A former Philadelphia mob boss claims in a new bio that he was involved in negotiations with Donald Trump when the former president was building his empire in Atlantic City.
Billy D’Elia, who was known as “Big Billy” when he ran the Buffalino crime family from the mid-1990s, shared with journalist Matt Birkbeck how Trump once shaved $1 million off a deal to buy the land for his Trump Plaza Hotel to buy and Casino.
Another time, D’Elia said, the presidential candidate made him buy millions of copies of his Art of the Deal book to put it on the bestseller lists in exchange for selling timeshares.
‘[He’s] just like he’s on TV now, arrogant,” D’Elia said Fox news. “He doesn’t keep his word.”
But Trump has never been charged with any criminal misconduct related to his casino dealings, and he has complied with legal requirements for owning and operating casinos in Atlantic City – which are regulated by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and its Division of Gaming Enforcement .
A spokesman for the Trump 2024 campaign also denied any wrongdoing in a statement to FOX, saying he “will not give a dignified answer to a book that belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section.”
Billy D’Elia, who was once in charge of the Philadelphia-based Buffalo crime family, told FOX News how he met former President Donald Trump as he built his casino empire in Atlantic City
Trump, pictured in one of his casinos in an undated photo, developed his empire of three casinos on the Jersey Shore in less than two decades
DailyMail.com has also reached out to the campaign for comment.
The former president has long touted his success in Atlantic City, even writing about it in his biography and boasting about his business acumen during the campaign trail leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
He had developed his empire of three casinos on the Jersey Shore in less than two decades. They include the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, the Trump Marina Hotel and Casino, and the Trump Taj Mahal.
At their peak, Trump’s casinos accounted for nearly a third of Atlantic City’s gambling revenue and employed more than 8,000 people, according to the New York Times.
But journalist Birkbeck, who covered the Buffalino crime family for decades, says the ex-president built his empire by negotiating with the mob.
“Trump, when he did big deals, he didn’t want his layers doing that. He didn’t want anyone else to do it, he did it himself and he did it to gangsters,” Birkbeck told FOX News as he released his new book The Life We Chose: William “Big Billy” D’Elia and the Last Secrets of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Family.
“Billy did business with a lot of people, including Donald Trump,” he said of the former head of the Buffalino crime family who took power in 1994 after the death of Russel Buffalino (who was played by Joe Pesci in Netflix’s The Irishman).
“Trump knew exactly who he was, Trump knew exactly what he was doing and what they were negotiating about.”
Speaking to FOX News, D’Elia said Trump never kept his word when he shared how the former president once let him buy millions of copies of his The Art of The Deal in exchange for timeshares.
D’Elia took control of the Buffalino crime family after the death of Russel Buffalino (who was played by Joe Pesci in Netflix’s The Irishman)
Trump’s casinos in Atlantic City included the Trump Marina Hotel and Casino and the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino
In a deal involving the sale of time-shares for Trump’s casinos, Birkbeck writes, the future president asked D’Elia to buy millions of copies of his The Art of the Deal.
“They used to give out these rewards and gifts to timeshare people, and one of the gifts would be a copy of the book, only Billy had to buy the book,” Birkbeck explained.
“He had to buy 5,000 or 10,000 copies of the book, which would put the book on the bestseller lists. Actually, Billy should deposit $100,000.’
In another deal, D’Elia said Trump agreed to buy a property for his Trump Plaza casino, but backed out of the deal — only to settle it with a coin.
Journalist Matt Birkbeck details Trump’s dealings with the Buffalino crime family in his new biography
The former mob boss, who served five years in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering conspiracy and witness tampering in 2009, said he attended a meeting with Trump and Philadelphia-based real estate developers Barry and Ken Shapiro. who owned the property. .
Trump had reportedly agreed to buy the land for $8 million, but when he showed up at the rally, he claimed that was too high a price to pay.
“Trump said he couldn’t give him the 8 million, he only had seven,” D’Elia said. “So what are you doing now, wait?
“We’re at this meeting with Trump, and Barry said, ‘Let’s flip a coin for the other million,’ Trump said, ‘fine,’ so they flipped a coin and Trump won.”
Barry Shapiro confirmed that story to FOX News, saying his group agreed to sell the Atlantic City estate to Trump for $1 million less than the price Trump originally agreed to, and the coin toss settled it.
“The sale price was actually $8 million, and Trump only paid seven because he flipped a coin with my brother, Ken, to save a million,” the now 85-year-old said.
“We gave him a 15-year mortgage and he paid it off,” Barry added.
This isn’t the first time the former president has allegedly relied on a coin toss in a business negotiation.
In 2017, investment banker Ken Moelis of Wall Street told me Business Insider that Trump looks at me in the middle of a negotiation and says, “We’re a million dollars apart,” and he said, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll flip you for it.” And he reached into his pocket and took out a coin.’
Moelis said he personally examined the coin to make sure it was legit, and when Trump flipped it, it “flew across the table at Trump, which he immediately knew was a mistake … but before he could catch a glimpse, Trump grabbed it. up and said, “Heads you lose.”‘
Moelis is now a billionaire investment banker, who has been described as the businessman who “launched Trump’s casinos on the stock market.”
Trump no longer owns properties in Atlantic City and the Taj Mahal will close in 2016
But Trump’s casino empire is no more, following a series of bankruptcy filings that cost stocks and borrowers more than $1.5 billion.
The downfall began just over a year after he opened the Trump Taj Mahal in 1990, when the Republican presidential nominee failed to pay his $900 million debt and was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to the Times.
He lost about half of his stake in the casino and had to sell his private yacht and plane to help pay his losses.
Trump Plaza also began bleeding money in the early 1990s, filing for bankruptcy in November 1992.
In a deal, the banks took a 49 percent stake in the casino in exchange for more favorable terms on the $500 million in debt it had.
Ultimately, the Philadelphia magazine reports, Trump consolidated his three Atlantic City casinos under the publicly traded Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, which bought the Taj Mahal and Trump Castle (later renamed Trump Marina Hotel and Casino) in 1996.
But the problems continued as much of the gambling and entertainment industry flocked to Las Vegas, and in 2004, Trump asked Hotels and Casino Resorts Inc. filed for bankruptcy with $1.8 billion in debt.
After the restructuring, Trump’s shares were reduced to 28 percent.
But that couldn’t save the casinos, and just five years later it filed for bankruptcy again with $50 million in assets and $500 million in debt.
Trump eventually resigned from the board of directors of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts Inc., ending up with only 10 percent of the company when it went bankrupt.
Now there are no more Trump properties in Atlantic City, with the sale of the Taj Mahal in 2016. It is now the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel.