(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump defended his decision to avoid using banks for some business dealings, after the New York Times reported anti-money laundering staff at Deutsche Bank recommended some of his company's transactions be reported to a federal financial-crimes regulator.
“When you don't need or want money, you don't need or want banks. Banks have always been available to me, they want to make money,” Trump said on Twitter. “Fake Media only says this to disparage, and always uses unnamed sources (because their sources don't even exist).”
Multiple transactions involving legal entities controlled by Trump and others involving the business of his son-in-law Jared Kushner aroused the suspicion of anti-money laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank in 2016 and 2017, the Times reported Sunday.
The specialists recommended the matter be referred to a unit of the Treasury Department that polices financial crimes, but bank executives rejected their advice, the newspaper reported.
On Monday, Trump criticized the story in at least five Twitter postings, arguing that he built a “great business” and doesn't need banks, but they'd be available to him if he did. He called the media corrupt and deranged.
To contact the reporter on this story: Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kasia Klimasinska at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Greg Sullivan
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