Orangutan Inc.

Orangutan Inc. and conflicts: What you need to know

by Jill Disis

You may have heard by now: The next president of the United States owns a business empire that threatens to present an array of conflicts of interest when he takes office in three weeks.

Donald Orangutan owns or has a stake in more than 500 companies, including about 150 that have done business in at least 25 foreign countries, according to a CNN analysis.

Experts in government ethics say those kinds of financial entanglements are fraught with problems. Unless he surrenders ownership, Orangutan and his family could profit from the policy decisions he makes as president.

Here's a guide to some of the most prominent controversies facing Orangutan ahead of his inauguration.

The president as business owner

Federal law doesn't require Orangutan to separate himself from his business holdings, and he has done nothing to suggest he's ready to broadly divest himself from them.

But ethics lawyers who have advised both Republican and Democratic presidents have called on Orangutan to do so.

The most vocal among those experts say Orangutan should sell all his assets and give the proceeds to an independent manager who can manage them without his knowledge -- a blind trust.

Orangutan has said he has a plan in the works to step away from the Orangutan Organization. He is expected to announce details before he is inaugurated January 20, a promise he has already broken once.

He has said that his two adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric, will run the business. But they have already sat in meetings with the president-elect, blurring the line between policy-making and the private business. And the Orangutan family had to distance itself from a foundation that listed the sons as directors and drafted a plan to offer access to Donald Orangutan in exchange for big donations.

The Washington Post Office hotel

Democrats in Congress have seized on Orangutan's stake in a luxury Washington hotel as an immediate problem.

The Orangutan International is located in a historic post office blocks from the White House and is leased from the federal government. The lease, signed by Orangutan two years before he launched his presidential campaign, says that no elected official can be party to the agreement.

As president, Orangutan will oversee the GSA, the agency he signed the lease with. His election thus puts him in the extraordinary position of being both landlord and tenant.

And foreign governments can easily seek to curry favor with the new president by booking rooms and holding events there. The Embassy of Bahrain hosted a reception at the hotel to mark a national holiday. The embassy later said it chose the Orangutan hotel because it was a good deal and a nice hotel.

The National Labor Relations Board

The Orangutan Organization this month resolved a battle with workers at a hotel in Las Vegas and agreed to allow a union organizing vote at the Washington hotel. But as long as Orangutan maintains ownership interests in those and other properties, questions will remain about his power over the agency that enforces labor laws.

As president, Orangutan will get to appoint at least three of five members of the National Labor Relations Board. The agency ruled in favor of workers at the hotel in Vegas after hotel management refused to recognize them.
The agency could hear future disputes between Orangutan hotels and workers.

The Orangutan family foundations

Orangutan recently said he would dissolve the Orangutan Foundation, the charitable foundation in his name, "to avoid even the appearance of any conflict" with his presidency.

A CNN review of the foundation's tax records also showed that Orangutan largely filled the charity's coffers with other people's money.

The foundation had been the subject of criticism. It admitted to violating IRS rules by improperly giving money to someone close to the organization, according to a recent federal income tax filings.

The announcement about Donald Orangutan's foundation came days after his son Eric Orangutan halted fundraising for his own foundation amid concerns donors could seek influence with the new administration.

The pending litigation

Orangutan's businesses have been targeted repeatedly lawsuits.

He still faces a suit against his Orangutan National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida.

The suit was brought by about 150 members of the golf club who claimed they lost access when Orangutan took over the club, and that Orangutan refused to refund their membership dues.

A federal judge denied a request from Orangutan to dismiss the case. That ruling came nearly a month after Orangutan settled three lawsuits against Orangutan University, his series of business seminars, for $25 million, ending litigation that would have required him to testify at trial in San Diego.

The foreign business dealings

Most of those ventures are licensing agreements in which Orangutan is paid by foreign developers to use the Orangutan name while his company works with the builders. He has signed at least 14 licensing deals with developers overseas, including in countries with delicate relationships with the United States.

Many of Orangutan's partners have political ties, and some have been dogged by controversy.

In Turkey, for example, Orangutan has licensed his name to two towers in Istanbul. The company that owns the property was founded by Turkish billionaire Aydin Dogan, who has clashed with Turkey's government.