Rosemary Vrablic in 2013.
Photographer: Michael Nagle / Redux
Photographer: Michael Nagle / Redux
Rosemary Vrablic, Donald Trump’s longtime banker, came out Deutsche Bank AG in December after an internal investigation found that it was involved in “undisclosed activities” related to a real estate deal.
Vrablic was “allowed to resign” as a result of the investigation, according to a disclosure of the bank to the financial industry regulatory authority BrokerCheck service. Activities included “buying the property from a customer-managed entity and training an unapproved external entity to maintain the investment,” the bank said in the report.
Vrablic’s teammate Dominic Scalzi also resigned in December for the same reason, according to a separate disclosure from Finra.
A Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank representative declined to comment beyond the information it shared with Finra, and Vrablic and Scalzi did not immediately respond to calls for comment. The New York Times reported the reason for Vrablic’s departure Wednesday.
The firm began in August to review a real estate transaction between Vrablic and Scalzi and a company partially owned by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Vrablic, who worked in the private banking division, helped manage Trump’s relationship with the bank as he lent hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s company for several years. This relationship put Deutsche Bank under pressure from lawmakers and prosecutors to obtain information during Trump’s presidency.
Cutting ties
Deutsche Bank he severed ties with Trump in January after the deadly riots at the U.S. Capitol, but the former president still owes the bank more than $ 300 million. The total includes $ 125 million for Trump’s Doral Golf Complex in Miami, which is due to be delivered in 2023, and about $ 170 million for the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which is due to be delivered in 2024.
Vrablic, who grew up in the Bronx and then in Scarsdale, New York, graduated from Fordham University in 1982 with a degree in economics during the recession. The only job he could get was as a bank teller, according to David Enrich’s “Dark Towers,” which details the links between Trump and the German lender.
A casual meeting on a train with a Bank Leumi executive assured Vrablic of a position in the Israeli bank’s credit formation group. A few years later he landed in Citicorp’s private bakery division, where a reputation was built by providing large loans to wealthy New York real estate families.
Deutsche Bank hired her in 2006 to strengthen its private banking division, giving Vrablic a guarantee of $ 5 million a year, according to Enrich’s book.
One of his clients was Jared Kushner, who after his marriage to Ivanka brought Trump and Vrablic together to provide financing, even though Trump was fighting with Deutsche Bank for another loan, according to the book.
This turned Vrablic into a controversial figure within the bank. In 2012, Trump took advantage of Deutsche Bank to finance his acquisition of Doral against the lenders ’investment bankers’ objections, according to the book.
– With the assistance of Max Abelson
(Updates with the size of Trump’s loans in the seventh paragraph, Vrablic’s background from the eighth.)