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Monday, March 12, 2018

Pressed for details about the oil well deal in his deposition, Trump Jr. indicated he wasn't well versed in the oil-and-gas business. "You know, I put some money with a friend," he testified.

The above headline is a run-together of the final two paragraphs of Strib carrying an AP feed, "Trump Jr. partners with donor who pitched government - By JAKE PEARSON Associated Press = March 12, 2018 — 5:25am." Of interest, two chums, one seeming to take advantage of tax sheltering:

Last October, Beach incorporated a business called Future Venture LLC in Delaware without listing any Trump connection, signing himself as the entity's agent.

But a disclosure report filed with New York City officials and obtained by AP via a public records request shows Trump Jr. is named as the president, secretary and treasurer of the company.

The purpose of the limited liability company could not be determined from the filings. The Trump Organization said it was set up to pursue technology investments.

Previously unreported court documents show that the two men, each a godfather to one of the other's sons, did business together well before they formed Future Venture.

In a 2010 deposition, Trump Jr. testified that he had twice made investments in ventures that Beach had an interest in: $200,000 in a dry Texas oil well managed by Beach's father and an undisclosed amount in a failed mining stock affiliated with Beach's uncle.

In August 2008, while the two men were golfing together in New York, Beach suggested Trump Jr. sell his shares in the tanking stock "if you need the tax loss," according to a copy of his testimony filed in a long running civil lawsuit between Beach and a former employer, hedge funder Paul Touradji.

Beach's father, Gary Beach, was convicted last month of federal bankruptcy fraud after a seven-day trial in Dallas.

A dry oil well and a failed mining stock surely sounds as if tax sheltering was part of the mood. This is only a part of a longer report, so read the original, at Strib. The film, The Producers, comes to mind. ... and then the thing made money ...