Will Trump Be Running Brothels In China? Maybe Not Until He Leaves The White House

There have always been well-sourced rumors in New York-- apart from how Trump met Melania and how their sketchy relationship actually began-- that Trump Model Management was, at least in part, a front for an escort service, supplying attractive but desperate Eastern European women to wealthy desperate men. Trump owns 85% of Trump Model Management, which still has a shady reputation on every level. (Read about it at the link just above.) Yesterday, though, Erika Kinetz, reporting for the Associated Press, seemed to indicate that the Trump Organization will be running call girls in China. Yeah, you read that right. And why not? Sheldon Adelson does it, so why not Señor Trumpanzee?

China has granted preliminary approval for 38 new Trump trademarks, paving the way for President Donald Trump and his family to develop a host of branded businesses from hotels to insurance to bodyguard and escort services, public documents show.

Trump's lawyers in China applied for the marks in April 2016, as Trump railed against China at campaign rallies, accusing it of currency manipulation and stealing US jobs. Critics maintain that Trump's swelling portfolio of China trademarks raises serious conflict-of-interest questions.

China's Trademark Office published the provisional approvals on February 27 and Monday.

If no one objects, they will be formally registered after 90 days. All but three are in the president's own name. China already registered one trademark to the president, for Trump-branded construction services, on February 14.

If Trump receives any special treatment in securing trademark rights, it would violate the US Constitution, which bans public servants from accepting anything of value from foreign governments unless approved by Congress, ethics lawyers from across the political spectrum say. Concerns about potential conflicts of interest are particularly sharp in China, where the courts and bureaucracy are designed to reflect the will of the ruling Communist Party.

Dan Plane, a director at Simone IP Services, a Hong Kong intellectual-property consultancy, said he had never seen so many applications approved so quickly. "For all these marks to sail through so quickly and cleanly, with no similar marks, no identical marks, no issues with specifications-- boy, it's weird," he said.

Trump will be able to build and operate hotels spas, golf clubs, restaurants, retail shops, run insurance, finance and real-estate companies, a body guard service, massage parlors and escort services. Trump ally and financier Sheldon Adelson is the don of the multibillion dollar Macao gambling empire and he is also infamous for providing prostitutes in China. In late June, 2012, we looked into one of the myriad lawsuits against Adelson and saw how his former chief executive of the Macao casinos revealed that Adelson "personally approved of prostitution and knew of other improper activity at his company's properties in the Chinese enclave."

In the lawsuit, he accuses the company and Adelson of breach of contract and of pushing him into illegal activity in Macau, a former Portuguese colony near Hong Kong where Sands has established a strong business presence. The company owns the Venetian Macao and Sands Macao casino resorts, the Plaza Macao hotel, restaurant and shopping complex and the newly opened Sands Cotai Central resort with three hotels and two casinos.

In documents revealed Thursday-- including a sworn seven-page declaration that Jacobs submitted along with a summary from his attorneys of problems obtaining documents from Sands-- Jacobs describes an effort he launched after arriving in Macau in May 2009 to rid the casino floor of "loan sharks and prostitution."

"This project was met with concern as (company) senior executives informed me that the prior prostitution strategy had been personally approved by Adelson," Jacobs said in the documents.

In his court filing, Jacobs alleges other documents that haven't been turned over include records of misuse of "blue card' work permits and the hiring of illegal workers in Macau; emails and records of Adelson controlling a "Chairman's Club" allowing favored members, including known or suspected organized crime figures, exclusive access to Sands China's most luxurious accommodations; and email requests from Adelson to a Macau lawmaker who Jacobs said was hired as outside counsel after Jacobs was fired.

...Jacobs' lawsuit has drawn interest from U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigator for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to a filing with the SEC. The law bars American companies from paying foreign officials to "affect or influence any act or decision" for commercial benefit. No charges have been filed.

Does anyone breathing think this kind of filth isn't right up Trump's alley?