Boston bank felt effects when Trump hit early debt
It was 1988, and the buttoned-down bankers of the venerable Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co. were clinking champagne glasses with Donald Trump on his 282-foot luxury yacht as it cruised around Boston Harbor.
The bankers, from one of the city’s oldest institutions, had just signed a loan to provide the New York real estate mogul financing to buy the Trump Princess yacht for $29 million. Purchased from a billionaire Saudi arms dealer, the ocean-going vessel featured a disco, a helicopter pad, a swimming pool, and a three-room hospital.
The loan was a risky leap into the go-go ’80s for staid Boston Safe, which for more than a century made its money managing the fortunes of old New England families. It was also the bank’s entry into Trump’s glitzy, high-rolling world, which in just a few years would all but collapse, forcing banks and creditors to salvage what they could. Now, the financial decisions of 30 years ago are causing Trump new problems.
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