this march 12, 2012 photo shows new construction in the "porto maravilha" area of rio de janeiro, brazil | getty by cristiano lima 10/28/16 11:44 pm edt brazilian authorities are investigating <u+201c>possibly criminal<u+201d> investments made in the development of trump towers rio, a $2.1 billion, five-tower corporate office project in rio de janeiro, according to court documents. in a court filing made public on wednesday, public prosecutor alselmo lopes alleges that state agencies "favored, in a suspicious manner, the economic group the trump organization" -- a business group run by republican nominee donald trump -- among others, in its massive development efforts in the city<u+2019>s port in the lead-up to this summer<u+2019>s 2016 olympic games. story continued below the revitalization effort, called <u+201c>projeto porto maravilha<u+201d> or <u+201c>project marvelous port,<u+201d> has been the subject of a federal investigation, called <u+201c>project greenfield,<u+201d> into claims of favoritism in the selection of financing projects backed by investment funds from state-owned companies in brazil. according to brazilian authorities, $2.5 billion in public funds were lost as a result of investments gone bad. the criminal charges, brought against five individuals for defrauding state-owned pension funds, do not implicate anyone related to the trump organization. and in a statement released friday, authorities stressed that involvement did not preclude the presumption of innocence. a spokesperson for the trump organization claimed to have no knowledge of the investigation and said the group was not involved in the complex<u+2019>s development. "the trump organization is not the owner or developer of trump towers rio and, accordingly, has no knowledge whatsoever regarding any governmental inquiry involving the project. details regarding this matter appear to have been completely misreported in the press,<u+201d> the statement read. the trumps do appear to have boosted the project on a few occasions, with trump mentioning it in january 2013 in a tweet: "the trump organization is going revolutionize rio de janeiro<u+2019>s downtown port area with trump towers. construction begins soon!" and in a 2014 article by bloomberg news, his son donald trump jr. boasted about trump towers rio's massive scale. <u+201c>there is a tremendous need for a project of this size and caliber as rio de janeiro has one of the lowest office vacancy rates in the world,<u+201d> the younger trump is quoted as saying. <u+201c>with extensive research conducted by our leasing agent, cushman & wakefield, we are pleased to confirm that trump towers rio is currently the largest urban office complex in the bric countries." but according to a disclaimer on the trump organization's website, trump towers rio "is not owned, developed or sold by donald j. trump, the trump organization, or any of their principals or affiliates." the project's developer, the bulgarian real estate company mrp group, licensed the name from another company, dt marks rio llc. project greenfield was launched sept. 5, but it was not until the release of the court filings wednesday that trump's name became associated with the investigation. ben schreckinger contributed to this report. by michael grunwald by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz
brazilian authorities launch criminal probe into trump-branded office project in rio - politico
cristiano lima michael grunwald