The Briefing Room

General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: endicom on April 29, 2018, 12:02:40 am

Title: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: endicom on April 29, 2018, 12:02:40 am
New York Daily News
Denis Slattery
Apr. 28, 2018

Michael Cohen's world is crumbling and he may have no other choice than to cooperate with the federal investigators probing his finances, according to a detailed report Saturday.

President Trump’s longtime “fixer” and personal attorney owns a taxi business that’s deeply in debt and losing money daily, his commercial real estate is earning only a modest income and his legal and consulting work remains on hold while he’s under investigation, Bloomberg News reported.

More... http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/michael-cohen-cash-woes-spur-talks-investigators-article-1.3961056 (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/michael-cohen-cash-woes-spur-talks-investigators-article-1.3961056)
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: endicom on April 29, 2018, 12:03:27 am

I don't see the justice in facing people with bankruptcy to get them to cooperate.

Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: edpc on April 29, 2018, 01:28:20 pm
The raid has no bearing on the collapse of the medallion racket, due to services like Uber and Lyft.
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: Oceander on April 29, 2018, 01:29:43 pm
The raid has no bearing on the collapse of the medallion racket, due to services like Uber and Lyft.

Exactly.  Medallion values have crashed since those services came into place. 
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: endicom on April 29, 2018, 01:38:49 pm
The raid has no bearing on the collapse of the medallion racket, due to services like Uber and Lyft.


Did you miss the other assets? Mueller can do to Cohen what he did to Flynn.

Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: edpc on April 29, 2018, 01:48:09 pm
What did Mueller do to Flynn?  The man is worth millions and has a guaranteed retirement pension.  Plus, there's probably a book deal, when all is said and done. 
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: Concerned on April 29, 2018, 01:50:20 pm
According to the article, he sold a building last year for $3.5M and sold a set of buildings in 2014 for $32M, doubling his money.  Reports are that he’s worth $100M.  I wish I had such “cash woes”.

https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/lawyers/michael-cohen-net-worth/ (https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/lawyers/michael-cohen-net-worth/)
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: edpc on April 29, 2018, 01:54:46 pm
According to the article, he sold a building last year for $3.5M and sold a set of buildings in 2014 for $32M, doubling his money.  Reports are that he’s worth $100M.  I wish I had such “cash woes."


Yes, but it depends on where he bought in with the medallions.  Given the number he owns and their current value, he might be at a net loss.  As the article says, some are suspended, so they're not generating income and only worth a fraction of what they were.
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: endicom on April 29, 2018, 01:58:06 pm
What did Mueller do to Flynn?


Caused him to sell his house to raise cash for his defense. If that defense was protracted then he could have lost it all so he cooperated with Mueller and copped to a process crime not committed.

Imagine what they could do to you.

Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: edpc on April 29, 2018, 02:05:43 pm

Caused him to sell his house to raise cash for his defense. If that defense was protracted then he could have lost it all so he cooperated with Mueller and copped to a process crime not committed.

Imagine what they could do to you.


Flynn did not sell his Alexandria house to raise money for his defense.  He's worth about $7M and has enough money for that, already.  Selling his DC area home was a foregone conclusion after being fired twice, by two different presidents.  His prospects in Washington were done.   
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: Concerned on April 29, 2018, 02:05:52 pm

Yes, but it depends on where he bought in with the medallions.  Given the number he owns and their current value, he might be at a net loss.  As the article says, some are suspended, so they're not generating income and only worth a fraction of what they were.

I would think that $100M in reported net worth could take care of a lot of taxi medallion problems.  If it can't then Cohen might be a worse businessman than he is an attorney (which is really saying something).   Even if he bought his 32 taxi medallions at the peak, the sale of his 2014 real estate alone could cover his medallion losses.
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: endicom on April 29, 2018, 02:15:03 pm
His prospects in Washington were done.


Ridiculous. That may be true now but wasn't before the fabricated process crime.

Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: edpc on April 29, 2018, 02:16:31 pm
Even if he bought his 32 taxi medallions at the peak, the sale of his 2014 real estate alone could cover his medallion losses.


According to the article, half the medallions are suspended and half have loans taken out on them.  He can't be too liquid, since he took an equity loan to pay Daniels.  You'd think someone with a net worth of $100M could come up with less than 1% of that in cash very easily.  Something is weird about the whole situation.
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: XenaLee on April 29, 2018, 02:37:00 pm
I don't see the justice in facing people with bankruptcy to get them to cooperate.

It's basically "legalized blackmail".   Kinda like the Mafia ... only without the broken kneecaps routine.
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: edpc on April 29, 2018, 02:38:15 pm

Ridiculous. That may be true now but wasn't before the fabricated process crime.


He was fired by a second president before he was charged - and the publicly stated reason was because he lied to Pence.  Think about that.  Even without the Mueller charge, he was done.  The plea agreement to the 'process crime' was the least of the charges against Flynn that Meuller could have brought.  He also had money laundering issues surrounding his work with Turkey and FARA violations.  Flynn can tear up the deal, if he wants, but the other charges can be brought back.  That'll just increase the legal expenses and draw out the process.
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: Oceander on April 29, 2018, 02:41:01 pm

Ridiculous. That may be true now but wasn't before the fabricated process crime.



What fabricated crime?
Title: Re: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's cash woes may spur talks with federal investigators
Post by: endicom on April 29, 2018, 05:15:00 pm
What fabricated crime?


The FBI agents interviewing Flynn thought he was not being deceitful.