Apartment sale to banker for Trump and Kushner probed

Deutsche Bank is investigating a Park Avenue apartment sale by a company part-owned by Jared Kushner to his banker.

Rosemary Vrablic, a private banker at Deutsche Bank for President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Kushner, bought a one-bedroom apartment at 715 Park Avenue in 2013 for about $1.5 million from Bergel 715 Associates. Kushner held an ownership stake in the seller at the time, the New York Times reported, citing an anonymous source familiar with Kushner’s finances.

Kushner, a senior adviser to the president, disclosed in an annual personal financial report late Friday that he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, had received between $1 million and $5 million last year from Bergel 715.

Dominic Scalzi and Matthew Pontoriero, who worked for Vrablic in Deutsche Bank’s private-banking division, were also co-purchasers of the 908-square-foot apartment.

To avoid conflicts of interest, banks typically restrict employees from doing personal business with clients.

Property records show the apartment, which was deeded to a limited liability company registered to Vrablic’s home address, was sold for $1.85 million in 2015, according to the Times.

Vrablic was a private banker for the Kushner family even before she joined Deutsche Bank in 2006. In 2011, Kushner introduced her to his father-in-law, who was in need of banking connections as most banks were refusing to do business with Trump, given his history of defaults and bankruptcies. [NYT] — Akiko Matsuda