AP Reports Trump Moves to Cancel Deals in Azerbaijan, Georgia
NEW YORK - The Associated Press (AP) reports that the United States' (US) President-elect Donald Trump has canceled a licensing deal for a hotel in Azerbaijan and is taking steps to do the same for a project in Georgia.
Both projects either involved or were associated with people tied to politics, partnerships that could have raised problems once Donald Trump becomes president.
The AP says that the moves by Trump's company follow a cancellation earlier this week of a licensing deal for a hotel in Brazil. The Trump Organization also recently shut down four companies registered in Delaware that had no business operations but appeared tied to Saudi Arabia, possibly vehicles for future projects in the country.
Trump lawyer Alan Garten said Friday that developers for the projects in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Brazil had failed to meet the terms of licensing deals. He described the moves as "normal housekeeping" and not part of a strategy to reduce potential conflicts of interest.
He said the Trump Organization had no moves underway to cancel any other overseas ventures.
The AP reports that governmental ethics experts have been urging Trump to sell his vast holdings and hand the cash to someone with no ties to the president-elect to invest in a way unknown to him, following the practice of most recent presidents.
“They say ridding himself (Trump) of his ownership stake in his business, not just managerial control, is the only way to assure he won't put private profit ahead of public interest in shaping tax, regulatory and foreign policies,” the article reads.
Trump has stakes in about 500 companies in more than 20 countries around the globe, though many of the foreign ventures involve him just lending his name to buildings owned by others.
The Georgia project is for a tower in Batumi. Garten says the president-elect's company sent a "default notice" earlier this month to the developer because it had not lived up to terms of the licensing deal.
Garten described the move as typically a first step to canceling a deal.
However, according to the AP, Bloomberg News had been infomed only last week by the project's local development partner that work would go ahead, and that "talks are on."
Donald Trump visited Georgia in April 2012 to launch new Trump Tower-branded projects in Tbilisi and Batumi.
Construction was scheduled to start in 2013. The Batumi project envisioned an investment of $250 million for a five-star, 47-story building.
By Thea Morrison