Situation in which we dont know if the president of the United States and his family are using his position to enrich themselves. That kind of concern is one of the main reasons that president ial candidates or their tax returns, its a main reason why people want to see this president s tax returns in particular. People want to know about his foreign sources of income. How much money he is receiving from foreign sources. Can any of that money be traced back to foreign governments, which would be illegal under the constitution . That brings us to tonight. Tonight im very excited to say weve got the perfect person to take us on an unprecedented journey inside President Trumps web of foreign financial ties. Nbcs chief foreign co correspondent Richard Engel takes us to panama. Reporter this 70 story building, curved and lit up like a christmas tree, is unmistakable. This is the Trump Ocean Club. We have spent months going over paperwork and talking to lawyers and, investigators and businessmen. We were trying to figure out who exactly was involved, the investors, brokers and who bought the apartments and hotel rooms. What we found out is that this building attracted enormous amounts of dirty money in particular from russia because of the name on the building, that name is trump. Good evening. Were on assignment in panama city tonight. This is a notorious Money Laundering center. Its where the first tower to be built outside the United States and carry the name trump on it was built. Our investigation shows that criminals from all over the world use this building as a laundromat for their money. The Trump Organization doesnt actually own the building. It made a licensing deal with a local developer. So the president basically just gets paid for the use of his name. Does that mean he cant be held responsible for any of the criminal activity that happened here . The Trump Organization says it does mean just that. Anti corruption experts disagree. Its a question of Good Business practice, they say. Because we have a president who owns a global business, Business Practices matter. Here is our exclusive investigation in conjunction with our friends at reuters into that building. Hello. Im ivanka trump. Reporter it was the first trump branded tower to go up overseas. And the first trump project ivanka led from inception. Visit our lobby, our pool deck, our stateoftheart no request is too large or too small for our team. Reporter now that sense of ownership is gone. The Trump Organization, which no longer runs the building, says it had no hand in vetting the people who financed, sold or bought it. Now that President Trump is in the white house, do you think the Trump Organization and the trump family are trying to distance themselves from you . I wouldnt say that theyre trying. I dont think that i can harm them. Reporter it took months to track alexander down and persuade him to sit down for an interview. He asked that we disguise his appearance. Hes on the run from the law in panama where he is wanted for fraud. He says he sold hundreds of units in the Trump Ocean Club to people who also went to a lot of trouble to hide their identities. The banks werent asking where the money was coming from . No. Never. Reporter sounds like nobody was asking questions. Nobody, no. Reporter not you. Not the Trump Organization. Not the bank. Not the developers. Nobody checked anybody out. Reporter people were spending millions for apartments they were buying five, ten, 10 units at a time. The money would go to ventura. Reporter if you want to know about the flow of dirty money through panama, monty freezener is the man to ask. He was convicted in federal court of 20 counts of Money Laundering and fraud. He still knows all the players. And all the plays. Do you think its possible trump didnt know the kind of people he didnt know. Reporter how could he not have known . Because you dont walk up to somebody, are you russian mafia. Reporter trump didnt ask because he didnt want to know . Would you want to know . I would want to know who is buying. Because its you. Reporter a team from global witness, an anticorruption watchdog that is critical of businesses and their connections to government officials spent months investigating trump branded prombrand Ed Properties around the world. Patrick alley is the cofounder. It was a Money Laundering hot spot. Any responsible businessman should want to know who their clients are and where the money is coming from. If that responsible businessman is now the president of the United States, this is a matter of public interest. Reporter the idea for the Trump Ocean Club was born long before the businessman became president. It was in the 2000s on his hit tv show the apprentice ceo trump made all the decisions. You are fired. You are all fired. Reporter his children were joining the family business. Ivanka trump suggested that they take the trump brand global. Panama seemed like a good place to start. My interest in panama really began when we had the Miss Universe contest in panama, which i own. It was one of the most successful contests. I was in panama. I was there for quite a bit of time. I fell in love with the place. Reporter the panama he was falling in love with was not the panama where more than a third of the population lived in poverty. It was the glamorous waterfront where brandnew luxury towers were being snapped up by the International Hot money crowd. Plane loads of people were coming. They would advertise in miami, toronto, russia. They were preselling all the buildings. The more they built, the more