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VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,104 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018
C M Y K Nxxx,2018-10-03,A,001,Bs-4C,E2
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President Trump participatedin dubious tax schemes during the1990s, including instances of out-right fraud, that greatly increasedthe fortune he received from hisparents, an investigation by TheNew York Times has found.
Mr. Trump won the presidencyproclaiming himself a self-madebillionaire, and he has long in-sisted that his father, the legend-ary New York City builder Fred C.Trump, provided almost no finan-cial help.
But The Times’s investigation,based on a vast trove of confiden-tial tax returns and financialrecords, reveals that Mr. Trumpreceived the equivalent today of atleast $413 million from his father’sreal estate empire, starting whenhe was a toddler and continuing tothis day.
Much of this money came to Mr.Trump because he helped his par-ents dodge taxes. He and his sib-lings set up a sham corporation todisguise millions of dollars in giftsfrom their parents, records and in-terviews show. Records indicatethat Mr. Trump helped his fathertake improper tax deductionsworth millions more. He alsohelped formulate a strategy to un-dervalue his parents’ real estateholdings by hundreds of millionsof dollars on tax returns, sharplyreducing the tax bill when thoseproperties were transferred tohim and his siblings.
These maneuvers met with lit-tle resistance from the InternalRevenue Service, The Timesfound. The president’s parents,Fred and Mary Trump, trans-ferred well over $1 billion inwealth to their children, whichcould have produced a tax bill of atleast $550 million under the 55percent tax rate then imposed ongifts and inheritances.
The Trumps paid a total of $52.2million, or about 5 percent, taxrecords show.
The president declined re-peated requests over severalweeks to comment for this article.But a lawyer for Mr. Trump,Charles J. Harder, provided a writ-ten statement on Monday, one dayafter The Times sent a detailed de-scription of its findings. “The NewYork Times’s allegations of fraudand tax evasion are 100 percentfalse, and highly defamatory,” Mr.Harder said. “There was no fraudor tax evasion by anyone. The
facts upon which The Times basesits false allegations are extremelyinaccurate.”
Mr. Harder sought to distanceMr. Trump from the tax strategiesused by his family, saying thepresident had delegated thosetasks to relatives and tax profes-sionals. “President Trump hadvirtually no involvement whatso-ever with these matters,” he said.“The affairs were handled byother Trump family members whowere not experts themselves andtherefore relied entirely upon theaforementioned licensed profes-sionals to ensure full compliancewith the law.”
The president’s brother, Robert
TRUMP TOOK PARTIN SUSPECT SCHEMES
TO EVADE TAX BILLSBehind the Myth of a Self-Made Billionaire,
a Vast Inheritance From His Father
This article is by David Barstow,Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner.
Fred C. Trump’s real estate em-pire provided Donald J. Trumpwith today’s equivalent of atleast $413 million.
BERNARD GOTFRYD/GETTY IMAGES
Continued on Page A10A review of over 100,000 pages of records, including confidential tax returns, shows the wealth the president reaped from his father.THE NEW YORK TIMES
MORIA, Greece — He survivedtorture in Congo, and a perilousboat journey from Turkey. But Mi-chael Tamba, a former Congolesepolitical prisoner, came closest todeath only after he had suppos-edly found sanctuary at Europe’sbiggest refugee camp.
Stuck for months at the camp onthe Greek island of Lesbos, Mr.Tamba, 31, tried to end his life bydrinking a bottle of bleach. Thetrigger: Camp Moria itself.
“Eleven months in Moria, Mo-ria, Moria,” said Mr. Tamba, whosurvived after being rushed tohospital. “It’s very traumatic.”
Mr. Tamba’s experience has be-come a common one at Moria, acamp of around 9,000 people liv-ing in a space designed for just3,100, where squalid conditionsand an inscrutable asylumprocess have led to what aidgroups describe as a mentalhealth crisis.
The overcrowding is so extremethat asylum seekers spend asmuch as 12 hours a day waiting inline for food that is sometimesmoldy. Last week, there wereabout 80 people for each shower,and around 70 per toilet, with aidworkers complaining about rawsewage leaking into tents wherechildren are living. Sexual as-saults, knife attacks and suicideattempts are common.
The conditions have fueled ac-cusations that the camp has beenleft to fester in order to deter mi-gration and that European Union
funds provided to help Greecedeal with asylum seekers are be-ing misused. In late September,the European Union’s anti-fraudagency announced an investiga-tion.
At the height of the Europeanmigrant crisis in 2015, Moria wasmerely a way station as tens ofthousands of asylum seekers —many fleeing wars in Syria, Iraqand Afghanistan — pouredthrough the region on their way tonorthern Europe. Then, the num-bers were so great, the migrantswere effectively waved through.
Gradually, European Union
countries tried to gain controlover the situation by closing inter-nal borders and building camps atthe bloc’s periphery in places likeLesbos, where so many of the ref-ugees arrived. Now they are stuckhere.
Today, Moria is the most visiblesymbol of the hardening Euro-
pean stance toward migrants —one that has drastically reducedunauthorized migration, but atwhat critics see as a deep moraland humanitarian cost.
