Trump experienced the brunt of it, according to his lawyers. They say that businessman Pedro Rodriguez, owner of Grupo Promotor MU Mexico SA, signed a $6.5 million agreement to host the Miss Universe pageant in 2006. Trump owns Miss Universe jointly with Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, which disavowed his remarks about immigration.
Bogus Collateral
Rodriguez paid $1 million upfront. As collateral for the remainder, he agreed to set up a trust containing 26 properties belonging to a second businessman, Rodolfo Rosas, according to Omar Guerrero, a Mexico-City-based partner with Hogan Lovells who’s representing Trump. Once the show was over, they refused to pay the balance, and it was impossible to claim the collateral.
It turns out that the assets were never actually contributed to the trust, according to Trump’s lawyers.
Calls and e-mails to Rodriguez, Rosas and their attorneys went unanswered. In a blog post with no date, a writer identifying himself as Rosas said he never signed the agreement with Trump and offered up the collateral only as a favor to Rodriguez.
“Donald Trump lies, and with his lies he creates a farce akin to his reality show,” Rosas wrote on rodolforosasmoya.mx.
Arbitration Ruling
Eventually the Miss Universe organization took the case to an arbitration tribunal in Mexico and won. But attempts to enforce the decision stalled in the Mexican court system after multiple appeals by the defendants, according to the lawyers.
Including interest and legal fees, the amount owed has swelled to $12 million, the Trump team says.
With that as the backdrop, Trump sounded off to his 3 million Twitter followers on Feb. 24: “I have a lawsuit in Mexico’s corrupt court system that I won but so far can’t collect. Don’t do business with Mexico!”