US President Donald Trump once dreamed of building two of his Trump Towers right here in the Port Zone. But by 2016, Trump’s businesses in the Porto Maravilha were the subject of an investigation by the Prosecutor of the Republic for the Federal District, and by the Federal Police.
The first line of investigation deals with a Trump Hotel built in the Barra da Tijuca area for the Olympics (the name of the hotel was later changed). Investigators wanted to find out if the pension funds Serpros and Igeprev were “overpricing” the amounts going towards the hotel. In other words, they were trying to find out if those in charge knew that the hotel was not going to generate the return they established when making the deal, and if they negotiated the pension funds using those overvalued projections.
The second line of investigation targets partners in The Trump Organization for office space developments in the Port Zone of Rio de Janeiro. According to the federal prosecutor, The Trump Organization benefited “in a suspect way” from a Brazilian national insurance (FGTS) investment fund managed by the Federal Bank.
According to the prosecutor, speaking within the scope of the criminal case opened in October 2016, there exists “a demonstration of the undue application of resources from the FI/FGTS in exchange for kickbacks illegally benefitting the ex-speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, among others.”