Here's the evidence, Vasili:
Trump buys an office building in downtown Manhattan in 1995 - the year he allegedly lost $1 billion. All cash. He then borrows $145 million from a union pension fund to carry out a $35 million renovation. The previous owners, a Hong Kong company that may have been a front for Ferdinand Marcos, bought the building for $8 million two years before Trump and also renovated it. The building sits on top of land that is owned by a shady overseas partnership whose principals are unknown. Trump recently refinanced that mortgage after the building changed hands, receiving $160 million from Ladder Capital.
Fall, 1995: Donald Trump purchases 40 Wall Street for $1 million cash. “Donald Trump has hired Cushman & Wakefield as leasing agent for 40 Wall St., which he plans to rename The Trump Building at 40 Wall. Mr. Trump bought the 1.1 million-square-foot building last fall for $1 million in cash and is seeking office tenants. He has secured a loan commitment on the property.” (Crain’s New York Business, February 19, 1996)
Trump purchased the building from a company based in Hong Kong that had paid $8 million to acquire it two years earlier. “The real estate developer Donald J. Trump completed his purchase of 40 Wall Street yesterday, buying the distinguished 70-story office building, across the street from the New York Stock Exchange, for a price estimated at less than $8 million. Mr. Trump in July had disclosed an agreement to buy the building, which contains 1.1 million square feet of space, from Kinson Properties of Hong Kong. Kinson paid $8 million for it in 1993. While representatives of Mr. Trump declined to disclose the price he had paid, published reports said it was less than $8 million. In July, representatives of the developer said he planned to spend $100 million converting the building, which is 89 percent vacant, to more modern offices. The land on which the building stands is owned by the Hinenberg family of Germany.” (New York Times, December 7, 1995)
v Previous owners from Hong Kong made substantial renovations to the building, installing a $300,000 pool in the lobby. “But as more Chinese investors have come to the New York area, feng shui has become an increasingly familiar term to developers and designers. The former Gulf and Western Building on Columbus Circle, 40 Wall Street and the China Trust Bank in Flushing, Queens, are among projects in which developers called in feng shui experts to review the sites. […] Edmund Yu, president of Kinson Properties, which is renovating the 1.1-million-square-foot office building at 40 Wall Street, said that even though he was an avowed nonbeliever, he still commissioned the construction of a $300,000 pool in the building's lobby on the advice of a feng shui master. ‘It's like killing two birds with one stone,’ he said. ‘Other people will just see it as an attractive addition. But for the Chinese, when they see it, they will know.’” (New York Times, September 22, 1994)
v A financial reporter claimed that Trump had acquired the building from a front man for Ferdinand Marcos. “It is the possibility of loss now, when markets have performed so well for so long, that preoccupies James Grant, the author of "The Trouble With Prosperity." No one knows 20th-century financial history better than Mr. Grant, and it shows as he glides through eras when investors thought everything was wonderful, only to be stunned when something went wrong. The best part of the book is Mr. Grant's tale of a New York building, 40 Wall Street, conceived in the 1920's and now being renovated by Donald Trump, who got it after Citibank sold it for a fraction of the loan it had foolishly made to a front man for Ferdinand Marcos, the late Philippines dictator.” (New York Times, December 22, 1996)
Renovations of 40 Wall Street were financed by loans from a union pension fund. “Mr. Eichner had earlier persuaded the Union Labor Life Insurance Company (Ullico), a union fund manager that invests in projects that employ union labor, to commit $33 million in long-term loans for his almost-completed 25-story, 121-apartment condominium at 201 East 80th Street, called the Richmond. […]General Electric Pension is behind the joint venture that rebuilt Trump International Hotel and Tower at 1 Central Park West, formerly the Gulf & Western Building; the Ullico is financing Mr. Trump in his $35 million rehabili-tation of 40 Wall Street, which, he says, will have a completed lobby in three weeks.” (New York Times, January 26, 1997)
2015: Trump used the building as collateral for a $160 million from the hedge fund, Ladder Capital. “Currently, 14 entities with ties to Mr. Trump owe banks in excess of $315 million, according to the disclosures released by the Federal Election Commission. The actual amount of debt is not known and is higher -- presidential candidates are required to reveal only debt of $50 million or above, without further specificity. For instance, a Ladder Capital loan secured by a lease at 40 Wall Street is for $160 million.” (New York Times, May 24, 2016)
Trump pays a $1.6 million lease on the ground under the building to an unknown investment group with German ties: ““At 40 Wall Street in Manhattan, a limited liability company, or L.L.C., controlled by Mr. Trump holds the ground lease -- the lease for the land on which the building stands. […] The land is owned by two limited liability companies; Mr. Trump pays the two entities a total of $1.6 million a year for the ground lease, according to documents filed with the S.E.C. The majority owner, 40 Wall Street Holdings Corporation, owns 80 percent of the land; New Scandic Wall Limited Partnership owns the rest, according to public documents. New Scandic Wall Limited Partnership's chief executive is Joachim Ferdinand von Grumme-Douglas, a businessman based in Europe, according to these documents. The people behind 40 Wall Street Holdings are harder to identify. For years, Germany's Hinneberg family, which made its fortune in the shipping industry, controlled the property through a company called 40 Wall Limited Partnership. In late 2014, their interest in the land was transferred to a new company, 40 Wall Street Holdings. The Times was not able to identify the owner or owners of this company, and the Trump Organization declined to comment.” (New York Times, August 21, 2016)
v Trump has used 40 Wall Street as collateral to secure a $160 million loan from hedge fund Ladder Capital that includes a $26 million personal guarantee: ““In 2015, Mr. Trump borrowed $160 million from Ladder Capital, a small New York firm, using that long-term lease as collateral. On his financial disclosure form that debt is listed as valued at more than $50 million. […] Other instances in which Mr. Trump could be personally responsible can be found in public filings. He guaranteed as much as $26 million for the loan taken out against his land lease at 40 Wall Street, money the lender could take if certain things went wrong.” (New York Times, August 21, 2016)
40 Wall Street has lost money or barely eked out a profit for the past several years, but pays the Trump Organization a nearly $1 million management fee. “Another seeming cash cow, at least as far as the forms portray it, is 40 Wall Street, an office building Mr. Trump has spoken of as perhaps the greatest bargain he ever struck. ''I make approximately $20 million a year in rentals from 40 Wall Street and the building is now worth $500 million,'' Mr. Trump wrote in ''Trump Never Give Up,'' published in 2008. '[…] On his financial disclosure forms, Mr. Trump listed the income he derived from rents in the building in the highest category on the form -- more than $5 million. […] But the income and expense statement that he filed with the New York City Tax Commission to appeal his property taxes shows that after mortgage payments and other costs, the building produced a cash flow of about $104,000 in 2014. Over the previous three years, it had generated a negative cash flow of $5.5 million, as the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis took a toll on downtown office buildings. Last year, the building rebounded and turned a significant profit: Occupancy rose to 95 percent, according to securities filings. The building's cash flow after expenses was just under $3 million, still well below the more than $5 million that Mr. Trump reported on his disclosure forms. The building also paid the Trump Organization $966,000 last year in management fees. (New York Times, November 4, 2016)
10/23/05: Trump took out a $145 million mortgage on 40 Wall Street, spent $35 million acquiring and refurbishing it. “And Donald did scramble back to gain control of some other Manhattan buildings, including 40 Wall Street, which he spent about $35 million to buy and refurbish in 1996. The building has about $145 million in debt attached to it, and New York City tax assessors currently value the property at about $90 million. Donald values it at $400 million.” (New York Times, October 23, 2005)