Trump dismisses report that 'very good and highly professional' Deutsche Bank ignored warnings that his accounts could be linked to financial crime
- President Donald Trump lashed out at a New York Times report Monday, in which former Deutsche Bank employees claimed that concerns about potentially illicit activity from accounts tied to Trump were ignored.
- According to the report, several banks refused to do business with Trump.
- In the tweets, Trump claimed that he didn't seek the custom of other banks "because I didn't need money."
- "Deutsche Bank was very good and highly professional to deal with - and if for any reason I didn't like them, I would have gone elsewhere," tweeted the president.
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President Donald Trump in a series of early morning tweets lashed out at a New York Times report in which former employees claimed that they were ignored when they raised concerns about accounts connected to the president.
The report claims that anti-money-laundering specialists at the bank recommended that numerous transactions involving entities controlled by Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner should be referred to a federal financial-crimes watchdog.
According to the report, Deutsche Bank lent Trump and his businesses $2.5 billion at a time when "most Wall Street banks had stopped doing business with him after his repeated defaults."
"The Failing New York Times (it will pass away when I leave office in 6 years), and others of the Fake News Media, keep writing phony stories about how I didn't use many banks because they didn't want to do business with me. WRONG! It is because I didn't need money," Trump tweeted.
"Very old fashioned, but true. When you don't need or want money, you don't need or want banks. Banks have always been available to me, they want to make money. Fake Media only says this to disparage, and always uses unnamed sources (because their sources don't even exist)."
He went on to praise Deutsche Bank, which he described as "highly professional."
He continued: "The new big story is that Trump made a lot of money and buys everything for cash, he doesn't need banks. But where did he get all of that cash? Could it be Russia?
"No, I built a great business and don't need banks, but if I did they would be there...and Deutsche Bank was very good and highly professional to deal with - and if for any reason I didn't like them, I would have gone elsewhere....there was always plenty of money around and banks to choose from.
"They would be very happy to take my money. Fake News!"
Speculation has long existed about Trump's ties to Deutsche Bank, which lent the then businessman millions when he was refused loans by other banks.
Five former employees with the bank told the New York Times they had filed reports about suspicious activity by accounts connected to the Trump organization.
During the Monday tweetstorm, the president went on to claim that there were "two tweets missing from the last batch," but provided no further details, blaming it on a "Twitter error."