In March 2015, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) fined the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City $10 million for repeated violations of federal anti-money-laundering laws. The casino admitted to several willful violations, including:
Failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program
Failing to report suspicious financial transactions
Failing to file required currency transaction reports
Failing to maintain financial records required by law.
This wasn’t the first time Trump’s Taj Mahal was fined for financial violations. Regulators identified violations that went back to 2003, and in 1998, the Taj Mahal was fined $477,700 for currency reporting violations. Trump was no longer in control of the casino company when the $10 million penalty was imposed, but the casino had been operating under his name and control for years.
But… during his Atlantic City casino days, Trump had business dealings involving Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo Scarfo’s associate Kenneth Shapiro, and Daniel Sullivan, a labor figure with his own connections to organized crime. In 1991, Trump’s Plaza casino was fined $200,000 for accommodating the racial prejudices of Rober LiButti, a high-stakes gambler identified by New Jersey authorities as an associate of the Gambino family crime boss John Gotti. LiButti demanded that the casino remove Black and female dealers from gambling tables.