The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative

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The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative (formerly Trump University , now also Trump Wealth Institute ) is an American company that belongs to the Trump Organization and sold crash courses on business start-ups, asset management , wealth growth and real estate trading, which were supplemented by e-learning offers. In 2010, business operations were effectively discontinued. Since then, no more courses have been distributed.

Company and business model

The company was founded in 2004 by the entrepreneur and current US President Donald Trump , Michael Sexton and Jonathan Spitalny as Trump University LLC , which began operations on May 23, 2005. The so-called Trump Institute sold similar offers in Florida between 2006 and 2009 under license from Trump University, which were advertised by Donald Trump.

Free 90-minute “taster courses ” were held in 700 locations across the United States , with attendees trying to sell multi-day seminars. The fees for this ranged from $ 1,495 to $ 34,995 per event. The offer was advertised in newspaper advertisements and through spam e -mails in which Donald Trump promised that "handpicked" "incredible minds" would let the graduates in on the "secret of his success" and enable them to get rich quickly through property speculation and to provide them with donors for these transactions. The lecturers, who against Trump's better judgment and a. When professors and real estate experts were advertised, they worked on a commission basis and carried out the events, the sequence of which was laid down in a kind of script up to room temperature , with the aim of encouraging participants to book courses that were subject to a fee.

A total of 80,308 people took part in 2,000 free events, and 7,611 booked a paid offer. There were no properties of their own or premises for courses. Halls were rented for the events.

Trump University was neither recognized as an educational institution nor accredited as a university or college . On May 27, 2005, the New York State Education Department notified the company that it was violating the New York Education Law by using the misleading name "University" on the company . It was only after the threat of legal action in April 2010 that the company was renamed The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative in June 2010 and briefly called itself the Trump Wealth Institute in 2008 .

In May 2011, the company was the subject of an investigation by the New York City Prosecutor's Office of Illicit Business Practices, which resulted in a lawsuit on August 24, 2013.

Fraud allegations

On August 24, 2013, gave New York a civil action , a payment of 40 million US dollars against the company, which had its activity essentially set since of 2010. The lawsuit was based on the allegation that Trump University employees engaged in illegal business practices and made false promises.

Donald Trump denied the allegations, citing a 98% satisfaction rate. Trump described the New York attorney general ( Attorney General ) Eric Schneiderman as " a political hack looking to get publicity ".

Commenting on this, Schneiderman said: “We began by observing Trump University and discovered that their business was a classic example of a bait -and-switch scheme . It was a scam that began with the fact that it wasn't a university. "Schneiderman accused Trump of fraudulently getting 5,000 people to pay up to US $ 35,000 (inflation-adjusted: € 38,300), to learn the real estate business.

Trump gave contradicting information. In one infomercial , he said, “And honestly, if you can't learn from them, if you don't learn from me, if you don't learn from the people we put in front of you, and these are all the people I've picked then you just won't make it to world class success. ”Trump said in 2012 - contradicting claims in Trump University promotional brochures and sales materials that contrary to statements by Trump University and statements which he did in the infomercial, he neither selected the teachers nor looked at the curriculum.

In October 2014, a New York judge found Trump guilty of violating the state's educational laws.

In a separate trial in mid-February 2014, San Diego federal judge Gonzalo P. Curiel admitted lawsuits in California, Florida and New York by students who believed they had been defrauded by Trump's institute. Trump later mentioned that the judge was a Hispanic , which made them biased against him. Attorney General Schneiderman referred to this as racial baiting .

Trump University filed a lawsuit against a former customer, Tarla Makaeff, in 2010. The amount in dispute was $ 1 million. Makaeff paid approximately $ 37,000 for seminars, then participated in a class action lawsuit against the university and posted her experiences on social media. However, the company lost this " SLAPP lawsuit" and a US district judge sentenced it in April 2015 to pay Makaeff and her lawyers the equivalent of € 720,000. The Trump organization announced legal action against the judgment.

During the 2016 presidential primaries , two of Trump's Republican rivals, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio , confronted Trump with the history of Trump University in February of that year . Despite Trump's claim at the time that he had won most of the lawsuits, all three lawsuits were still pending at the time.

Christopher L. Peterson of the University of Utah suggested that a possible President Donald Trump could be removed from office because of the Trump University affair. If systematic fraud in connection with Trump University is confirmed, this is a serious crime. This could become the basis for impeachment proceedings, since under American law impeachment on the basis of crimes that were committed before the swearing-in was possible.

