'Trump Institute' Partnered With Couple Who Got Prosecuted for Get-Rich-Quick Fraud

[kpete]

'Trump Institute' Partnered With Couple Who Got Prosecuted for Get-Rich-Quick Fraud
When The Donald started his wealth seminars, he turned to a couple with a checkered legal past.

..........
Donald Trump needed some help in 2006. He was setting up Trump Institute, a series of seminars teaching the “way to wealth,” and was looking for expertise on how the conference business worked.
He turned to a pair with a troublesome legal history to give him a hand.

Mike and Irene Milin were known to law enforcement officials in a number of states for a host of get-rich-quick schemes and alleged real estate scams. They were prosecuted by the Texas attorney general for deceptive trade practices, and sued by the makers of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, to name just two of the Milins’ many legal entanglements. But Michael Sexton—then president of Trump University, which he said at the time included the Trump Institute seminars, as well as online courses—partnered with the Milins nonetheless, according to a report from The Sacramento Bee.

The Milins’ oft-investigated National Grants Conferences, in effect, became the blueprint for Trump Institute. The two seminar businesses used some of the same speakers and shared office space in Boca Raton. The ads for Trump University promised to make people “millionaires,” just as the National Grants Conference commercials told customers they’d make them rich from government money. And, most importantly, Trump Institute operated itself in much the same manner as National Grants Conferences: After a promise of easy riches and a free seminar, customers were cajoled into doling out more and more money to get the key to unlocking wealth.

The problem in both cases: The key never opened anything.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/07/these-grifters-inspired-trump-institute.html

[HughBeaumont]

1. . . . and this is a serious presidential candidate.

In two instances cited in a New York lawsuit involving Trump University—the umbrella organization for Trump Institute and other “educational” offerings—individuals said that all they received were cardboard cutouts of Trump, rather than personal visits. They were offered access to the “Gold Elite Program” for the price of $34,995, which was littered with more empty promises.

Was it Jane Goodall or Steve Martin who said " . . . is everyone here bananas?"