those answers will have to wait until 2014, when a Harper-Collins memoir by Bloom is scheduled to be released.
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/ ... ent=safari


The guy convicted of running a gambling ring that laundered money through Cyprus to Russia owns the entire 51st floor of Trump Tower.


Meet the notorious characters who call Trump Tower home
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Zoe Rosenberg
robert cicchetti / Shutterstock.com
New York City’s most high-profile residential buildings are often home to some of the wealthiest—and shadiest—figures in the world. Take, for instance, the Time Warner Center, where members of the Saudi royal family and known corrupt Russian officials knowingly shack up. Or Walker Tower, where the purchase of a $50.9 million penthouse has been named by the U.S. government in connection to an international money laundering scheme.

It should come as no surprise that Trump Tower is no exception. Bloomberg has compiled an extensive, and rather epic, list of the building’s past and present occupants, shedding light on the international cast of characters who traverse the building’s gilded halls.

At that, following is a list of a handful of Trump Tower’s current residents, who include an embattled former sports administrator who plead guilty in a crime connected to the FIFA scandal, and Trump’s former campaign manager.

Donald Trump, Floors 66 through 68

Of course the Republican presidential nominee shacks up in the top floors of his namesake tower, hidden behind a grand entryway gilded in gold and diamonds. The palatial penthouse, Bloomberg reports, takes a tip from Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi: “One reason Trump’s triplex is so vast, he has written, is a trip he took to...Khashoggi’s condo nearby, where he stepped into a living room bigger than his own.” Trump, who has the best temperament, wanted to level up with a Saudi arms dealer. That’s reassuring.

Guido Lombardi, Floors 62 through 63

Real estate investor Guido Lombardi is a self-proclaimed Italian count, Trump supporter, and sympathizer with Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League party.

Helly Nahmad, Floor 51

Art dealer Hillel Nahmad, of the Nahmad collecting dynasty, has been snatching up apartments on the 51st floor of Trump Tower since at least 1999, when he paid $2.5 million for Unit 51J. Years, and millions, later, Nahmad amassed the entire floor for a total $18.4 million. Nahmad was sent to prison for five months in 2014 for running a high-stakes gambling ring.

Related: the massive Panama Papers leak from earlier this year identified Nahmad’s father, David, as the owner of a Modigliani that the grandson of a Jewish art dealer claims was snatched from his grandparent’s shop in Paris during the Nazi occupation.

Ernie Garcia, Floors 48 through 49

The chairman of used car dealer DriveTime plead guilty to bank fraud in 1990 in connection to the collapse of Charles Keating’s Savings and Loan. Garcia was sentenced to probation, and currently takes up residence in the tower.

Paul Manafort, Floor 43

Trump’s former campaign manager, who resigned in August, has lived in Trump Tower since 2006. Manafort transferred the apartment from an LLC to his name in 2015.

Jose Maria Marin, Floor 41

If one must serve house arrest, Trump Tower is not too shabby of a place to do it. That’s the case with Jose Maria Marin, a former administrator of the Brazilian Football Confederation who’s serving a sentence in connection with bribery charges stemming from the FIFA crisis, to which he plead guilty.

Susetta Mion, Floor 32

Ivana Trump’s pal Susetta Mion, of the Italian fashion family, has been shacked up in a Trump Tower pad after allegedly looting her mother’s bank accounts and possessions and carting it all across the Atlantic in 2007. In an interview with Bloomberg, Mion called the issue a “family quarrel that’s being resolved.”

Juan Beckmann Vidal, Floor 31

Vidal’s name is not as well known as the liquor brand he controls: Jose Cuervo. The tequila bigwig owns three apartments in the building.

For a list of the colorful characters who formerly purchased in the building, including Andrew Lloyd Weber and Haitian dictator “Baby Doc” Duvalier, head on over to Bloomberg.

Inside Trump Tower, the Center of the Billionaire’s Universe [Bloomberg]
https://ny.curbed.com/2016/10/25/134050 ... dents-list



That being said, Trump Tower is home to a lot of criminals (seriously), so the likelihood of a criminal living on any given floor is pretty high.



50th floor Apt was SOLD
TrumpTower 50th floor apt sold on July 14th 2016 & same floor the apartment Trump campaign paid an extra $130k in rent for and Right after Cohen paid Stormy Daniels $130k. Someone’s pants are on fire-literally
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"Dennis Shields, a resident who said he lived on the 42nd floor, said there were no orders to evacuate. But he rushed outside after receiving a private text message from Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

The pair grew up together, Shields said."


how is it possible that Mr. Shields didn’t know he was in a building that was on fire until he got a text from Cohen? His description makes it sound like no fire alarm ever did go off. It’s one thing for Trump Tower not to have sprinklers, which is dangerous, but technically legal due to the age of the building. This makes it sound like the building doesn’t even have fire alarms.


No Sprinklers in Upper Floors of Trump Tower
By Josh Marshall | April 7, 2018 9:51 pm

It does not appear to have been a code violation – it was grandfathered in. But there were no sprinklers in the upper floors of Trump Tower. From the AP …

Trump tweeted that the fire was “Very confined (well built building).”

