Trump Baja venture leaves buyers high and dry...

[Imagevision]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Deposits totaling $32.2 million are lost in the collapse of the celebrity developer's hotel-condo project.
San Diego -- Stephen and Linda Drake cast aside concerns about owning property in Mexico because they believed in Donald Trump.

The Southern California couple made a $250,000 down payment on a 19th-floor oceanfront condo in Trump Ocean Resort Baja in 2006 before the first construction crew arrived.

Investors were told last month that their money was spent and that they wouldn't get a penny back. A single mother in suburban Los Angeles lost $200,000 and won't be able to send her sons to private universities. A Los Angeles-area businessman lost a deposit of more than $1 million on four Trump units, including two penthouses.

The project's collapse comes at a delicate time for Trump, whose casino company, Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection last month. He also is embroiled in a lawsuit to avoid paying debt on the struggling Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-trump7-2009mar07,0,5760149.story

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Somehow the M$M seems to have deemed this a non-story?

[WriteDown]

1. OH NO!!!!!

"A single mother in suburban Los Angeles lost $200,000 and won't be able to send her sons to private universities"

Does this mean they may have to go to a PUBLIC UNIVERSITY. Oh, the horror! :eyes:

[msongs]

2. so according to this she deserved to be cheated out of $250K nt

[WriteDown]

3. Not at all..

But this consequence isn't exactly Earth shaking.

[atreides1]

6. Maybe Not For You

But it might be for the mother.

[LeftHander]

4. Many bought at Rio Rancho too....from Ricky and Shelly....nt

[Alhena]

11. I guess the Donald was giving the Alec Baldwin speech to his salesmen

[ReliantJ]

5. Horrible.

So I'm guessing there isn't anything they can do?

[damntexdem]

13. The article keeps talking of lax consumer-protection laws in Mexico.

But were all of the transactions in Mexico? If any were undertaken in the U.S., then U.S. laws should kick in.

[strategery blunder]

7. And yet...

If you thumb through Trump's get-rich books at the bookstore (not like I'd actually buy anything he wrote), you will find that your ability to get rich and stay rich depends on how good your lawyers are at hiding assets and stashing them in Enron shells. A quick five-minute perusal of the insides of his "books" will reveal just how he uses Enron tactics to hide his wealth from "frivolous lawsuits." Because a lawsuit seeking to recover the 250K that Trump cheated you out of is frivolous. :puke:

Trump's modus operandi. He's always in bankruptcy, yet he never had to live like it...he completely undoes the intent of the bankruptcy laws to rob people blind. Typical McPain-endorsing, rethuglican capitalist pig. :puke:

[Barney]

9. You're right. Trump has always done that

He's not really a billionaire, although he likes to act like he's one. Remember when he ran for President several elections ago? He dropped out of the race just days before he had to file the financial disclosure form. I suspect, but obviously cannot prove, that he was torn between the high he got from being on TV and in the Presidential discussions and the low he would have felt as the laughingstock he would have become if his disclosure form proved he really wasn't particularly wealthy.

He's constantly declaring bankruptcy so he can keep shifting things around. He's never been held accountable for anything. But he gets away with it because he's such a blowhard.

[damntexdem]

14. LIkely not the rep he would get for truthfully reporting:

rather the legal consequences of lying on such a form, as well as those of telling the truth.

[Raster]

8. And yet "the Donald" is still heralded on white trash teevee as some kind of financial genius.

Two things Trump is truly good at: filing bankruptcy and self-promotion.

[jb5150]

10. You forgot

The wearing of bad hair-pieces, he's pretty good at that too.

[Lance_Boyle]

16. that's totally below the belt

maybe he's really bad at wearing good hairpieces.

[damntexdem]

12. You're fired! I can't wait to hear a judge say this to Trump.

But, then, the poor man is having a "delicate time."

With any luck, Trump will hear such things from a judge in a criminal, not just a civil, court.

[AyanEva]

15. I feel bad for these people

But why would you buy ANYTHING from Donald Trump? They really should have known better. Still, it sucks that they've lost their savings and whatnot and won't be able to get the money back.