Politics- Signature Bank became a go-to lender for the Trump and Kushner families.
- It's now under increased scrutiny.
- The bank's chairman told The New York Times that executives feel "abused" by inquiries into past lending.
A small New York-based bank became a go-to lender for the Trump family and some closely connected to it, as The New York Times reported Monday.
Now the bank finds itself under increased scrutiny for some of that business, and the bank's chief executive told The Times it feels "abused."
Over the past decade, Signature Bank provided loans to:
- President Donald Trump's Florida golf course
- Michael Cohen, Trump's former longtime lawyer
- Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser
- Kushner's father Charles Kushner
- The bank also provided Trump and the Trump Organization with checking accounts while Ivanka Trump, Trump's daughter and an assistant to the president, sat on its board of directors.
The Times reported that the New York Department of Financial Services requested information from Signature Bank about its business with the Kushner family. The state is looking into whether the younger Kushner's White House job could compromise the bank's ability to collect its loans. Meanwhile, the review was broadened to include a review of whether the bank lent Kushner Companies money knowing that the business planned to engage in abusive behavior with low-rent tenants, according to The Times. The investigation could include other banks.
"We recognize we are not perfect," Signature chairman Scott Shay said in a statement to The Times. "However, any allegation that we knowingly or somehow actively abet tenant harassment is frankly a slander against Signature Bank and an unfair impugning of the reputations of many hardworking colleagues who strive to be a positive force for not only our shareholders and depositors but our community as well."
A Kushner Companies spokesperson told The Times that their business with Signature Bank has been "entirely appropriate," adding that the investigations the company faces are politically motivated.
Trump Organization spokeswoman Amanda Miller told The Times that the president's namesake businesses dealings with Signature Bank "were few and far between and limited in scope."
The bank, meanwhile, told The Times it's being unfairly punished for lending to the Trump's and Kushner's prior to the 2016 presidential election.
"We feel abused," Shay said.