US President Donald Trump’s plan to build and operate Sydney’s first casino were killed off due to his consortium’s “mafia connections,” according to documents made public yesterday after 30 years.
Trump was in the running for the contract in 1987 with joint-venture partner the Kern Corp, but Australian police were so concerned they recommended it be excluded.
At the time, Trump operated two casinos in Atlantic City — Trump Plaza and Trump’s Castle — and was close to owning a third.
“Atlantic City would be a dubious model for Sydney and in our judgement, the Trump Mafia connections should exclude the Kern/Trump consortium,” the New South Wales Police Board said in report dated April 3, 1987.
A summary of the board’s position was contained in Cabinet minutes from the then-New South Wales Labor government on May 4 that year, released yesterday, after being declassified and confirming revelations in the Australian newspaper last month.
No further details on the alleged mafia links were provided.
The documents said the consortium’s plans were “rich and attractive,” and it had the capacity to operate a casino, but added that its revenue estimates were “not soundly based.”
Of the four bidders for the project, the police board cautioned against three of them, including the Hong Kong Macau Sydney consortium due to its “Chinese Triad association.”
The project was later shelved.
Before the documents were declassified, the Australian recounted how Trump in February 1987 boasted about his plans to the newspaper.
The newspaper cited a retired businessman involved in the Trump bid as saying that he was unaware of the police board recommendation.
“All of us had to undergo police investigation; we were told that everyone had to be cleared from a police perspective,” he said, declining to be named.
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