Foreign workers say they were paid less than $2 an hour to build a new US Consulate

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "If only we had known this before November 2016 ... oh, lookie there! Here's the publication date: June 21, 2016"

That was known almost 30 years before that when he was first feuding with Merv Griffin for casino ownership not long after legalization in AC.

Merv Griffin’s Outrageous Fortune : When Millionaire Griffin Took on Billionaire Trump, They Said It Was a Mismatch. They Were Wrong.


By NINA J. EASTON
July 24, 1988 12 AM PT

Nina J. Easton is a Times staff writer.


(snip)

Merv Griffin is here this April afternoon because he has thrown a gigantic wrench into Trump’s plans to buy out the public shares of Resorts International, a hotel-casino company with flashy properties in Atlantic City and the Bahamas. Trump is anxious to take the company private to get the control and financing he needs to complete construction on the company’s Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey’s seaside gambling resort.

(snip)

But days before Trump expected to close his Resorts purchase, Griffin appeared out of nowhere with a competing offer for the company. Now the two men are locked in a nasty, name-calling, lawsuit-swapping takeover fight.

(snip)

The dealing starts. Trump says he wants the Taj. OK, Griffin says. And the Steel Pier jutting out from the Taj boardwalk. OK. “Is that all?” Griffin asks. “Yes,” Trump says. Just like that, it’s over. When Griffin reaches out to shake on the deal, Trump is surprised. It was too fast, too easy. Maybe Griffin was right when he said, much later, that Trump would have relished negotiating every detail, right down to the paper towels in the casino restrooms. After all, this is the man who persuaded the city of New York to turn over prime real estate at bargain-basement prices. But the deal is set, and the details are left to their top executives, who spend the next four hours at a bar in the Helmsley Palace Hotel hammering out the agreement. Finally, a little after 7 that evening, Michael Nigris, president of Griffin Co., returns to Griffin’s suite at the Helmsley to tell him everything is settled; he can purchase Resorts International for $295 million. “Shhh!” Griffin says as he sits in front of the TV, his eyes glued to “Wheel of Fortune.” “That woman just won $36,000--now that’s real cash!”

(snip)

But Griffin busted up a deal that others with deep pockets wouldn’t go near. And he managed to back the legendary Trump far enough into a corner that he had to come to the negotiating table--or risk losing control of Resorts and his pet project, the Taj Mahal. The real point of the Resorts saga is that Merv Griffin, Southern California TV personality, went up against one of the biggest boys around and got what he wanted. He paid a price, a hefty one--but he got it. In only six months, starting with his purchase of the Beverly Hilton Hotel last December, Griffin has built a chain of six major hotels and two casinos. His net worth, he estimates, will top $1 billion when the Resorts deal closes later this summer. If the financial world needed any more assurance that Griffin had arrived, his handshake with Trump that afternoon was it.

(snip)

Resorts is still there, the Taj is now a Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. I remember hopping a $20 casino bus leaving from here in Philly to Resorts, where they handed you a $20 roll of quarters when you arrived, making the trip "free". They were the only casino operating at the time just after legalization.