2020-10-28 14:50:55
The financial crisis was in full swing when Donald Trump traveled to Chicago in late September 2008 to mark the near-completion of his 92-floor skyscraper.
2008年9月底，当唐纳德·特朗普前往芝加哥庆祝他的92层摩天大楼即将竣工之际，金融危机正如火如荼。
The fortunes of big companies, small businesses and millions of Americans — including the Trumps — were in peril. But the family patriarch was jubilant as he stood on the terrace of his gleaming glass tower.
全国大小公司乃至数百万美国人的财富都岌岌可危，包括特朗普家族在内。然而在这座闪闪发光的玻璃塔楼上，他作为家族里的大家长出现在露台时却显得喜气洋洋。
“We’re in love with the building,” Trump gushed. “We’re very, very happy with what’s happened with respect to this building and how fast we put it up.”
“我们爱上了这栋大楼，”特朗普滔滔不绝。“我们对这栋建筑情况，以及我们建造它的速度感到非常非常满意。”
He and his family hoped the Trump International Hotel & Tower would cement their company’s reputation as one of the world’s marquee developers of luxury real estate.
他和家人希望特朗普国际酒店大厦(Trump International Hotel & Tower)能巩固他们公司作为世界著名豪华房地产开发商之一的声誉。
Instead, the skyscraper became another disappointment in a portfolio filled with them. Construction lagged. Condos proved hard to sell. Retail space sat vacant.
事与愿违，在充斥各种摩天大楼的投资组合里，这座摩天大楼再度令人失望。工期滞后。公寓很难售出。零售空间空置。
Yet for Trump and his company, the Chicago experience also turned out to be something else: the latest example of his ability to strong-arm major financial institutions and exploit the tax code to cushion the blow of his repeated business failures.
然而，对特朗普和他的公司来说，芝加哥的经历带来了另外的东西：成为他有能力对重要金融机构施加强硬手段，并且利用税法来缓冲屡次经营失败所带来打击的最新证据。
The president’s federal income tax records, obtained by The New York Times, show for the first time that, since 2010, his lenders have forgiven about $287 million in debt that he failed to repay. The vast majority was related to the Chicago project.
《纽约时报》获得的总统的联邦所得税记录首次显示，自2010年以来，他的贷款人已免除了他未能偿还的约2.87亿美元债务。其中绝大多数都与芝加哥项目有关。
How Trump found trouble in Chicago, and maneuvered his way out of it, is a case study in doing business the Trump way.
特朗普如何在芝加哥惹上麻烦，并且通过策略摆脱困境，堪称特朗普生意方式的案例研究。
When the project encountered problems, he tried to walk away from his huge debts. For most individuals or businesses, that would have been a recipe for ruin. But tax-return data, other records and interviews show that rather than warring with a notoriously litigious and headline-seeking client, lenders cut Trump slack — exactly what he seemed to have been counting on.
当项目遇到问题时，他试图摆脱巨额债务。对于大多数个人或企业来说，这将是一条毁灭之路。但纳税申报数据、其他记录和采访显示，放贷机构并没有与这位出了名的爱打官司、喜欢上新闻的客户交战，而是放了特朗普一马——这正是他似乎一直指望的。
Big banks and hedge funds gave him years of extra time to repay his debts. Even after Trump sued his largest lender, accusing it of preying on him, the bank agreed to lend him another $99 million — more than twice as much as was previously known — so that he could pay back what he still owed the bank on the defaulted Chicago loan, records show.
大银行和对冲基金给了他数年的额外时间来偿还债务。记录显示，即使在特朗普起诉他最大的贷款人，指责其对他进行掠夺之后，银行还是同意再借给他9900万美元——比之前所知的多出一倍以上——这样他就可以偿还在芝加哥违约贷款方面拖欠银行的钱。
Ultimately, Trump’s lenders forgave much of what he owed.
最终，特朗普的债主们免除了他的大部分欠款。
Those forgiven debts are now part of a broader investigation of Trump’s business by the New York attorney general. They normally would have generated a big tax bill, since the Internal Revenue Service treats canceled debts as income. Yet as has often happened in his long career, Trump appears to have paid almost no federal income tax on that money, in part because of large losses in his other businesses, The Times’ analysis of his tax records found.
