More factual criticism has recently been directed at the president and his business interests in one of the most corrupt states in the world, namely Azerbaijan. Edmund Azadyan writes about this on the website of the Armenian-American edition of The Armenian Mirror-Spectator.
In 2014, Trump announced a hotel project in Baku, in which he partnered with Anar Mammadov, the son of Azeri Transportation Minister Ziya Mammadov, one of President Ilham Aliyev’s cronies. Mammadov is considered one of the most corrupt government officials, a standout even in Azerbaijan, well known for rampant corruption by the government.
“The American public is exposed daily to such scandals, which have become common place. But Mr. Trump’s association, in doing business with corrupt governments, goes beyond business ethics to impact US laws and national security,” Azadyan writes.
Indeed, a letter by three Democrat senators addressed to respective authorities, has requested an inquiry into the Trump project in Baku, in light of revelations which appeared in article in New Yorker magazine (“Trump’s Worst Deal,” March 13). The letter by Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Diane Feinstein of California and Ben Cardin of Maryland was addressed to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and FBI Director James Comey. The senators specifically noted in the letter: “It appears that the lack of due diligence by the Trump organization described in the article exposed President Trump and his organization to notoriously corrupt Azerbaijani oligarchs and may also have exposed the Trump organization to the IRGC or Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“Even though the Trump organization appears to have withdrawn from the Baku tower deal, serious questions remain unanswered about the Trump organization’s potential criminal liability,” they wrote.
From all indications, the Baku tower project has gone bankrupt because of many miscalculations.
In defense of the Trump operation, the company lawyer Alan Garten has announced that “we did not own the hotel. We had no equity, we did not control the project, we did not pay any money to anyone. Therefore, it could not be a violation of FCPA.” (The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, passed in 1977, forbade American companies from participating in a scheme to reward a foreign government official in exchange for material benefit or preferential treatment.)
According to the New Yorker story, a photo appeared of Ivanka Trump on her website, in which she wore a hard hat, in the Baku building, with the caption, “Ivanka has overseen the development of Trump International Hotel & Tower Baku since its inception, and she recently returned from a trip to the fascinating city in Azerbaijan to check in on the project’s progress.”
“It is good to know that all the money wasted on the project was from Azerbaijan, whose fortunes are dwindling in recent months. In an unrelated issue, British Petroleum (BP), which is the main investor in Azerbaijan, has decided to cease its operations in Shahdeniz oil field. Also, Georgia, which has bypassed Armenia in all regional projects as part of its friendly ties with Azerbaijan, has decided to cut its dependence on Azeri gas supplies,” the author writes.
Whether an investigation is carried out or not, the revelations themselves have already tarnished Trump’s business deals.
When so many business interests are at play, what would be the prospect of a Trump solution to the Karabakh issue? He has not yet addressed that problem because he has been learning the trade on the job.
What message he would issue for the Armenian community on April 24 is also a great unknown.
Unpredictability has been the hallmark of Trump policies but he must at least be consistent with himself. If extreme vetting is a priority for the president, he must be the first one to comply with that policy. Otherwise, Baku’s bankrupt tower may come to symbolize his policies.
It is recalled that in December 2016, the company of US President Donald Trump – “Trump Organization” – announced the abolition of licensing agreements for the implementation of business projects in Brazil and Azerbaijan. This decision was made to avoid a possible conflict of interest on the eve of the inauguration of Trump.
In this connection, the former US ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Kozlarich, commenting on the situation in the conversation with the Bloomberg agency, noted that there are concerns that the Azerbaijani government will try to get Trump’s location financially helping, in particular, to complete the construction of the “Trump Tower” in Baku or by making sure that money is transferred to his account even if the hotel still does not function.
Источник: mirrorspectator.com