Jared Kushner's personal banker is under review by Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank has launched an internal review into the
personal banker for President Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kusher,
The New York Times first reported Sunday and Business Insider confirmed.
The company is looking into Rosemary Vrablic and two of her
coworkers regarding a 2013 purchase of an approximately $1.5 million apartment
on New York City's Park Avenue from the real estate firm Bergel 715 Associates,
a company that Kushner has a financial stake in, according to The Times.
Kushner disclosed Friday in a financial report that he and
his wife, Ivanka Trump, earned between $1 million and $5 million in income from
Bergel 715, and a source told The Times that Kushner was a part-owner of the
firm when the transaction was made.
Banks often have policies barring employees from doing
personal business with their clients in order to avoid conflicts of interest
between bankers and their employer.
Deutsche Bank spokesperson Daniel Hunter confirmed the
review and directed Business Insider to its statement to The Times, which said:
"The bank will closely examine the information that came to light on
Friday and the fact pattern from 2013."
Deutsche Bank also told The Times that it was not aware that
its employees — Vrablic, as well as Dominic Scalzi and Matthew Pontoriero, two
of her coworkers on the company's private-banking team — had done business with
a company connected to Kushner until contacted by the paper.
Kushner and his family have banked with Vrablic since before
she started at Deutsche Bank in 2011, according to The Times, and he told the
House Intelligence Committee that he introduced Trump to Vrablic "about
six years ago."
Vrablic entered the public spotlight during Trump's 2016
presidential campaign when he told The Times in an interview about his alleged
struggle finding bankers: "Why don't you call the head of Deutsche Bank?
Her name is Rosemary Vrablic." (Vrablic is and was not the head of
Deutsche Bank; that was John Cryan at the time).
Trump's relationship with Deutsche Bank has repeatedly come
under scrutiny. Last year, The Times reported that the bank had loaned him more
than $2 billion over more than two decades — with Vrablic personally steering
more than $300 million his way despite his long history of defaults.
Federal prosecutors from multiple jurisdictions including
the FBI opened an investigation last year into Deutsche Bank after an employee
flagged a series of suspicious money transfers between Kushner Companies and
Russians.
Lawmakers have also been seeking to use the bank as a way to
gain a window into Trump's personal finances, as it has acknowledged it holds
private copies of his tax returns.
Kushner and Vrablic could not be reached for comment on this
story.
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