这些被免除的债务现在包括在纽约司法部长对特朗普的业务更广泛的调查之内。它们通常会产生一大笔税单，因为国税局将勾销债务视为收入。然而，正如在他漫长的职业生涯中经常发生的那样，特朗普似乎几乎没有为这笔钱缴纳联邦所得税，时报对他的纳税记录进行分析后发现，部分是因为他的其他业务出现了巨额亏损。
Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, said the company and Trump appropriately accounted for and paid all taxes due on the forgiven debts.
特朗普集团的首席法律官艾伦·加滕(Alan Garten)表示，该公司和特朗普妥善核算和支付了所有豁免债务的应缴税款。
“These were all arm’s-length transactions that were voluntarily entered into between sophisticated parties many years ago in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis and the resulting collapse of the real estate markets,” Garten said.
“这些交易都是多年前在2008年全球金融危机及其导致的房地产市场崩溃之后，由经验丰富的各方之间自愿达成的，”加滕说。
On television back in those heady Chicago days, the future president was playing a wildly successful real estate developer, and the shimmering new skyscraper became part of that mystique.
在芝加哥那些风头正劲的日子里，电视上这位未来总统扮演的是一个非常成功的房地产开发商角色，闪闪发光的新摩天大楼也成了这种神秘色彩的一部分。
It was the biggest thing Trump ever built. It was also the last.
这是特朗普建造的最高的一座大厦。也是最后一座。
The Trump International Hotel & Tower would include 486 condominium units, 339 hotel rooms, restaurants, a bar, two parking garages, a health club, a spa, and tens of thousands of square feet in retail space and conference facilities.
特朗普国际酒店大厦计划包括486套共管公寓、339个酒店客房、餐厅、一个酒吧、两个停车场、一个健身俱乐部、一个水疗中心，以及数万平方英尺的零售空间和会议设施。
To pay for the construction, Trump arranged for two of his LLCs, 401 North Wabash Venture — named for the project’s address — and its parent company, 401 Mezz Venture, to borrow more than $700 million.
为了支付建设费用，特朗普安排他的两家有限责任公司——北瓦伯西401公司(401 North Wabash Venture)（以该项目的地址命名）及其母公司梅兹401公司(401 Mezz Venture)——借贷超过7亿美元。
Trump went to his longtime lender, Deutsche Bank, for the bulk of the money. Since 1998, he had borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from the German bank. It had been so eager to establish a foothold in the United States that it had overlooked his history of defaults.
特朗普从他的长期贷款人德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)那里借来了大部分钱。自1998年以来，他已经从这家德国银行借了数亿美元。该银行一直急于在美国立足，以至于忽略了特朗普的违约历史。
This time, Trump assured Deutsche Bank officials, including Justin Kennedy, the son of now-retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, that the Chicago development was a guaranteed moneymaker.
这一次，特朗普向包括现已退休的最高法院大法官安东尼·肯尼迪(Anthony Kennedy)之子贾斯汀·肯尼迪(Justin Kennedy)在内的德意志银行官员保证，芝加哥开发项目一定会赚钱。
Deutsche Bank agreed to lend $640 million to 401 North Wabash Venture. Trump agreed to personally guarantee $40 million of the loan. If his LLC were to default, Deutsche Bank could collect that money directly from Trump.
德意志银行同意向北瓦伯西401公司贷款6.4亿美元。特朗普同意以个人名义担保贷款中的4000万美元。如果他的有限责任公司违约，德意志银行可以直接从特朗普那里收回这笔钱。
Trump also went to Fortress Investment Group, a hedge fund and private equity company, for $130 million. This was a so-called mezzanine loan, which meant that it would be repaid only after the Deutsche Bank debt had been satisfied. Because of the greater risk, the Fortress loan came with a double-digit interest rate.
