We were in Myrtle Beach years ago strolling through one of the open air shopping malls with some time to kill. A woman was handing out small brochures at a kiosk asking if we'd like to take in a free show while we were in town.
The catch was you had to go listen to a short "time share" pitch. We'd heard about "time shares" and wondered what all the hype was about so thought we could kill 2 birds with one stone - learn about it, take in a show and (third) fill an hour.
We'll it was an entire day of high pressure sales and a real education in "you deserve it," with sleaze bucket sales people working in tandem to make the sale - even down to the last guy sitting across from the window where we picked up our "free" tickets" - "ppssst" he calls from his office and then approaches us with kind assurances about how he knows those others were over the top aggressive but that he could set us up with something....
Cincinatus and I wouldn't give up those 5 hours of "education" for anything. It was a real eye-opener in how people are pressured by professional scammers to part with their money.
When I'd pointed out to the overbearing "floating" salesman who'd been brought over to the desk (there were rows and rows of desks with couples) where we were sitting that we had been promised before we came that there would be no "high pressure sales" he said "Who told you that!?"
I took out the brochure and showed him where it was printed in black and white. He walked off.
From the beginning we told everyone that we had no intention of buying anything and were willing to listen but all we wanted were tickets to the show.
I guess they hear that from a lot of people.
BTW, the show was pretty awful.
So I have a fair idea of how these "seminars" go.
Listen to that linked video above of Trump giving his pitch. There are other videos linked at the OpEd source link.
So the National Review is regurgitating one side of a lawsuit on behalf of the GOPe.
I’m still voting for Trump! :-D
Always rough when people part with their money - but Trump University taught them A GREAT LIFE LESSON - which is that big money simply DOES NOT COME EASY.
So, for these people LOOKING FOR A QUICK SCORE, they now know it’s not that easy, and hopefully they go back to their old careers, having learned a MAJOR LIFE LESSON for very little money (relatively speaking).
And everyone that was an Amway distributor became a millionaire.
I saw the advertising for Trump's "university" in Los Angeles. It was no different than the advertising for Tony Robbins, Amway, etc.
Anyone who went assuming they were getting more than a rah-rah speech was an idiot to begin with.
People shouldn't get to sue for being idiots that got suckered out of their money.
So what you’re saying is that Trump gets things done! Outstanding endorsement!
Don’t care one bit, waiting for tuesday!
They still exist. It's especially bad from annuity and investment companies trying to get their claws on seniors life savings. I went to one of those dinners last summer because it was at the high-end restaurant that hosts things like Clinton fund raisers when they're begging to the Cleveland elite.
The guy got up and gave his spiel, how people couldn't trust their children to spend their inheritance wisely so give it to the investment company and they'll spread it out over the generations. (you can't make that stuff up). I raised my hand and asked if the speaker seriously thought we should trust a stranger more than we should trust children who've been raised to be responsible with their heritage. He seemed upset with me....don't know why, he said we should ask any questions we had. <^..^>
Oh, and the meal? They got the cheapest group buffet on the menu. It was so-so. Beautiful restaurant, though.
You ain’t getting away with this BullSh$t smear today. Here we go for anyone here that wants to see how sloppy you and NR are.
Trump real estate seminars were offered as Trump University between 2004 and 2009. In 2010 they were offered as Trump Entrepreneur Institute. The business stopped in June of 2010. The effort had 5,000 students over 7 calendar years. New York court papers say the effort grossed $40 million over the seven years.
I’m not going to deal with the deep details of the cases in California - they are sour grapes or buyers remorse cases for money damages. When they call them Class Actions lets be sure everyone knows what that means. Attorneys who specialize in class actions create a group of defendants whose damages are too small to be worth it, try to enlist a group of defendants, none of whom manage the litigation, to try and create a big legal bill for profit by addressing the supposed harms suffered by the group. Two such efforts were started in California. There can not be that many of the 5,000 from California when you take out all the NY FL TX IL MA seminar takers.
Personal note: one time a San Diego atty with no nexus to me whatsoever did this to me. He filed one case, assumed there must be other parties similarly situated and asked a judge to create the opportunity for him to go establish there were others and have me pay for it. We stopped that but that’s how it works.
The Trump seminars had questionaires filled out by the attendees presumably so they could improve the program. Good thing they did as now those are evidence of what they did and what the attendees thought of it. Go here:
http://www.98percentapproval.com/
There you can read the questionnaire results. 4900 of the folks absolutely agreed they got what they expected. So we have 100 people, that needed to be herded up by class action lawyers. Two percent of $40mm is $800k. Decremented by those of the 100 people that are from California. Thats what we are talking about. Surely Trump will spend far in excess of that just to clear his name in California. If you get a letter in the mail form a Class Action lawyer saying you should join our class as we try to extract money damages from Donald J. Trump without having to do anything or spend a cent, many would say I’m in. On to New York.
Our protagonist there is the loathesome atty. gen. Eric Schneiderman - he’s the dolt thats trying to wreck Fan Duel and Draft Kings. Go here to find out about this modern Elliott Spitzer http://observer.com/2014/02/the-politics-and-power-of-a-g-schneiderman/ and his publicity hound cases.
