An interesting example of how things have changed in the age of Trump. A client of ours is looking to make loans to a sizeable privately owned
Posted by
pmb (aka pmb)
Feb 11 '20, 12:18
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business. This is a 9 figure loan facility. While doing the background check of the owner they find that he was convicted in 1995 of fraud. Also find that he owes several million dollars in taxes (part of the loan proceeds will pay off the taxes). Lender is somewhat unsure how to proceed given that the conviction was 25 years ago and the guy has built a solid business, so they ask him about what happened to see if there were understandable circumstances or a dispute about the outcome. He responds that he has an "exoneration letter" that he will produce that will satisfy them that he did nothing wrong. The "exoneration letter" is a letter from a law firm that he hired to do a review of the 25 year old case. It starts off stating that much of the original evidence has been destroyed and they can't speak to what's there, but then produce a couple of legal arguments as to why he should not have been convicted (like entrapment). Nothing that indicates he didn't do it, just some defenses that could have been raised that are of a more technical nature. But the idea of "exoneration" being something like this is just so . . . Trumpian. There was a time when these things would occur and they would provide references and explanation to give comfort. Now it's an "exoneration letter" with no substance to it.
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