SUCCESSION: Eric Trump displays his SHADY family heritage
Johanna Beiter, a resident of Trump World Tower in Manhattan for nearly two decades, has filed a lawsuit naming Eric Trump, the Board of Managers, the Trump Corporation, and other entities responsible for the building.
The lawsuit accuses the condo board, and the former president’s son, of illegally passing on the costs of improving the property and failing to properly notify residents.
Beiter says that there is a process in place for notifying residents of improvements to be made to the building and giving them an opportunity to vote on the work or reject it.
However, Beiter alleges that Eric and the Board circumvented that process, merely notifying the residents that work would be started — and that they’d be paying for it.
They’re expected to cover the cost of a project hovering around $1.75 million to turn a disused bar space in the building into an “amenity space.”
The cost is to be covered by charging residents an “amenity fee” for about 2% of their current lease cost — and Trump is reportedly making bank off the deal. The Messenger reports:
“The suit alleges the conversion work was approved by both Eric Trump and Trump Organization Assistant General Counsel Sonja Talesnik — and both allegedly have financial interests in the project. Companies Eric Trump and Talesnik have a financial interest in, ‘have a direct or indirect ownership or equity interest in or are affiliated with the one or more of the contractors or subcontractors hired or to be hired to perform the Conversion Work,’ the suit claims.”
The median rent for one of the units was $8,500 per month in 2017, according to Reuters.
At that time, the building was a matter of controversy for an entirely separate reason: members of foreign governments are buying or leasing space in it, enriching the family of the man who was, at the time, President of the United States, and had the power to influence relations with their countries.
It’s one more piece of legal trouble for the former first family, piled on top of:
- the Trump Organization’s $250 million lawsuit alleging that the company fraudulently altered valuations of properties,
- the similar case against Donald Trump himself,
- Trump’s criminal charges (34 felonies) in New York for falsifying business records,
- the investigations of election interference, and
- potentially an espionage case for allegedly showing confidential government documents to others after lying about having returned them.
Sounds like an enterprising prosecutor could justify RICO charges for this allegedly criminal organization.
