Too small. 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. Uhhuh. Reporter do you think the Trump Organization and the trump family are trying to distance themselves from you . I wouldnt say that theyre trying, because i dont think that i can harm them. Reporter it took months to track Alexander Ventura down and persuade limb to shim to sit wi interview. He asked we disguise his appearance, hes on the run in panama wanted for fraud saying he sold hundreds of United Nations in the trump club to hide their identities. Banks werent asking questions where the money was coming from . No. Never. Reporter sounds like nobody was asking questions. Not you, not the Trump Organization, not the banks, not the developers . Nobody. Nobody. Reporte nobody checked anybody out. People were buying, Spending Millions 5, 10, 20 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. In 1992, 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 buying in his building . He didnt know. Reporter how could he not have known . Because you dont walk up to somebody, hey, are you Russian Mafia . Reporter is it fair to say trump didnt ask because he didnt want to know. Would you want to know . Reporter i would want to know whos buying a building with my name on it. Because its you. Most, no. They dont care. Reporter a team from global witness, an anticorruption watchdog often critic al of businesses and their connections to Government Officials spent reporter take the cocaine and turn it into a building . Yeah. Reporter how do you know. I saw it happening. Reporter this booming market the Trump Organization was entering plans seen in this marketing el strags, 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 small time local businessman, roger kafif, the buildings main builder. Ivanka met the team. My company would be selling the United Nations art according to ventura, ivanka was planning to presell units around 120,000 each. Ventura said he could tell them for a lot more. Reporter what did she say . Happy with that, but can you sell it at that price . I said, yes. The agreement, i had a week to sell 100 units. Reporter how did you them them in a week . Easy to stell in fact with
his name. Reporter the name of the most famous man in real estate also the building salesman in chief. One of the great things about panama, not only the beautiful building but incredible views. The name trump was magic. And he came down. Donald trump came down. He has a great presence. Hes a fabulous marketing person. Reporter but 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 the finishings of the project. And the prices. When is going to be released. When it not going to be released it. Everything they did with the project, because according to the contract, Trump Organization has to approve everything, because his name on the project anyway. Reporter sounds like the Trump Organization, specifically ivanka, was deeply involved . Yes. She was the person responsibility for the project. Reporter ventura, had a
small real estate agency, 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 homes were targeting . Russians. Russians that had dirty money. Reporter specifically . Specifically. And then the Russian Mafia came in. A guy called Alexander Sasha ocho. Reporter what was he doing in panama . Came down made a proposal to ventura and made him an offer he couldnt refuse. Reporter he became a partner in venturas Marketing Firm but we cant verify his connection to the Russian Mafia because although the allegation has been repeated in several court cases, he seems to fend off the charges every time. Another partner, stanislav bought several units in the building and since accused of running a Prostitution Ring in canada but the case was dropped
when both key witnesses disappeared. The firms representative in kiev later found by a Ukrainian Court guilty of people smuggling. One of the customers who bought units in the building was an exconvict who served time in israel for kidnapping and those are just the ones we managed to identify. Claiming He Didnt Know it at the time, ventura admits he was selling places in the building to russian customers. I can some customers with questionable background. Reporter what does that mean . I mean you know, i fund out later. Not in the beginning from like belongs to mafia. Russian mafia, things like that. But, anyway, i was not getting paid in cash. Reporter that is not the story we heard from freezener. They used half a dozen lawyers, would come pick up 1 million in a satchel. Reporter happening at the Trump Ocean Club . Yeah. Reporter so ventura was
marketing the Trump Ocean Club 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 money. The money was turned over consistently. Reporter how does a luxury tower become a Money Laundromat . The buyer uses dirty money to buy unit 1605 in the unbuilt to you perp 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. And that should be relatively easy. But not in panama. Our investigation led us here to panamas public registry. After going through a lot of paperwork a pattern started to emerge. Tushs out many of the condo units arent owned by individuals but panamanian
corporations, often with generic names like ocean trump 1605 investment corporation. So why would someone use a corporation to buy a condo . Often to hide the identity of the real buyer. One of the things we, with these Shell Companies is, you can simply transfer the company, the buyers share, to anybody you want. Reporter you set up a shell company. Nobody knows whos the actual owner, and then you buy the unit. Get a piece of paper saying you own the unit. Youre the owner. Reporter and do what you want with that . Youre holding money. Holding 1 million. Not even a check. In a bears share. You can transfer it to anybody. Reporter fold if and put it in your pocket . Correct. Reporter you were coming in with Hundreds Of Buy Jers did the Trump Organization want to know who these buyers were . Where the money was coming from . No. Not that im aware of. You know . No. Not at all. Reporter did they ever ask you . No. Reporter were these buyers planning on living in these units, in these apartments . Most of them, no. Reporter that never raised alarm bells with you . Somebody buying 15 units, doesnt want to live in the place, from from russia . No. Because that was normal. They had laundry money, thats their problem. Reporter and it wasnt just russians. One of the most famous Money Launderers in the world, Davide Guzman bought units in the building too. We met a former panamanian prosecutor who worked on the guzman case. [ speaking in Foreign Language ] translator the Guzman Investigation was a vast