I’m no bankruptcy specialist, but I asked ChatGPT:

Why Five Bankruptcies? A Money Laundering Hypothesis

• 1. Casinos Are Naturally Lucrative

It’s hard to lose money running a casino unless:

You’re mismanaging the business,

You’re overleveraged and using it to siphon cash, or

You’re deliberately disguising the source or movement of funds.

Given that Trump’s casinos consistently lost money—even when the market was booming—it strongly suggests ulterior motives or systemic inefficiency.

• 2. Russian Oligarchs Needed Offshore Avenues

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian oligarchs and other post-Soviet elites:

Rapidly acquired vast fortunes in murky privatization deals,

Faced political risk and international scrutiny,

Needed to move and clean billions in capital out of Russia.

Trump’s businesses, struggling to get U.S. financing after his early bankruptcies, were uniquely positioned to accept this foreign capital, often in cash or through opaque shell companies.

• 3. Casinos as Laundromats

If one were trying to launder money via a casino:

They might funnel money through gambling “wins” or inflated contracts.

They might run the casino at a deliberate loss while extracting capital via salaries, management fees, construction overbilling, or licensing deals.

If the casino “fails,” the money is gone, but whoever needed the cash moved or cleaned has succeeded.

So from that view, the bankruptcies were not a failure—they were the feature.

• 4. Trump’s Own Statements and Patterns

Trump has admitted:

He preferred working with “cash buyers” for real estate, particularly from Russia.

He made money even when the casinos lost money—through management fees, consulting, branding, and leasing.

These mechanisms would be perfect for skimming or channeling illicit funds into legitimate revenue streams without drawing too much scrutiny—especially in the less transparent 1990s and early 2000s.

• 5. Known Red Flags

The Trump Taj Mahal was fined in 1998 for “significant and repeated” money laundering violations.

Trump’s businesses became increasingly reliant on foreign money, with multiple reports of shell companies purchasing luxury condos in all-cash deals.

Post-Soviet money has long been linked to luxury real estate in NYC and South Florida, especially when title is held in anonymous LLCs.

• 6. Bankruptcy as a Laundering Strategy

Here’s how it works:

Investors (possibly foreign or criminal) funnel money into a venture.

The business pays high salaries, construction contracts, legal fees, or licensing fees (some of which go back to the investor or are redirected offshore).

The business eventually “fails”—but the money has already been cleaned and moved.

By declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy rather than liquidation, Trump kept the businesses alive just long enough to extract value, then dumped the debt on bondholders and other investors.

• Conclusion: Highly Plausible

While there’s no conclusive public evidence to confirm it, the pattern of:

Repeated failures in a profitable industry,

Reliance on opaque financing,

Documented anti-money laundering violations,

Financial ties to Russian or post-Soviet capital,

And personal enrichment during “bankruptcies”—

strongly supports the theory that some or all of Trump’s casino ventures served as vehicles for laundering money, potentially from Russian oligarchs or similarly motivated actors.

Again, ChatGPT, so take that with a grain of salt.

Shenanigans!

littering aaaaaaand?

Is the sequel any good?