On November 18, 2016, 10 days after his election as U.S. President, Trump announced his intention to pay plaintiffs $ 25 million to end all pending lawsuits related to Trump University's activities. Trump had previously claimed that he would not agree on a settlement on principle, especially since he had not done anything illegal.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Seth Gitell: I Survived Trump University ... And I even kind of liked it. politico.com, March 8, 2016, accessed November 26, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Exciting News! - Opportunities for Entrepreneurs Have Never Been Better! (No longer available online.) Trumpinitiative.com, 2010, archived from the original on July 22, 2010 ; Retrieved November 26, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b c Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman, Dalton Bennett: Donald Trump said 'university' was all about education. Actually, its goal was: 'Sell, sell, sell!' washingtonpost.com, June 4, 2016, accessed November 26, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Joe Mullin, Jonathan Kaminsky: Trump University and the art of the get-rich seminar. arstechnica.com, April 29, 2016, accessed November 26, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Alex Leary: In Trump Institute, Donald Trump had Florida partners with a record of fraud. tampabay.com, June 30, 2016, accessed November 26, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Jonathan Martin: Trump Institute Offered Get-Rich Schemes With Plagiarized Lessons. nytimes.com, June 29, 2016, accessed November 26, 2016 .
  7. ^ A b c Steven Brill: What the Legal Battle Over Trump University Reveals About Its Founder. time.com, November 5, 2015, accessed November 26, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Michael Barbaro: New York Attorney General Is Investigating Trump's For-Profit School . May 19, 2011 on nytimes.com
  9. ↑ a b Alex Beam: The relentless pursuit of Trump U. (No longer available online.) Boston.com, 2010, archived from the original on January 28, 2007 ; Retrieved November 26, 2016 .
  10. ^ Greg Levine: Trump University Founded For Student 'Customers' . May 23, 2005 on forbes.com
  11. ↑ David Halperin: NY Court Refuses to Dismiss Trump University Case, Describes Fraud Allegations. huffingtonpost.com, March 3, 2016, accessed November 26, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Douglas Feiden: State educrats give failing grade to Donald Trump's 'misleading' Trump University. nydailynews.com, April 15, 2010, accessed November 26, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Kevin McCoy: Trump faces two-front legal fight over 'university'. usatoday.com, August 26, 2013, accessed November 26, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Kenneth Lovett: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman files Donald Trump 'University' $ 40 million fraud suit . In: New York Daily News , August 24, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2016. 
  15. ^ Alan Feuer: Trump University Made False Claims, Lawsuit Says . In: The New York Times . August 24, 2013.
  16. ↑ Michael Gormley: Trump Calls NY Attorney General a 'Political Hack' . ABC News. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved on August 26, 2013.
  17. ^ Prosecutor: Trump lawsuit no stunt . On August 26, 2013 on cnn.com
  18. ^ A b Eddie Curran: New York judge finds Donald Trump liable for unlicensed school . Reuters . October 16, 2014. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  19. ↑ Karen Freifeld: Trump University swindled me, says Iowa retiree . aminewswire.com. February 1, 2016. Archived from the original on February 4, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 1, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / aminewswire.com
  20. ↑ Fire Ant: Donald Trump to Face Fraud, Racketeering Claims in California Class Actions. New York Fraud Case Continues . In: New Times Broward-Palm Beach . Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  21. ^ Reena Flores: Donald Trump rails against Hispanic judge in Trump University case. In: cbsnews.com. May 28, 2016, accessed February 22, 2019 .
  22. ^ New York Attorney General Schneiderman Fires Back At Trump For Hispanic Judge Remark . CBS New York. February 27, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  23. ↑ Michael Barbaro: Buying a Trump Property, or So They Thought . In: The New York Times , May 12, 2011. Retrieved August 31, 2015. 
  24. ↑ Rebekah Kearns: $ 798,000 Award Against Trump University . In: Courthouse News Services , April 30, 2015. Retrieved August 31, 2015. 
  25. ↑ Philip Bump: Marco Rubio came out swinging at Trump and one punch really landed Trump University . February 25, 2016 on washingtonpost.com
  26. ^ A b c Transcript of the Republican Presidential Debate in Houston. nytimes.com, February 25, 2016, accessed November 26, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Michelle Ye Hee Lee: Donald Trump's misleading claim that he's 'won most of' lawsuits over Trump University . Washington Post. February 27, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  28. ↑ Hubertus Volmer: The man who rules when Trump doesn't want to . On October 5, 2016 on n-tv.de
  29. ↑ Trump settles Trump University lawsuits for $ 25m. BBC , November 19, 2016, accessed November 21, 2016 .
  30. ↑ Steve Eder: Donald Trump Agrees to Pay $ 25 Million in Trump University Settlement . In: The New York Times , November 18, 2016. 
  31. ↑ Kenneth Lovett, Nancy Dillon: Donald Trump Agrees to Pay $ 25 Million in Trump University Settlement . In: New York Daily News , Nov. 18, 2016.