Donald Trump’s real estate company had business ties with an Iranian bank that U.S. authorities later linked to terrorist groups and Tehran’s nuclear program, according to a new report.
When Trump Organization purchased the General Motors Building in Manhattan in 1998, it inherited the Iranian Bank Melli as a tenant, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Center for Public Integrity reported Monday.
Bank Melli remained a tenant of Trump’s until 2003—four years after the Treasury Department designated the state-controlled bank as an entity of the Iranian government that was used to help gain sensitive material for the nation’s nuclear program.
The Treasury Department also charged that Tehran had used the bank between 2002 and 2006 to funnel money to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which sponsored terror attacks over a period of time that overlapped with Trump’s business dealings.
Bank Melli’s rent in the GM Building may have exceeded half a million dollars a year, according to a court document obtained by ICIJ.
The United States had an embargo against Iran at the time that barred Americans from conducting business with the Islamic Republic, including collecting rent payments. The legal implications of the Trump Organization’s business dealings with Bank Melli are unclear, according to the report.
The Trump campaign declined to comment on the report.
"Mr. Trump’s sole focus is and will be on making our country great again," Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in a statement. "He has already committed to putting his assets in a blind trust and will have no involvement whatsoever in the Trump Organization."