Azerbaijan: The Baku hotel disaster that may be Trump's most disastrous deal ever: Scrapped Azerbaijan project was led by corrupt oligarchs and had links to Iran's Revolutionary Guard

[TomSea]

The Baku hotel disaster that may be Trump's most disastrous deal ever: Scrapped Azerbaijan project was led by corrupt oligarchs and had links to Iran's Revolutionary Guard

    Trump Tower Baku in Azerbaijan was cancelled by the president in December
    The $35 million project was launched by Azerbaijani family the Mammadovs
    They hold seats in parliament and have ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard
    Trump agreed to license the family name for the project but did not invest in it
    Ivanka visited in 2014 and is considered a 'dear friend' of Anar Mammadov
    The Mammadovs are widely suspected of corruption in the country
    Anar Mammadov has spent $13 million lobbying US Officials on behalf of the American Azerbaijan Alliance
    Trump cancelled the project before he became president, claiming it was 'house cleaning' 

By Jennifer Smith For Dailymail.com
Published: 10:38 EST, 6 March 2017 | Updated: 13:44 EST, 6 March 2017

New details of one of President Trump's most controversial business deals have emerged and paint a worrying picture of a hotel project steeped in allegations of corruption in the Middle East.

Trump Tower Baku in Azerbaijan was one of a handful of deals scrapped by the president as he prepared to take office in December. At the time, Trump Organization said the cancellation was part of 'housecleaning' and that its only setbacks were economic.

But a New Yorker investigation has mapped out an alleged web of corruption in the Azerbaijani family behind it.

The $35 million project began in 2008 and was originally due to be a tower of apartments.

The Trump Organization joined in 2012, agreeing to a licensing deal which allowed the building to bear its name and brand. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4286200/The-Baku-hotel-disaster-Trump-s-worst-deal-ever.html#ixzz4abClJjwp
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[driftdiver]

So he didn't invest but it's his fault?

[TomSea]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku_pogrom

Aizerbaijan, a largely Muslim nation, had a pogrom against Armenians as recent as 1990; the 2 countries, Armenia and Aizerbaijan, still have misunderstandings over their borders.  Reading the wikipedia article, I'm not sure if the trouble was over religion, they seem to say something about Communism. But I do know, it happened. Aizerbaijan seems to have a mainly Shiite Muslim population.

[TomSea]

So he didn't invest but it's his fault?

@driftdriver

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/donald-trumps-worst-deal?mbid=social_twitter

According to Garten, Trump played a passive role in the development of the property: he was “merely a licensor” who allowed his famous name to be used by a company headed by Ziya Mammadov’s son, Anar, a young entrepreneur. It’s not clear how much money Trump made from the licensing agreement, although in his limited public filings he has reported receiving $2.8 million. (The Trump Organization shared documents that showed an additional payment of two and a half million dollars, in 2012, but declined to disclose any other payments.) Trump also had signed a contract to manage the hotel once it opened, for an undisclosed fee tied to the hotel’s performance. The Washington Post published Garten’s description of the deal, and reported that Donald Trump had “invested virtually no money in the project while selling the rights to use his name and holding the contract to manage the property.”

Nothing illegal likely was done and that is what is important. It's no big deal in that vein.