Trump’s Taxes Show He Engineered a Sudden Windfall in 2016 - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/09/us/donald-trump-taxes-las-vegas.html

Tax records expose more than $21 million in highly unusual payments from the Las Vegas hotel Donald Trump owns with Phil Ruffin, routed through other Trump companies and paid out in cash.

Why all of a sudden does this company have more than $20 million in fees that haven’t been there before. And all of this money is going to a man who just happens to be running for president and might not have a lot of cash on hand?

Unless the payments were for actual business expenses, he said, claiming a tax deduction for them would be illegal. If they were not legitimate and were also used to fund Mr. Trump’s presidential run, they could be considered illegal campaign contributions.

“He’s driving me crazy,” Trump said of Mr. Ruffin at a February 2016. “He said, ‘Donald, I want to put $10 million into your campaign.’ I said: ‘Phil, I don’t want your money. I don’t want to do it. I’m self-funding.’”

In fact, he needed Mr. Ruffin’s money, and then some.

Mr. Trump’s tax records reveal that when he decided to leverage his brand in the political arena, its true bottom line bore little resemblance to the gold-plated success story he was hawking to the American people.

Most of his businesses were losing money. It did not help when NBC cut ties with him after he announced his candidacy in 2015 with racist comments. Nor did it help when Deutsche Bank turned him down. By year’s end, he owe $25 million to settle a lawsuit involving Trump University

Since 2012 he drained on-hand cash. He took out a $100 million mortgage on Trump Tower & got nearly all in cash. The next year he took $95.8 million out of a real estate partnership. After selling $38.6 million in stock in ‘16 he ended the year having sold nearly $30 million more

There was another maneuver, that experts describe as highly unusual: more than $21 million in one-time payments that the Trump-Ruffin joint venture paid out in ‘16. The Times traced the money: first to companies that Trump alone controls, and from there to Trump himself.

To understand how odd those payments were, consider the company where the bulk of the money went: Trump Las Vegas Sales and Marketing. It was created in 2004, as Trump & Ruffin made plans for Trump International Hotel. Just what it did is obscure. It had no employees & no payroll

While the Trump-Ruffin venture spent several million a year to promote rooms & condominiums, money didn’t go to Trump Las Vegas Sales & Marketing. Records show it had little income, posting profits twice: $54,924 in ‘07 & $420,756 in ‘08.
Then in ‘16 came a payment of $13,756,623

The second unusual payment was for $2,685,000, divided between the two companies that hold Mr. Trump’s share of the hotel and then paid out directly to him. He called it one thing for the I.R.S. (a “loan fee”) and another in his public filings (a “sponsor fee”).

The Las Vegas hotel had long been a money loser. Between 2010 and 2012, each partner put $23 million into the business. Its losses were narrowing, though, and it began 2016 with $6.3 million in cash reserves

Then, 7 weeks before the election, something else unusual happened. The Trump-Ruffin partnership borrowed $30 million from City National Bank in LA. Trump signed the loan documents in New York City, but tax records show that Ruffin personally guaranteed nearly the entire amount.

The timing of the loan, combined with the partnership’s lack of available cash that year, strongly suggests that the loan funded the millions of dollars in payments to Mr. Trump.

If it turns out a corporation gave the campaign any money, that is illegal. If an individual contributed any money exceeding the legal limits, that is illegal.