they sold. Nobody occupied the apartments. Reporter they were empty in. Empty buildings. Reporter the buildings he says were a great place to bury dirty money. He says the buildings were almost literally made of drug money. Cocaine concrete. Reporter what is cocaine concrete . Its the money that came from cocaine. A lot of it was drug money. Reporter take the cocaine and you turn it into a building . Yeah. Reporter how do you know this . I was directly involved. I saw it happening. Reporter it was this booming market that the Trump Organization was entering. Plans as seen in this marketing illustration were drawn up for an ambitious tower, the tallest in latin america at the time, with a mix of hotel rooms and highend condos. All on a plot of land owned by a smalltime local businessman, roger kafif, who was going to be the main developer. Ivanka travels to panama to meet the team. Roger introduced me. My company would be selling the units. Reporter ivanka was planning to presell units for around 120,000 each. Ventura said he could sell them for a lot more. What did she say in. She was happy with that. Can you sell it at that price . I said, yes. The agreement was i had a week to sell 100 units. Reporter how did you sell 100 in a week . It was easy to sell with his name. Reporter the name of the most famous man in real estate who was also the buildings salesman and chief. One of the great things about panama, not only the building but the incredible view. The name trump was magic. He came down, donald trump came down. He has a great presence. He is a fabulous marketing person. Reporter according to ventura, it was ivanka trump who handled all the details. What kinds of things did ivanka do . Meeting with the architects, deciding the finishing of the project. The prices. When its going to be released. Everything related to the project. According to the contract, Trump Organization has to approve everything because his name on the project. Reporter it sounds like the Trump Organization specifically ivanka was deeply involved. Yes. I mean, she was the person responsible for the project. Reporter ventura, who had a small real estate agency, was now selling the trump brand. He had made the big leagues. He became overnight a mover of money. Reporter who was it that ventura and the firm holmes were targeting . Russians. Russians that had dirty money. Reporter specifically . Specifically. Then the russian mafia came in. A guy called Alexander Sasha ulchult. Reporter what was he doing . Made a proposal to ventura. Made him an offer he couldnt refuse. Reporter he became a partner in venturas marketing firm. We cant verify his connection to the russian mafia because although the allegation lailaln repeated, he seemed to fend off the charges every time. Another partner also bought several units in the building. He has since been accused of running a prostitution ring in canada. The case was dropped when both key witnesses disappeared. The firms representative in kiev was later found by a Ukrainian Court guilty of people smuggling. One of the customers who bought units was an exconvict who served time for kidnapping. Those are the ones we manage to identify. While claiming he didnt know it at the time, ventura admits he was selling units in the building to members of the russian mafia. I had some customers with some questionable background. Reporter what does that mean . You know. I found out later, not in the beginning, from belongs to mafia, russian mafia or thing like that. Anyway, i was not getting paid in cash. Reporter thats not the story we heard from freezener. Half a dozen lawyers would pick up a million dollars. Reporter that was happening at the Trump Ocean Club . Yeah. Reporter ventura was marketing it as part of a real estate portfolio where corrupt people could park their money . You got it. Reporter and they did . Yeah. But they didnt just park the somebody. Their money was turned over consistently. Reporter how does a luxury tower become a money laundromat. The buyer buys unit 1605. Then sometimes just two weeks later, unit 1605 gets resold. The money coming out of the building is now clean. The proceeds of a legitimate real estate deal. The only way to trace its dirty origins would be to go back to the beginning and identify the original buyer. That should be relatively easy. But not in panama. Our investigation led us here to panamas public registry. Many of the units arent owned by individuals but corporations, off within generic names. So why would someone use a corporation to buy a condo . Often to hide the identity of the real buyer. One of the things with the Shell Companies is you can simply transfer the company the share to anybody you want. Reporter you set up a shell company. Nobody knows who the actual owner is. You buy the unit. Get a piece of paper that says you own the unit. You are the owner. Reporter you can do what you want with that. You are holding a million dollars. Its not even a check. You can transfer it to anybody. Reporter you can fold it and put it in your pocket. Correct. Reporter you were coming in with hundreds of buyers . Did the Trump Organization want to know who the buyers were, where the money was coming from . No. Not that im aware of. Not at all. Reporter did they ask you . No. Reporter were the buyers planning on living in the units . Most of them, no. Reporter that never raised alarm bells with you . Somebody buying 15 units, doesnt want to live in the place from russia . No, because that was normal. Reporter it wasnt just russians. One of the most famous money lawnerers in