特朗普还找到对冲基金和私募投资公司城堡投资集团(Fortress Investment Group)借了1.3亿美元。这是一种所谓的夹层贷款，意味着只有在他还完德意志银行的债务后才能偿还这笔钱。由于风险更大，城堡集团给他定了两位数的贷款利率。
If Trump defaulted, his lenders could seize the building.
如果特朗普违约，他的贷款人可以没收这栋大楼。
Using a thick black pen, Trump signed the loan agreements Feb. 4, 2005. A month later, construction began.
2005年2月4日，特朗普用一支粗黑钢笔签下了贷款协议。一个月后，工程开始了。
With the financial crisis enveloping the world, finding buyers for multimillion-dollar apartments suddenly became much harder. In the spring of 2008, Trump asked Deutsche Bank to delay the loan’s due date. The bank gave him an extra six months.
随着金融危机席卷全球，为价值数百万美元的公寓寻找买家突然变得更加困难。2008年春，特朗普请求德意志银行推迟贷款的到期日。该行给了他6个月的额外期限。
In mid-September, the crisis crescendoed with the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. Financial markets went haywire. The economy was on the precipice of a depression.
9月中旬，雷曼兄弟(Lehman Bros)破产，危机进一步加剧。金融市场陷入混乱。经济处于萧条边缘。
Trump sought another extension. This time, Deutsche Bank said no.
特朗普请求再次延期。这一次，德意志银行拒绝了他。
Trump’s company still owed Deutsche Bank about $334 million in principal and interest, and Fortress $130 million, not including interest and fees.
特朗普的公司仍欠德意志银行约3.34亿美元的本息，欠城堡集团约1.3亿美元（不包括利息和费用）。
Trump and his companies sued Deutsche Bank and Fortress, along with the other banks and hedge funds that had purchased pieces of the loans.
特朗普和他的公司起诉了德意志银行和城堡集团，还有其他收购其部分贷款的银行和对冲基金。
Deutsche Bank soon filed its own lawsuit, accusing its longtime client of being a habitual deadbeat and demanding immediate repayment of the now-defaulted loans.
德意志银行很快也提起了自己的诉讼，指控这位长期客户习惯性赖账，要求他立即偿还现已违约的贷款。
Why didn’t the lenders seize the building?
贷款人为什么不没收那栋大楼？
Going to court to take over the unfinished skyscraper promised to be a costly, yearslong process, especially given Trump’s reputation for using the legal system to drag out fights and grind down opponents. It seemed simpler to resolve the dispute.
要想通过法庭接管这座尚未完工的摩天大楼，势必得经历一个花费巨大、耗时多年的过程，尤其考虑到特朗普还以利用司法体系拖延官司、消耗对手而闻名。直接解决争端似乎更简单一些。
On July 28, 2010, lawyers for Trump, Deutsche Bank and Fortress notified the court that they had reached a private settlement. The terms weren’t disclosed.
2010年7月28日，代表特朗普、德意志银行和城堡集团的律师通知法庭，他们已私下达成和解。具体的和解条款没有披露。
But Trump’s federal tax returns, as well as loan documents filed in Cook County, Illinois, provide clues to what happened: Trump was let off the hook for about $270 million. It was the type of generous financial break that few American companies or individuals could ever expect to receive, especially without filing for bankruptcy protection.
但特朗普的联邦报税记录，以及他在伊利诺伊州库克县提交的贷款文件，为和解的结果提供了线索：特朗普摆脱了约2.7亿美元的债务。很少有美国企业或个人能指望得到这么慷慨的财务减免，尤其是在没有申请破产保护的情况下。
Although Deutsche Bank had vowed to do no more business with Trump, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, introduced him to his personal wealth manager at the bank, Rosemary Vrablic. Vrablic, with the support of her superiors, soon agreed to restart the relationship with Trump.
尽管德意志银行曾发誓不再与特朗普做生意，但他的女婿贾里德·库什纳(Jared Kushner)把他介绍给了自己在该行的个人理财经理罗斯玛丽·弗拉布里奇(Rosemary Vrablic)。在上级的支持下，弗拉布里奇很快同意与特朗普重新开始合作关系。
In 2012, Vrablic’s division made two loans secured by the Chicago skyscraper: one for nearly $54 million, another for $45 million, according to loan documents filed with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds. Trump agreed to personally guarantee the new loans, according to several people familiar with the deal.
