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STATEMENT: Why Aren’t Kevin McCarthy and James Comer Investigating Trump’s Undisclosed Foreign Debt?

Dec 7, 2022

Washington D.C. – This weekend, a report by Forbes revealed that Donald Trump failed to disclose his company owed over $19 million to a South Korean conglomerate with close ties to North Korea while president. In response, Congressional Integrity Project Executive Director Kyle Herrig said the following:

“Instead of launching spurious, MAGA investigations based on nothing more than conspiracy theories, James Comer and Kevin McCarthy should investigate the former president’s undisclosed foreign debt. The American public was unaware of Trump’s debt to a company with close ties to North Korea, and deserves to know the truth. Rather than focusing on their unpopular agenda, soundly defeated in Georgia last night, they should do the work Americans elected them to do and focus on actual oversight.”

Forbes: Trump Owed Hidden Debt While In Office. “Donald Trump’s business attracted so much scrutiny during his time in office that it would be easy to conclude that all information about its foreign entanglements must be out by now. It is not. Buried in a heap of recently released financial paperwork sits a surprising revelation: Donald Trump had a foreign creditor he failed to disclose while running for president in 2016 and after assuming office in 2017. The documents, compiled by the Trump Organization and obtained by the New York attorney general, show a previously unreported liability of $19.8 million listed as “L/P Daewoo.” The debt stems from an agreement Trump struck to share some of his licensing fees with Daewoo, a South Korean conglomerate that partnered with Trump on a project near the United Nations headquarters in New York City. […] Although the debt appeared on the Trump Organization’s internal paperwork, it did not show up on Trump’s public financial disclosure reports, documents he was required to submit to federal officials while running for president and after taking office. Trump’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, told the New York Times in 2016 that his boss disclosed all debt connected to companies in which Trump held a 100% stake on the documents. That was not true.” [Forbes, 12/4/22]

HuffPost: Trump Had Hidden $19.8 Million Loan From North Korea-Linked Company As President: Report. “Donald Trump failed to disclose a $19.8 million loan from a company with ties to North Korea while he was president, Forbes reported Sunday, citing documents uncovered by the New York attorney general’s office. Trump owed the money to L/P Daewoo while he was campaigning in 2016 and into his presidency, according to records. He didn’t list the debt in financial disclosure filings, as candidates and presidents are expected to do, Forbes reported. The loan was paid off just over five months into his presidency. Forbes said the documents don’t specify who satisfied it. Daewoo is a South Korean conglomerate that partnered with Trump on a development project near the United Nations headquarters in New York City and on several other projects over the years. The company has ties to North Korea, Forbes reported, and was the only South Korean company allowed to operate a business in North Korea in the mid-1990s.” [HuffPost, 12/5/22]

Vanity Fair (Bess Levin): Surprise: Trump Had Millions In Undisclosed Debt While President, And He Probably Would A Second Time Around Too. “Shortly before being inaugurated in 2017, Donald Trump announced, to the dismay of ethics officials and laypeople who understood just how corrupt it was, that he would not financially divest from the Trump Organization while serving as president. […] “From a national security perspective, that’s just an outrageous vulnerability,” Larry Pfeiffer, the director of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence at George Mason University, told The Washington Post at the time. Yet the even bigger vulnerability, from the perspective of the United States, was not just that its commander in chief owed a fuck-ton of money to a fuck-ton of people, but that said commander in chief had a long history of never telling the truth about anything. Which is apparently why, despite years of scrutiny—and the many opportunities he had to reveal it—we’re only just now learning that, when he was running for president the first time, and for several months after he took office, Trump owed millions of dollars to a company previously linked to North Korea.” [Vanity Fair (Commentary), 12/5/22]

Business Insider: Trump Had A $19.8 Million Loan From A South Korean Company He Kept Hidden When He Became President, Documents Show. “Former President Donald Trump owed $19.8 million to South Korean conglomerate Daewoo while serving as president, Forbes reported. Documents obtained by the New York attorney general’s office, and shared with Forbes, showed that Trump had a previously unreported liability to South Korean company Daewoo when he took office in January 2017. According to the report, the sum was paid back five months after Trump became president, but he did not list the debt in financial disclosure filings while running for office in 2016. Trump acted with some urgency to pay off the debt after becoming president, Forbes said, after the debt remained more or less static between 2011 and 2016. Trump may not have acted illegally in not disclosing the debt, with candidates only required to list personal liabilities, not all of those held by companies they own. But the debt would have sparked conflict of interest concerns. Daewoo was the only South Korean company allowed to operate in North Korea during the 1990s.” [Business Insider, 12/6/22]

Salon: Trump Reportedly Paid Off Debt To Company Linked To North Korea While In Office. “Documents obtained by the outlet show that the then-candidate failed to disclose $19.8 million in debt to Daewoo, a South Korean company with a history of ties to North Korea. […[ Forbes also pointed out that Trump may have hidden the debt because Daewoo, at one time, ‘was the only South Korean company permitted to operate a business inside [North Korea].’ The documents, which were disclosed after being obtained by New York Attorney General Letitia James, said that Trump quickly eliminated the debt after taking office. ‘Daewoo was bought out of its position on July 5, 2017,’ one document explained.” [Salon, 12/5/22]

The Guardian: ​​Trump Did Not Disclose $19.8m Loan While President, Documents Show. “Donald Trump failed to disclose a $19.8m loan from a company with historical ties to North Korea, while he was the US president, according to a new report. Documents obtained by the New York attorney general, and reported by Forbes, on Sunday indicate a previously unreported loan owed by Trump to Daewoo, the South Korean conglomerate. Daewoo was the only South Korean company allowed to operate a business in North Korea during the mid-1990s. Forbes revealed that Trump’s relationship with Daewoo is at least 25 years old. At one point, Daewoo partnered with Trump on a development project near the United Nations headquarters in New York City, Trump World Tower. Trump and Daewoo continued to do business together, including using Trump’s name on six South Korea-based properties from 1999 to 2007, according to the magazine. The outlet reports that the debt in question ‘stems from an agreement Trump struck to share some of his licensing fees with Daewoo.’ According to documents reviewed by Forbes, the $19.8m balance remained the same from 2011 to 2016. Five months into Trump’s presidency, the balance dropped to $4.3m, according to paperwork that showcased Trump’s finances as of 30 June 2017.” [The Guardian, 12/5/22]

The Independent: Donald Trump Failed To Disclose $19.8m Loan While He Was President, Report Says. “Donald Trump did not disclose a $19.8m loan from a South Korean conglomerate with links to North Korea when he was the president, according to a new report. The documents obtained by the New York attorney general showed an unreported liability Mr Trump owed to South Korean company Daewoo, reported Forbes. Mr Trump owed millions of dollars to the company while he was running for the White House in 2016 and paid off the loan just after five months into his presidency, the documents revealed. He did not list the debt as candidates are expected to in their financial disclosure filings and seemed to have acted with some urgency to clear the debt off his balance sheet, the report said. Daewoo partnered with Mr Trump on a project near the United Nations headquarters in New York City in 1997 for the construction of the Trump World Tower and continued its partnership with him for at least 25 years.” [The Independent, 12/6/22]