the world bought units in the building, too. We met a former panamanian prosecutor who worked on the case. Translator the investigation was a vast case. As part of it we had information Alexander Ventura was the partner. They were business partners. After a couple years, they became business partners. Reporter how did that david would bring the money in. The money would get distributed. Reporter what about guzman . They basically slept in the same bed. Reporter guzman is in u. S. Custody convicted of laundering millions of dollars from mexican drug dealers. Were you i had 45 day wi4 45 days wi. Reporter he did admit that he and guzman did some business together. You moved some of his money into the Trump Ocean Club in. Yes, i did. Reporter how many . It was not many. I think maybe maximum ten units. Reporter did you investigate ventur ventura . Translator yes. Alexander ventura was under investigation for fraud. Reporter what did you find out . Translator well, at the time i was working four or five fraud cases he was involved in. Reporter fraud because ventura seems to have gotten too greedy. After a while, collecting a 3 commission wasnt enough. He started selling units on paper in several buildings to more than one buyer at a time. Eventually, his pyramid scheme collapsed. He was arrested and charged with fraud. Somehow he managed to get bail and escape the country. In a statement to nbc news, a spokesman wrote that the Trump Organization was not the owner, developer or seller of the Trump Ocean Club panama project and that the Trump Organization was not responsible for the financing of the project and had no involvement in the sale of units or the retention of any real estate brokers. The spokesman said the Trump Organization had no relationship with ventura or knowledge of the allegations against him. We also asked ivanka for comment. But her team referred us back to this statement. I believe this is the picture of you with President Trump. Thats correct. Thats maralago. Reporter you are meeting with him. You stop. You pose for the photograph. Yes. Reporter ventura didnt mind showing us old pictures as long as we didnt show what he looked like now. Your interaction with him is, good job, keep up the good work . Keep selling. Reporter how many units did you sell . I believe i sold about between 350 to 400 units from the project. Reporter that would be worth how much . A little bit over 100 million. When the Trump Organization goes into a licensing deal, when it sells its name and its brand, on one side the Trump Organization is deeply involved. The family are involved. They can be very hands on, very, very interested when they want to be. When it come to problems like dodgy money involved, they dont want to know. Thats the developers responsibility. Reporter you spent your life around criminals or investigating criminals. I was a criminal. Reporter what do you think about the kind of business that trump was lending his name to . Im not trying to protect him. But he is not the one thats doing all of this. He simply has a name. Corporation. Thats what it is. Reporter do you think people should be judged by the company they keep and the businesses they run . Definitely, 100 . If i was somebody like trump, i would do a background check. I would want to know who they buy their underwear from. So there isnt any connection to any form of crime. Reporter as a former money launderer, the Trump Ocean Club, how would you rate it . For Money Laundering . Reporter for Money Laundering. I would say aaa. Reporter theres no suggestion the president or his family were directly involved in any of the illegal activity that went on here. As we said, they were just licensing out the trump brand. Initially managing the building. Its just that this building was a magnet for dirty money. We found no sign of an attempt by the Trump Organization to protect that brand which is perhaps now our nations most prominent brand from being tarnished by association. The building was opened in 2011. And on stage were three men, our future president , the developer and panamas president who was then a close friend. Thank you very much for being here today. You are my friend. Reporter he is now awaiting an extradition decision in a jail cell in a federal Detention Center in miami. We will tell you that whole story next. Welcome back to panama. Since it was completed in 2011, that building behind me, the Trump Ocean Club we told you all about, has seen some hard times. The Development Company went bankrupt. It seems most everybody who invested in the building lost money. Except, of course, for the Trump Organization. It was forced out of the buildings management but still runs the hotel side. We found when we stayed there the building seems almost empty, the Trump Organization continues to collect a licensing fee, just for the use of the name. Financial filings suggest that by 2010, those fees added up to more than 70 million. The former president of panama, he didnt do as well. The man who helped the Trump Ocean Club get off the ground is now in a federal Detention Center in miami feeling a lot less president ial than he did when he helped inaugurate the building. A bill air with sharp elbows and political ambitions. He was a Perfect Match for donald trump. I want to just thank you very much for being here today. And you are my friend. Great honor. Reporter he was first to realize his political ambition by the time the Trump Ocean Club opened in 2011, he was president of panama. His very presence sent a message, this was a well connected project. He lik