Trump's bid to build Sydneys first casino killed due to his "Mob Connections" after investigations

[HipChick]

Donald Trump’s plan to build and operate Sydney’s first casino was killed off in 1987 by the NSW government on the back of a high-level police report that warned against the now-US President’s bid because of his “mafia ­connections’’.

The secret report by the NSW Police Board into the suitability of tenderers for the inner-city ­Darling Harbour casino project cautioned that it would be “dangerous’’ to go ahead with Mr Trump’s joint venture with the Queensland-based Kern Corporation, headed by the late developer Barry Paul.

Documents show that the ­Unsworth Labor cabinet met in May 1987 to discuss the assessment of the four tenderers for the project, which also included a fin­ancial report that concluded Mr Trump’s consortium had overstated projected revenues from the ­casino.

At the time the Kern-Trump consortium was making its play, Mr Trump owned two ­casinos in Atlantic City — Trump Plaza and Trump’s Castle — and was about to open a third with the Trump Taj Mahal.

Mr Trump had been ­approached by the Kern Corporation — a then successful developer of shopping centres, with strong ties to superannuation funds — to front and operate the casino.Cabinet minutes from May 4, 1987, contain a summary of the Police Board’s position and show they considered the Kern/Trump bid to be unacceptable. “Atlantic City would be a dubious model for Sydney and in our judgment, the Trump mafia connections should exclude the Kern/Trump consortium,” the report concluded.

The documents show cabinet considered casino bids from three other companies: Australian Federal Hotels and Sabemo; Malaysia’s Genting Berhad with Civil and Civic; and Hong Kong Macau Sydney consortium.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/trumps-bid-for-sydney-casino-killed-off-by-mob-connections/news-story/65a0e5289cc924722f988bdca4b01e9b

[Judi Lynn]

1. Interesting. Hope this gets a lot of publicity. Thanks. n/t

[L. Coyote]

2. K & R

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Kick (nt)

[JonLP24]

4. I read about this casino right after the election

There is quite a bit of mystery surrounding this.

[JonLP24]

5. Actually maybe a different casino -- this is the story I was referring to

Casino advised by former FBI and CIA, posts huge revenues, behind it all Trump protege, Mark Brown.

On a tiny island in the western Pacific, at the end of a duty-free mall wedged between a one-story laundromat and a cell-phone shop, you’ll find what may be the most successful casino of all time.

Nothing about the facility, which opened last year on the U.S. island of Saipan, hints at the money flowing through it—table for table, far more than at the biggest casinos in Macau, the world’s number-one gambling capital. Nor is there any sign of the connections of its owner, Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd., which has a market value of $2.4 billion.

It’s a power list that includes a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and three former U.S. governors, including past chairmen of both the Democratic and Republican National Committees. Behind them all: a Donald Trump protege, Mark Brown, who ran the Republican president-elect’s Atlantic City casino empire and is now Imperial Pacific’s chief executive officer.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-11-13/obscure-casino-run-by-a-trump-protege-is-raising-big-questions

[dalton99a]

6. Kick.