resort. look at this letter from the project s developer to buyers in august of 2007. one of the two signatures at the bottom. donald j. trump. official brochures also made it seem as if he was a developer. developed by one of the most respected names in real estate, donald j. trump. trump said it too. when i build i have investors that follow me all over. they invest in me and they invest in what i build. that s why i m so excited about trump ocean resort. when i build, what i build. but trump was not going to build anything at trump ocean resort, baja, mexico. he didn t develop it. the company licensing his name did that. he set up this international licensing business where he would realize that there was an incredible value to the name trump and that he could sell it and he didn t have to put anything into the project. he didn t put in any money.
it s been a decade since sandra felt duped by donald trump. it was 2008. the international housing crisis was coming to a boil. and she said something was wrong with trump ocean resort bah ha mexico. so we got in a car, we drove down there and that office was closed and there was no furniture left. we said wait. no. no, nothing s wrong. within weeks two letters. this was the very first time we heard the trump brand name the trump this and it developer that. it read trump marks bajallc is elected to terminate the license agreement. the second letter explained given the extreme dislocation of the financial market, a baja project will not be able to proceed. she felt stunned. and deceived.
and what were the terms? that s where things begin to get fuzzy. from wnyz studios, this is trump, inc. journalists at wnyc radio have been investigating trump businesses for more than a year. trumping is a podcast and a reporting project to uncover the secrets of the trump family business. secrets because the trump organization fights to keep business details private. case in point the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters. the president s battle over his tax returns. and no lawyer would tell you to release your tax returns while you re under audit. if the trump organization was a public company there would be years of detailed information available. that doesn t exist. in fact, the only financial documents trump has released publicly are the basic financial forms required of all
love about this project is the fact that it s in baja, mexico and baja is one of the really hot places. for sandra sapol in suburban san diego, having a second home, especially one in baja is a dream. not everybody s is the same american dream. ours was, have a family, have a pickett fence and have that second property. it s why she bought a condo at one of those trump licensed properties. trump ocean resort, baja, mexico. only problem was, she didn t know that she was buying into a property this was supposed to be my view. that had licensed the trump name. these are the rest of this project. i own a franchise. i totally know the word licenseor, licensee but i had never heard it from the mouths of anyone representing trump
also developing the super luxurious trump international hotel and tower, fort lauderdale. so you would disagree certainly with that sentence being in there. the word developing, it doesn t mean that we re the developer. there were multiple lawsuits in fort lauderdale. most were settled. the terms are secret. in the two suits that went to trial, jurors were shown the prospectus which identified the developer as someone other than trump. trump won. the trumps didn t require these developments to be successful to earn money. it s because trump got a fixed fee from the developer, who licensed his name. plus, millions more as the condo sales were completed, even if the building went bankrupt. when they failed, which they frequently did, the trumps would make money and they would say oh, we weren t we weren t the developers. we were never the developer of this project and that was made clear. we were just the licensers. we are not responsible for your