REPORTER-TRUMP CALLED ME THE C-WORD

[DemocratSinceBirth]

“Hold for Mr. Trump.”

It was Monday morning, April 18, 1988. I was the financial correspondent in New York City for The Philadelphia Inquirer, working out of a one-woman bureau at 80 Wall Street. That day, I had a business story about a developer-car dealer from Rochester, N.Y., who was a minor character in a drama playing out between Trump and entertainer Merv Griffin over the ownership of Resorts International.

Trump controlled the casino company through a special class of stock and wanted to buy out other investors for $15 a share.

The week Trump made his offer, the Rochester developer, Dale Scutti, was in Atlantic City. He had sinus problems and took long walks on the Boardwalk. Scutti made his millions in car dealerships, at one time owning 14 across the country. Eyeing the Resorts casino and unfinished Taj Mahal, he concluded that the company was worth a lot more than what Trump was offering. Back home, he started buying Resorts stock and through Wall Street channels in mergers, brought the situation to the attention of Griffin.

Griffin, the mega-millionaire Hollywood producer behind Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, wanted to get into gaming. He surprised Trump by making a counter-offer of $35 a share for Resorts, and quickly upped the ante by a buck.

The situation got ugly and after a month of fighting, the moguls made a deal: Trump would get the unfinished Taj Mahal, Griffin would get everything else, and investors would get $36 a share.

My story that morning made the point that if it wasn’t for this unknown investor from upstate New York, shareholders might not be earning more than twice what Trump originally offered. Scutti had told me he thought Trump was trying to scare shareholders into accepting his offer with threats of bankruptcy and warnings that he was the only one capable of completing the over-budget Taj Mahal project.


http://billypenn.com/2016/09/29/former-inquirer-reporter-recalls-that-time-trump-called-her-a-c-t/