I’m trying to understand this issue. I’ve always found Trump irritating and a pompous ass. But don’t understand why he’s being singled out for fraud. The press can’t even get the name right. It was renamed to Trump Entrepreneur Institute in 2011 (see the USA article) and wiki.
Get rich schemes are a dime a dozen on late night tv info commercials. They have been for over twenty years. We’ve discussed some of them on the SDMB. Tony Robbins has been at this con since the 70’s. There’s all kinds of schemes like buying foreclosed property for pennies on the dollar. the infomercials are all over the late night cable channels. Including bullshit psychic reader ads. How much more b.s. can you get then a psychic reader? A buck a minute is their phone rate. Or those irritating ads for restoring your lost hair? There’s all kinds of snake oil ads out there every night.
I know there’s been a few prosecutions. Usually if they can prove a classic pyramid scheme. Or if there’s no real product behind the sales offer. You can’t just take the money and not send the customer the promised product, even if the information provided is b.s. Send 4 notebook binders of strategies for buying foreclosed property and you’ve CYA. Send only a few pages of literature and you’ll probably get prosecuted for fraud.
I’d really like to understand why Trump is being singled out from a very big get rich quick industry.
Because the real estate mogul helped run a phony “Trump University” that promised to make students rich but instead steered them into expensive and mostly useless seminars, and even failed to deliver promised apprenticeships.
Probably because, relative to the other get rich quick schemes, Trump university is a large organization and Trump has deep pockets. It’s easier to catch one big fish than 1000 little guppies.
If I have a list of things to that need to be done, but I start doing one before I start doing any others, am I “singling that out” or am I “doing one thing at a time”?
Hmph. He’s an arrogant, mouthy prick with deep pockets. Hell if I care that they go after him if it’s a legitimate beef, notwithstanding there may be others equally as worthy of prosecution.
I’m guessing it all depends on the effort that goes into the product? Tony Robbins has been at this game since the 70’s. Apparently he put a lot of thought and effort into his seminars. He does have many satisfied customers that feel the money spent was worthwhile. There’s still a degree of snake oil in Tony’s presentation and marketing but he’s kinda, sort of semi-legit. AFAIK he’s never been prosecuted.
If I spent two weeks printing off some b.s. information from the web and filled a binder. Then marketed it for $499 in four easy payments. I’d probably get prosecuted. Because there’s no substance or value at all in my product. I put two weeks of effort into a worthless product and my lack of effort would be obvious to anyone that bought the product.
I think it’s going to be a complex case to dissect the course material Trump is selling. They have to prove there’s no value what so ever in what he’s providing.
I thought I read that several people who attended Trump’s school filed a complaing with the AG office. Wouldn’t that be why the are pursuing this matter?
What’s confusing is how do you evaluate a educational course?
If Trump’s people assembled some basic information pulled from typical college business, marketing, and finance classes. Basically a customized course degree plan (focused on real estate) that any community college would offer. Is that enough to satisfy his marketing claims? Trump’s course might cost three times what a community college would charge, but does it matter?
How do you prove a school is a fraud? Isn’t that very subjective? The course work is there in the binders. It’s up to the student to learn the material.
Trump’s marketing may have over reached and made fraudulent promises. I’ll be curious to learn new details in New York’s case against him.
If Trump’s scam is calling itself a university or an educational course, then the New York State Education Department and the Board of Regents has the right and responsibility to evaluate it. So it’s a little different from a late-night get-rich-quick scheme.
He might not be “singled out”. Because he’s a media favorite, he’s getting a lot of attention. We just don’t know about all the other fakes who’ve been targeted.
It isn’t only poor, beleaguered, personally cash-poor Donald Trump who’s being sued; the former president of the school, Michael Sexton, is also charged in the New York case.
There’s also a similar fraud case against Mr. Trump in California; long reach for a State’s Attorney General from New York to have. :rolleyes:
Any thoughts on why Whitey Bulger was singled out among all the criminals in America when he was an active mob boss? I suspect it was b/c there was evidence against him when charges were presented.
I’m responding to the questions in the OP, not the ‘moved goalpost’ questions he posed later in the thread w/o acknowledging his error/misinformed post.
It’s a Russ Whitney real estate scaminar with Trump’s name and photos. It’s 3 days of tidbits of information and repeatedly being told how wealthy you can be after you take the advanced courses. And for your first night’s homework you’re given a script to use to increase the credit limit on your credit cards. So you can afford to pay for the advanced courses.
Robert Kiyosaki did the same thing; lend his name and rep to people doing the same Russ Whitney scaminars.