Apparently he got the nickname of the commodore in his days as a kid running those Ferry Services in new york harbor. The other guys who worked the harbor alongside him called Him Commodore as a way of teasing him. And it stuck. And then that kid who they mocked as the commodore grew up to amass one of the largest fortunes in american history. The kind of fortune that leaves a mark. In 1917 right next to the thenbrand new Grand Central station opposite vand built avenue, a huge new hotel went up with thousands of rooms. It was called the Commodore Hotel. It was named after correspond kneel i couldnt say, the Commodore Vand built. Had a statute of him right out front. And that hotel was one of new yorks big successful shmancy centrally located famous
it was a big deal because the Commodore Hotel was a big Landmark Piece of new York Real Estate right next to Grand Central station. It also had this poetic storied connection to the great vanderbilt family. But it was a highprofile deal bec
$2.8 million. it was an example off extraordinary flimflammery. audittors found trump in this letter he signed formally authorized accounting changes that understated the hotel s profits to lower what was owed the city in rental fees. uniquey? it was very sneaky. he cheated the city a substantial sum of money. she was the new york city auditor general in 1986. and it took a couple of years, tons of stone walling on the part of trump, but container ber seen the and her team did audit and report on how trump was running that business. and her public report concluded that basically trump was running two sets of books. one that was the real estimate of prochltsd at the hotel and another set they used just for this deal with the city to try to maintain a front that showed that the hotel was broke and
didn t have to pay the city anything. the city s audit said trump used, quote, an accounting methodology that the abrent and distoretive to make it look like the hotel owed less to the city. abc looked at this again last year. cbs got forensic audittors to look at the five kids. they described, quote, failures in basic bookkeeping, and efforts to stymie officials. in the course of trying to do this audit at the hotel back in the day, the autotors at one point were physically blocked from being allowed into the trump hotel to start the audit and that went on for more than a year. according to the cbs s report, it was what the city s audittors