Trump family banker ousted from Deutsche Bank over real estate deal

Former President Trump’s banker at Deutsche Bank lost her job in December after an internal probe revealed that she did not properly disclose business that she did with a client.

According to regulatory records released Wednesday with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Rosemary Vrablic, a senior private banker with the firm and a managing director on its wealth management team, “engaged in undisclosed activities related to a real estate investment … including the purchase of the property from a client-managed entity, and the formation of an unapproved outside entity to hold the investment.”

The records say Vrablic was “permitted to resign.”

The internal review centered around a 2013 deal Vrablic engaged in with Bergel 715 Associates. The probe was sparked following a New York Times report that Vrablic and two of her associates bought a Manhattan apartment for $1.5 million.

Trump and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and former senior adviser, had reportedly already borrowed about $200 million from Deutsche Bank. Kushner owned a small ownership stake in Bergel 715 Associates, according to a financial disclosure report he filed in 2020.

It was not immediately clear from Wednesday’s disclosure if Kushner’s involvement in the transaction played any role in Vrablic’s dismissal.

Vrablic reportedly worked on the deal with Dominic Scalzi, one of her bankers, as well as Scalzi’s nephew, another Deutsche Bank employee. The bank released an identical disclosure on Scalzi’s December dismissal, while his nephew had already left the bank at the time of his uncle’s ouster. 

Deutsche Bank, reportedly due to the efforts of Vrablic, stuck by Trump as he was largely shunned from the financial world over his history of bankruptcies. However, the bank reportedly decided last year that it would sever ties with the former president and his company moving forward.