Trump's Casinos File for Bankruptcy

[RamboLiberal]

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20041122/2004-11-22T125302Z_01_N21594265_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-LEISURE-TRUMP-DC.html

Donald Trump's casino operations filed for bankruptcy Sunday in a long-expected move that would allow the real estate maverick to restructure the company's debt and overhaul its aging casinos.

Trump, the developer who flaunts his brusque business style on "The Apprentice" reality television show, last month clinched a restructuring pact with bondholders that would cut his stake in the company but preserved his role as chairman and chief executive.

Under the voluntary bankruptcy filing, Trump Atlantic City Associates, which is 99 percent owned by Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc., listed $1.3 billion in debt and $1.5 million in assets. It marks the second bankruptcy for Trump's casino empire.

Trump's major casinos in New Jersey -- Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and Trump Marina Hotel Casino -- have suffered from competition from the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which opened last year.

[underpants]

1. You're FIRED!

Actually not Trump always skirts right along the edge.

[Bozita]

2. It takes real brains to bankrupt a casino

[Endangered Specie]

6. ROFL!

So true!

[yellowcanine]

3. Isn't this at least the second time Trump has filed for bankrupcy?

Can we all agree now that he is not a financial genius and quit treating him like one? Anyone who continues to bankroll him deserves to lose their money.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. Yes, and...

the last time he had to go to the family trust and beg them for around 500 million to bail him out.

With all the bragging and bullshit, he'll never tell you that the only consistantly profitable property he ever owned was the hotel that he only has 49% of, so it's run well by the other partner.

He'll also never tell you that after the first time he went belly-up the creditors installed an overseer to approve all of his "deals."

And, he'll never admit that GE and Rockefeller Center laughed their asses off all the way to the bank after using him as a pawn-- falling big time for the "Television City" dream.

He'll also never admit that a slick old band singer who built a TV empire raked him over the coals in the Resorts deal. Merv got the money, and Donald got a bunch of raggedy casinos that needed as much in renovation money as he paid for them. Money he doesn't have.

A while back, when the bankruptcy was first talked about, the Newark Star-Ledger had a big headline-- "You're fired!"

[SoCalDem]

4. This is how the "big boys" play the game

but when an ordinary citizen declares bankruptcy, the perception is that they are losers...spendthrifts, and must suffer any and all indignities..

This is why the repubes are so eager to "fix" the system so that ordinary people will have a harder time.. The big shots will always have it as a "business-plan"..

Look at the BIG businesses who file every time they are eligible.. My husband had a boss like this once.. He filed as soon as the "deadline" from the last one passed.. The guy had 3 gorgeous homes, everyone in his family drove fancy new cars... He kept his personal finances "liquid and untraceable", and let his businesses run aground every time he could.. As he said.. "It's just good busiiness to USE the laws to your own advantage"..

Schmucks like us..the ordinary people are the only ones who play by the rules, and pay our bills on time...and we wonder why we don's amass huges sums of cash??

[gratuitous]

5. Hey, those guys don't get rich by writing checks to their creditors

And yes, after Trump gets through with this round of bankruptcy, the moneymen will flock back to him to finance his next round of business lunacy. Because the first ones in tend to get repaid. It's the suckers who are fooled by the hype near the end who take it in the shorts.

Heck, Microsoft (all hail!) billionaire Paul Allen is going through bankruptcy on a paltry few millions of debt so he can have greater control and extract greater profits from the Rose Garden sports and entertainment venue.

The bankruptcy laws aren't meant for pikers like you and me to avoid catastrophic medical bills; the system is reserved for wealthy folks who made bad deals.

[Endangered Specie]

7. My heart fucking bleeds.

</sarcasm>

[mike_c]

8. this makes me ill....

Trump has more than enough wealth to repay his debts-- and those of his "corporations"-- but rich folks use the bankruptcy laws as a tool to maintain their wealth, while average folks like me need them to protect themselves from losing everything, and the government is trying to strangle our ability to do so.

[soothsayer]

10. He was hamstrung by high interest bonds and they wouldn't renogiate

them.

I like trumps's casinos.

[AlCzervik]

11. Wasn"t he born a millioniare? Does building tacky hotels

make you a "Maverick?"

[MGKrebs]

12. never mind

[DinahMoeHum]

13. Jim Hightower had Trump's number back in June. . .

Link:
http://www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11382

(snip)
In both the show and the book, Donnie poses as a very rich, successful businessman. He is rich, but he didn't get there himself. Instead, he got rich the old fashioned way: He inherited a New York City real estate fortune from his daddy. And as for being a business success, you might want to ask investors in his struggling casino empire about that.

Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts is the one business venture that he launched on his own––his claim to corporate success. It's crumbling. Worse, it's about to crash. Only two weeks after signing a new contract with NBC to pose as a business mogul on "The Apprentice" for another season, his real-life corporation announced a quarterly loss of $49 million. Indeed, Trump Hotels has never been profitable in its decade-long history, and it is stuck so deeply in some $2-billion of debt that Trump's own auditors say there is "substantial doubt" about whether it can survive.
(snip)

Like Jim says, it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. What a fraud.


:evilfrown:

[DulceDecorum]

14. Trump Towers impending crash

As contractor, engineer and producer members of New York City's Concrete Industry Board can attest, “The Donald” knows a few things about concrete. Over the past decade, for example, The Trump Organization and its hands-on chief have twice raised the bar in New York City's high performance concrete specs. Trump Palace (620 ft., 1991) and Trump World Tower III (846 ft., 2001) saw the first use of 10,000 psi and 12,000 psi concrete, respectively, in Manhattan high-rise buildings.
http://concreteproducts.com/mag/concrete_fire_safety_core/

Concrete versus Steel Framing
In the preliminary design stages, structural steel was considered very briefly. Concrete framing was chosen for the following reasons:
· Better overall response to wind
· Reduced floor-to-floor height (floor heights vary from 10 ft-8 in. (3.3 m) to 12 ft-8 in. (3.9 m), with a 16 ft-8 in. (5.1 m) height at the penthouse)
· Elimination of ceiling finishes
· Better soundproofing
· Construction schedule
http://www.cement.org/buildings/buildings_trump.asp

High performance concrete is outlawed in many parts of Europe because it tends to come apart when exposed to fire -- and water. God help anyone near those buildings if ever an arsonist comes by or some fool with a lit cigarette.

[yellowcanine]

15. Trump is a magician - he inherited a fortune and made it disappear with

"shrewd" business decisions.