根据向库克县事务记录处提交的贷款文件，2012年，弗拉布里奇所在部门提供了两笔以那栋芝加哥摩天大楼为抵押的贷款：一笔近5400万美元，另一笔为4500万美元。据几位知情人透露，特朗普同意以个人名义担保这些新贷款。
The funds were used to immediately repay the $99 million that Trump still owed on the original Chicago loan, the people said. In other words, one wing of Deutsche Bank was providing Trump the money to repay another division of the same bank.
知情人称，这笔资金立刻被用于偿还他最初那笔芝加哥贷款中仍拖欠的9900万美元。换句话说，德意志银行的一个部门向特朗普提供了资金，让他偿还了在该行另一个部门的欠款。
At that time, the Chicago loans were only one element of the relationship between Deutsche Bank and Trump. Vrablic’s team also lent Trump’s company $125 million for work on his Doral golf resort in Florida and up to $170 million to transform the Old Post Office building in Washington into a luxury hotel. Trump personally guaranteed those loans, too.
当时，芝加哥的贷款只是德意志银行与特朗普合作关系的一部分。弗拉布里奇的团队还借给特朗普的公司1.25亿美元，用于建设他在佛罗里达州的多拉尔(Doral)高尔夫度假村，以及多达1.7亿美元贷款，用于把华盛顿的老邮局(Old Post Office)大楼改造成一家豪华酒店。特朗普同样以个人名义担保了这些贷款。
The guarantees were advantageous for him. Because they counted as investments in his business for tax purposes, the guarantees increased the amount of losses he could use to avoid income taxes in the future. Trump’s federal tax returns show that he has personally guaranteed the repayment of $421 million in debts.
这些担保对他有利。因为它们被算作出于税收目的对他的生意进行的投资，能增加他的亏损额度，用于避免未来的所得税。特朗普的联邦报税记录显示，他个人担保偿还的债务达到4.21亿美元。
But the skyscraper’s fortunes have withered. Most of its retail space has never been occupied, The Real Deal reported last year.
但那栋摩天大楼的财富还是缩水了。Real Deal去年报道称，大楼的大部分零售空间从未被使用过。
The bank offered to let Trump’s companies pause interest payments on their loans. The Trump Organization decided the bank’s proposal was insufficiently generous and turned it down.
德意志银行表示允许特朗普的公司暂停支付贷款利息。特朗普集团认为该行的提议不够慷慨，拒绝了它。
The loans come due in 2023 and 2024.
这些贷款将在2023年和2024年到期。
David Enrich是一名金融编辑。他是关于德意志银行和唐纳德·特朗普的《黑暗塔楼》(Dark Towers)一书的作者。欢迎在Twitter和Facebook上关注他。
Russ Buettner是时报一名调查记者。2019年，Russ及其同事Susanne Craig和David Barstow的报道打破了特朗普的白手起家亿万富翁神话，获得普利策奖。他们还凭此项报道获得了一项波尔克奖。他此前在《纽约每日新闻》和《纽约每日新闻报》工作。欢迎在Twitter上关注他：@russbuettner。
Mike McIntire是调查部门的一名记者。他凭借对俄罗斯干预2016年总统大选的报道获得了一项普利策奖，并且对竞选财务、枪支暴力及大学体育腐败进行了深入报道。欢迎在Twitter上关注他：@mmcintire。
Susanne Craig是一名调查记者，报道政治、金钱及政府之间的交叉领域。她在职业生涯中获得过多个奖项，包括2019年的普利策奖，获奖报道打破了特朗普的白手起家亿万富翁神话。她还为时报报道华尔街，并且曾担任奥尔巴尼分社社长。此前她在《华尔街日报》及加拿大的《环球邮报》工作。欢迎在Twitter上关注她：@susannecraig。
翻译：晋其角、Harry Wong
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