case and as part of it we had information that Alexandr Ventura was the partner. Reporter we heard the same thing from freezener. Guzman and ventura. Reporter was their relationship between both business partners. They became, after a couple years business partners. Reporter how did they Work Together . How did that collaboration work . David would bring the money in and the money would get distributed. Reporter what about guzman . Ventura, they basically slept in the same bed. Reporter guzman is in u. S. Custody convicted of Laundering Millions of dollars for mexican drug dealers. Reporter were you guzmans man no, no. I had 45 days with him and we never talked about anything illegal. You know . Reporter but he did admit he and guzman did some business together. Reporter so you moved some of guzmans money into the Trump Ocean Club . Yes, i did. Yes. Reporter how many units . Well, not many. I think maybe maximum ten units. Reporter did you investigate ventura and translator yes. Alexandr ventura was in the investigation for Fraud Reporter did you find out . Translator at the time i was working four, five fraud case 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 peer midscheme 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 trump for comment, but her team referred us back to this statement. I believe this is the picture of you with President Trump . Yes, thats correct. Thats maralago, yes. Reporter meeting with him, stop, pose for the photograph. Yes. Reporter Ventura Didnt Mind showing us old pictures as long as we didnt show what he looked like now. Reporter and youre interaction with him is good job . Keep up the good work . Keep selling . Keep selling. Thats it. Reporter how many units did you personally sell . I believe between 350 to 400 units from the project. Reporter worth how much . Over, a little bit over 100 million. Reporter over 100 million . Yes. When the Trump Organization goes into a Licensing Deal, sells its name and brand, on one side the Trump Organization is deeply involved. The family involved. So they can be very handson. Very, very interested when they want to be. When it comes to problems, like there might be dodgy money involved, dodgy clients, they dont want to know. Thats the developers responsibility. Not our responsibility. Look, you spent your life around criminals, or investigating criminals . I was a criminal. Reporter being a criminal. Yeah. Reporter what do you think about the kind of Business 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. A corporation. Thats what it is. Reporter do you think people should be judged by the company they keep and the businesses they run . Erch definitely. 100 . If i was somebody like trump id do a Background Check and 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 trait . In its quality . For Money Laundering . Oh id say aaa. Reporter there is no suggestion that the president or his family were directly involved in any of the illegal activity it that went on here. As we said, they were just licensing out the trump brand. And initially managing the building. Its just that this building was
magnet for dirty money and we found no sign to flaect brand, which is perhaps now our nations most prominent brand from being tarnished by association. The building was opened in 2011. [ applause ] and onstage 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. And youre my friend. Reporter martinelli is now awaiting Extradition Decision in a jail cell in a federal Detention Center in miami. Well tell you that whole story next. More people shop online for the holidays than ever before. clapping and the United StatesPostal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. because we know, even the smallest things
are sometimes the biggest. Welcome back to panama. Since completed in 2011, that building, the Trump Ocean Club we told you about has seen hard times. The Develop Company went bankrupt and seems most everybody who invested in the building lost money. Except, of course, for the Trump Organization. It was forced out of the buildings managements but still runs the hotel side of the business. And even we found when we stayed there recently, the building seems almost empty, the Trump Organization continues to collect a licensing fee, just for the use of the name. Financial filings suggests that by 2010, those fees added up to more than 70 million. Ricardo martinelli, 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. [ applause ] reporter a billionaire with sharp elbows and political ambitions. Ricardo martinelli a Perfect Match for donald trump. I want to just thank you very much for being here today, and youre my friend. [ applause ] great honor. Reporter and martinelli was first to realize his political ambition two one by the time the Trump Ocean Club opened in 2011. He was president of panama. His very presence sent a message. This was a wellconnected project. Martinelli liked to mention every time that he has a very Good Business relation with trump. Reporter law professor Miguel Antonio is an Opposition Member and outspoken critic of martinelli saying the Trump Building could not have opened its doors without the blessing of the president. Did martinelli help get this building off the ground . Sure. Because panama, you can do this kind of thing without the
president advice or the president s agreement. [ cheers and applause ] reporter ricardo martinelli, whom a u. S. Diplomat described in a leaked cable having a limited Attention Span and making strong impulsive decisions had much in common with the future president of the United States. Like trump, martinelli also built himself a lucrative real estate empire. Owned panamas largest chain of supermarkets, but money wasnt enough. Martinelli wanted power, too, why he decided to run for president. And this man is head of the Panamanian Branch of Transparency International. Finding many similarities with candidate trump. Lack of experience in government management, campaigning on the ticket of the outsider. Reporter in 2009, martinelli ran a colorful campaign. [ applause ] his antics earned him the
nickname, loco the crazy one. A name he embraced. Created a slogan during the campaign. We the crazy people are the majority. Reporter and they were. Martinelli won by a landslide on the promise of a Better Future for panama. For a while it seemed hed kept his word. The economy boomed, unemployment dropped, martinelli oversaw expansion of the panama canal and opened a sub Swaye Systway soon allegations of corruption started to surface. Martinelli was bhmore than a president. An absolute monarch. Former mayor of panama city and Leader Of The OppositionAccusing Marti