Real estate deal prompted resignation of Trump’s longtime banker

Internal probe at Deutsche Bank ended in Rosemary Vrablic’s ouster

Donald Trump and Rosemary Vrablic (Getty/Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)
Donald Trump and Rosemary Vrablic (Getty/Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)

New details about the resignation of former President Donald Trump’s longtime personal banker at Deutsche Bank were revealed Wednesday in a regulatory filing.

Rosemary Vrablic was “permitted to resign” after an internal investigation found she engaged in “undisclosed activities” related to a real estate deal, Bloomberg News reported. Those activities included “the purchase of the property from a client-managed entity, and the formation of an unapproved outside entity to hold the investment,” according to the filing.

Vlabic, along with a colleague in the private banking division, Dominic Scalzi, stepped down at the end of 2020.

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In August 2020, Deutsche Bank initiated an internal review of a Manhattan apartment purchase made by Vrablic and Scalzi from a company partially owned by Trump’s son-in-law, former White House adviser Jared Kushner.

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Vlabic oversaw hundreds of millions in loans to Trump after Kushner, one of her private banking clients, introduced her to Trump. The former president had already defaulted on another loan from Deutsche. The relationship also drew undesired scrutiny from lawmakers and prosecutors.

The German lender signaled in November 2020 that, pending the outcome of the presidential election, it would sever ties with Trump. It publicly did so after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January.

Deutsche Bank still holds more than $300 million in debt from the former president. Those loans will come due soon, with $125 million for the Doral golf resort in Miami maturing in 2023 and $170 million for the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., maturing in 2024.

[Bloomberg News] — Georgia Kromrei