Asked if that assessment was accurate, Nigro said, “It’s a well built building. The upper floors, the residence floors, are not sprinklered.”

Fire sprinklers were not required in New York City highrises when Trump Tower was completed in 1983.

Subsequent updates to the building code required commercial skyscrapers to install the sprinklers retroactively, but owners of older residential highrises are not required to install sprinklers unless the building undergoes major renovations.

The 664-foot Trump Tower has 58 stories, though the top floor is numbered 68.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/no ... re-1121690




(((Kevin Connolly)))

I looked up the Building Department records for Trump Tower, 725 Fifth Ave. Merciful heavens, what a mess! Multiple open violations. The whole building is illegal, because the Temporary certificate of occupancy has expired!!
https://twitter.com/cybersharque/status ... 4838851584
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Trumpter Fire

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue May 01, 2018 9:40 am

Former Trump Tower in Azerbaijan, Dogged by Controversy, Is Engulfed by Fire
By ANDREW E. KRAMERAPRIL 28, 2018


The 33-floor building in Baku, Azerbaijan, once a Trump-branded tower, is the second property linked to President Trump to catch fire this month, after a blaze in New York killed an art collector. Credit Michael Steele/Getty Images for BEGOC
MOSCOW — A fire broke out on Saturday in a high-rise that until recently had been called Trump Tower in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, engulfing much of the building in flames by early evening.

Footage on social media showed flames shooting out of the windows and smoke billowing from the 33-floor building, which is still under construction and had been labeled “Donald Trump’s Worst Deal” by The New Yorker magazine.

The blaze, which broke out on the top floor of the building, burned down through about 20 stories before firefighters extinguished the flames by midafternoon, the news agency Interfax reported.

The fire rekindled in the evening, burning through much of the building, a video posted by the Russian news portal Lenta.ru showed.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations did not release further information.


Art Collector and Bon Vivant Dies in Trump Tower Home He Couldn’t Sell APRIL 8, 2018

Fire at Trump Tower Kills One, Police Say APRIL 7, 2018

Trump Tower Smoke Sensors Alerted Firefighters to Deadly Blaze APRIL 9, 2018
Continue reading the main story

Footage from the scene shows the tower burning as firefighters attempt to extinguish the flames.
APA TV via Associated Press
The building was the second property linked to President Trump to catch fire this month, after a blaze broke out on the 50th floor of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York, killing an art collector. That building was built in the 1980s, before sprinklers were required in new residential towers in New York City.

The Trump Organization withdrew its licensing agreement for the Baku skyscraper shortly after the 2016 election, as it promised to wind down international projects that could pose conflicts of interest to the president.

Mr. Trump had partnered in the development with the son of a former minister of transportation in the oil-rich former Soviet state.


The Trump-branded hotel never opened, but it was dogged by controversy. Mr. Trump cut the deal despite allegations by United States diplomats that the minister had dealings with front companies for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and was corrupt.

After the New Yorker article was published in 2017, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, was among lawmakers who wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin; Attorney General Jeff Sessions; and James B. Comey, then director of the F.B.I., seeking an investigation into the issues raised in the article.

The planned hotel had been under construction since 2008 and was nearing completion when Mr. Trump announced the licensing agreement six months before joining the presidential race in 2015.

His partner was Anar Mammadov, the billionaire son of the country’s former minister of transportation, Ziya Mammadov. In a diplomatic cable leaked in 2009, American diplomats described the father as “notoriously corrupt, even for Azerbaijan.”

The cable also accused the former minister of awarding highway construction projects to a onetime senior Iranian military official in the Revolutionary Guards.

“We assume Mammadov is a silent partner in these contracts,” the diplomatic cable said.

A lawyer for the Trump Organization told The Associated Press for an article published in June 2016 that the organization had been unaware of the corruption accusations and the Iranian links of the Mammadov family, but that it postponed the project that year for economic reasons.

The Trump Organization pulled out of the deal that December and dropped a host of other overseas projects after the election.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/28/worl ... aijan.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
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Re: Trumpter Fire

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Oct 18, 2018 9:23 pm

Fire at Trump Tower leaves 1 dead, 6 firefighters injured


The Trump Organization filed suit against the estate of a New York man who died in a fire inside his Trump Tower apartment earlier this year.

The late Todd Brassner, 67, owed $90,000 in unpaid maintenance fees to President Trump’s flagship building, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court civil action filed on Tuesday by Trump Organization lawyer Sonja Talesnik.

Image: A firefighter looks out from the window of a damaged apartment in Trump Tower in New York
A firefighter looks out from the window of a damaged apartment in Trump Tower in New York on Saturday, April 7, 2018.Craig Ruttle / AP file
Brassner died on April 7 when flames broke out inside his 50th floor unit at 721 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan.

Trump, his wife and 12-year-old son, Barron, were in Washington D.C. when the fire broke out. Fire investigators determined the deadly blaze was an accident sparked by overloaded power strips inside Brassner's apartment.

The unit had no smoke detectors, but none are required by law for older units like Brassner's, which was built in 1983.

Brassner was an art aficionado and former art dealer for Andy Warhol.

Reps for Brassner's heirs could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tr ... 00-n921586
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)


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