Newly elected Shneiderman brought an action against Trump Entrepreneur in May of 2011, a year after it closed only four months after he was elected.
read about him shaking down the Trumps nad Trump employees for political contributions behind the scenes of his case here http://observer.com/2014/10/time-runs-out-on-attorney-generals-fraud-suit/
As the case is poised today, the only New York matters not already dismissed by the court is the use of the name Trump University. There are 121 seminar takers left that paid an aggregate $105,000 - $867.77 each - not all form New York. The harm to these people ? That they were mislead into believing that Trump University, a three day real estate seminar might have been an actual University. No one could sit on 60 Minutes and claim they thought they wee attending Harvard or Columbia. It’s ridiculous. Which leaves the California cases.
On to the politics of the matter: Many of these seminar attendees were smart enough to understand the opportunity that distressed real estate presented @ 2007 and afterwards. The overwhelming majority did three days and stopped. Those that went deeper into the training paid for it of their own volition. A few, many years later at the behest of a publicity hound Atty. Gen. that said over and over again it is a ‘weak case’ or upon receiving a letter in the mail from a class action lawyer are now crying foul. The truth of the matter is they paid for the deeper seminars and ended up for whatever reason not being able to utilize the knowledge and at least six years later (if not much longer) are crying foul. If they took a free seminar, then a paid one, then another paid one and then another at what point do they move from guileless consumers to prospective wannabe business people that paid for a service and didn’t capitalize on it?
CW and NR and the Cruznadians and the Rubiots and the WSJ tell us what great Conservatives and Free Market people they are. Now they are propagating this smear. If Trump had done something wrong, had something to hide, wouldn’t he have settled this for far less than the legal bills to fight it out? Keep in mind Trump bought Doral out of the bankruptcy court for $150mm. The DC post office renovations alone are $200mm. Wouldn’t great conservatives applaud an American that fought the NY atty gen and the class action lawyers? Wouldn’t real free market people put an ear to the ground and learn how hard business is now in the country?
Neither Trump University nor its students had ever received any form of federal funding, subsidies or other government aid and offered all of its students a 3 day money back guarantee if they were not completely satisfied. Despite learning these facts, for the last two years, Schneiderman’s office has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars conducting a no holds barred, scorched earth investigation, assigning as many as ten of his staff members to interview former Trump University employees and review literally hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. Making matters worse, Schneiderman chose to devote such valuable taxpayer dollars to looking into Trump University even though there was already a class action lawsuit pending in California brought by the firm of disgraced former lawyers and convicted felons Bill Lerach and Mel Weiss.
And what did Schneiderman’s office find after wasting so much of the taxpayers’ hard earned money? Exactly what Trump University told the Attorney General on day one - that as much as 98% of those students who participated in Trump University programs were not only satisfied with their Trump University experience, but would recommend the program to a friend.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3402515/posts?page=2#2
In revealing you and your SO are attending time-share seminars for free stuff, you’ve revealed your gross lack of judgment. It’s on par with Nigerian scams.
And if you’ve believed that Trump was involved, then likely you are still a fool. Like Nigerian scams, time-share seminars tout many celebrities as part of their operation. They lie and have no shame, and what’s worse is you believed them.
http://touch.orlandosentinel.com/#section/1229/article/p2p-86031609/
In my state of Florida the AG, Pam Bondi was set to start an investigation into “Trump University”. Within a few days her reelection campaign received a donation of $25,000. It was from Donald Trump. The investigation was dropped.
Parting fools with their money is an educational learning experience universities perform every day!!!
http://www.trumpuniversitylitigation.com/Content/Documents/Cohen%20Answer%20to%20Complaint.pdf
Pg 17 of 19 PDF FILE
SIXTEENTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE
(Fraud/Misrepresentation)
The Complaint, and the cause of action contained therein, is barred due to
Plaintiff’s own intentional and/or negligent misrepresentations. Defendant is
informed and believes and thereon alleges that on or about May 8-10, 2009,
Plaintiff attended a Fast Track to Foreclosure Training program (”Training
Presentation”). During or shortly after the Training Presentation, Plaintiff
represented to Trump University and its staff members, among other things, that (1)
the quality of the presentation was excellent; (2) the information was very useful;
(3) the instructor exceeded his expectations as a subject matter expert, that he
“already had very high expectations” and the instructor “did a great job!”; and (4)
the remaining staff members were professional, approachable, and answered his
questions. Plaintiff also represented to Trump University and its staff members that
he would attend another Trump University seminar, that he would recommend
Trump University seminars to a friend, and that he had the opportunity to meet with
a Trump University Team Member to discuss his personal goals. Indeed, the only
suggestion that Plaintiff offered to improve the seminar was to “[Nave lunch
sandwhiches brought in” and to make lunch 45 minutes.
Trump supporters might resent you posting this, but he MUST be vetted.
But please be forewarned ~~ last minute zingers tend to be more tricky and less-than-honest.
Sounds to me like any real estate investing seminar group. They always push you to buy more but that doesn’t make it a fraud. Like anything some folks probably did it and made money and some didn’t and looks like a handful that didn’t decided to sue.
If Trumps attys can find just one student who was happy and made money using their program it’s hard to see how the state can win a fraud case.