The week
Trump’s longtime private banker at Deutsche Bank and his colleague abruptly resign
Rosemary Vrablic, managing director and senior banker of Deutsche Bank’s wealth management division, resigned as of December 31, Vrablic and Deutsche Bank said on Tuesday. Vrablic became President Trump’s private banker to the German lender in 2011, at a time when Trump was having trouble borrowing money due to his history of loan defaults. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, already a Vrablic client, introduced her to Trump. “The reasons for Vrablic’s abrupt resignation were unclear,” reports the New York Times. But Deutsche Bank opened in August an internal investigation into a real estate business in which Vrablic and a longtime bank colleague, Dominic Scalzi, invested in an apartment building partly owned by Kushner. Scalzi will also resign at the end of the year. The status of the internal review is unclear, reports the Times. But the relationship between Trump and Deutsche Bank is the subject of Congressional, civil and criminal investigations, including a criminal investigation by the Manhattan public prosecutor. Vrablic is not yet among the handful of Deutsche Bank employees questioned by New York investigators, but his lawyer told CNN that “Ms. Vrablic is committed to cooperating with the authorities if requested.” relationship with Trump, reports Reuters. But for Trump, his “key contacts in his biggest financier are leaving at a dangerous time for the president’s departure,” reports the Times. “He owes Deutsche Bank about $ 330 million, and the loans are due in 2023 and 2024. Mr. Trump has provided a personal guarantee to get the loans, which means that if he does not repay them, the bank will be able to pursue your personal assets More stories from theweek.com 7 cartoons about Christmas COVID in America What would really happen if Trump tried the idea of ’martial law’? Our pandemic half-lives