Outside Europe, the EuropeanUnion has courted authoritariangovernments in Turkey, Sudanand Egypt, while Italy has negoti-ated with warlords in Libya, in asuccessful effort to stem the flowof migrants toward the Mediterra-nean.
Inside Europe itself, those whostill make it to the Greek islands —about 23,000 have arrived this
‘Better to Drown’: A Greek Refugee Camp’s Epidemic of DespairBy PATRICK KINGSLEY
Afghan refugees last week at a spillover camp outside Camp Moria on the Greek island of Lesbos.MAURICIO LIMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page A7
A Festering Symbol ofEurope’s HardeningView of Migration
SEATTLE — Amazon said onTuesday that it would raise theminimum wage to $15 an hour forits United States employees, arare acknowledgment that it wasfeeling squeezed by political pres-sure and a tight labor market. Theraises apply for part-time workersand those hired through tempo-rary agencies.
The company said it would alsolobby Washington to raise the fed-eral minimum wage, which hasbeen set at $7.25 for almost a dec-ade.
The wages will apply to morethan 250,000 Amazon employees,including those at the grocerychain Whole Foods, as well as themore than 100,000 seasonal em-ployees it plans to hire for the holi-day season. The change will notapply to contract workers. It goesinto effect on Nov. 1.
“We listened to our critics,thought hard about what wewanted to do, and decided wewant to lead,” Amazon’s chief ex-ecutive, Jeff Bezos, said in a state-ment. “We’re excited about thischange and encourage our com-petitors and other large employ-ers to join us.”
Employment has become one ofAmazon’s most potent politicalvulnerabilities as well as its most
Amazon RaisesMinimum PayTo $15 an Hour
By KAREN WEISE
Continued on Page A18
WASHINGTON — Senate Re-publican leaders pressed on Tues-day to wrap up the confirmation ofJudge Brett M. Kavanaugh to theSupreme Court, seizing on wordfrom the F.B.I. that it would com-plete its investigation into allega-tions of sexual assault and sexualmisconduct as early as Wednes-day.
“We’ll have an F.B.I. report thisweek, and we’ll have a vote thisweek,” an emphatic Senator MitchMcConnell of Kentucky, the ma-jority leader, told reporters afterthe Republicans’ weekly policyluncheon.
But Mr. McConnell’s promisewas as much about bluffing as itwas about confidence, giving thenomination an air of inevitabilityeven as five undecided senatorswill determine Judge Kava-naugh’s fate. Those five — the Re-publicans Susan Collins of Maine,Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and JeffFlake of Arizona, and the Demo-crats Heidi Heitkamp of North Da-kota and Joe Manchin III of WestVirginia — are refusing to tip theirhands.
The push for a quick vote onJudge Kavanaugh came as theSenate and the White Housewaited for the F.B.I. to finish its
G.O.P. PressesTo Vote in DaysOn KavanaughBy SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
and MICHAEL D. SHEAR
Continued on Page A19
Our writers and editors cooked theirway through this season’s new books tocome up with a list of favorites. PAGE D4
FOOD D1-10
Fall’s Best CookbooksTen years ago, the company introduceda password system that connected to abroad swath of the internet. Now othersites may be at risk. PAGE B1
BUSINESS DAY B1-6
A Facebook Hack RipplesThe mother of a boy whose time in gayconversion therapy led to a film had anemotional night at the premiere. PAGE C1
ARTS C1-8
‘Boy Erased’ Is Her Story, TooAmsterdam is filled with cultural riches,but some visitors come for less high-minded pursuits. New measures areaimed at curbing misconduct. PAGE A4
INTERNATIONAL A4-7
Tourists Behaving BadlyProsecutors said “serial rioters” at-tacked protesters at a 2017 white nation-alist rally in Charlottesville. PAGE A9
NATIONAL A8-23
4 Charged in Virginia Violence
Hannah Fox, 9, slept in a car as neigh-borhoods remained cut off and sub-merged by Hurricane Florence. PAGE A8
Still Soaked by Monster StormDancers in a piece at the Park AvenueArmory were like musical notes againstthe stage, Gia Kourlas writes. PAGE C2
Diluting Bach’s Dancing Spirit
Thomas L. Friedman PAGE A26
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27
“Mine is the story of a gay immigrant,told through food,” says Nik Sharma,author of a new cookbook. PAGE D1
A Life Well Seasoned
Reviews are still out on the new tradedeal, but its name, U.S.M.C.A. for short,is getting two thumbs down. PAGE B2
Try Saying It Five Times FastDomestic partners of diplomats will bedenied visas, even those from nationsthat ban same-sex marriage. PAGE A6
U.S. Change on Gay Envoys
Yankees Manager Aaron Boone choseLuis Severino to start the wild-cardgame. Second-guessing began. PAGE B7
SPORTSWEDNESDAY B7-10, 12
Who’s Pitching First?After six of their colleagues committedsuicide, taxi drivers are opening upmore about depression. PAGE A24
NEW YORK A24-25, 28
Suicides Get Cabbies Talking
Late EditionToday, patchy morning fog, partlysunny, high 76. Tonight, partlycloudy, low 63. Tomorrow, cloudsand sunshine, warmer, humid, high80. Weather map is on Page B12.
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