beach, gentry
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named in corrupt 10 26?
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- Energy deals discussed during Trump-Putin talks in Alaska
- Deals aimed to encourage Kremlin for Ukraine peace, ease sanctions
- Gentry Beach signed agreement with Novatek, project faces hurdles
MOSCOW, Feb 20 (Reuters) - American financier Gentry Beach, who has ties to U.S. President Donald Trump's family, signed an agreement with Russia’s energy giant Novatek (NVTK.MM), opens new tab last autumn to develop natural gas in Alaska amid Western sanctions against Russia, the New York Times reported on Friday.
In August, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska for talks aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine.
The Reuters Power Up newsletter by columnist Ron Bousso provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here.
U.S. and Russian officials discussed several potential energy deals on the sidelines of the negotiations. Sources familiar with the talks said the business proposals were designed to encourage the Kremlin to agree to a peace deal in Ukraine and for Washington to ease sanctions on Russia.
The war is still raging in Ukraine after four years.
The New York Times, which spoke to the Texas financier, said he had quietly signed an agreement for Novatek to develop natural gas in Alaska.
He told the newspaper that the project was in its early stages and faced significant hurdles, declining to disclose the financial details.
Novatek told the newspaper it was “indeed having negotiations on the potential use” of its technology to liquefy natural gas in remote northern Alaska, but it did not confirm that it was working with Beach.
Novatek did not reply to a request for comment from Reuters. Beach was not immediately available for comment.
Beach is chairman and CEO of investment firm America First Global that holds interests in energy, mining and infrastructure. He helped raise funds for Trump’s election campaign in 2016 and contributed to shaping the administration's "America First" economic and diplomatic agenda.
Beach is also a college friend of Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., according to the New York Times.
Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, editing by Andrei Khalip
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dck 10 26
Donald Trump ally seeks to snap up DR Congo mine as US brokers peace deal
jun 2025
Democratic Republic of Congo is in talks with a Texan businessman allied to Donald Trump to make a notorious source of conflict minerals a central part of US-backed peace plans for the region. Gentry Beach, the chair of investment firm America First Global and former finance co-chair of Trump’s campaign in 2016, is part of a consortium negotiating for rights to the Rubaya coltan mine, said Congolese officials and people familiar with the matter.
The mine, outside the city of Goma in eastern DR Congo, has been at the centre of the trade in smuggled coltan used in the financing of one of Africa’s longest-running and deadliest wars. Rubaya, which produces about half of DR Congo’s coltan, was captured in January by Rwandan-backed M23 rebels who have since overseen and taxed its output. The mine is considered by geologists to be one of the most commercially promising sources for the tantalum and niobium used in the electronics industry. People involved in the discussions hope, if a deal is finalised, the mine will be part of a raft of US investment underpinning the Trump administration’s novel approach to ending the fighting between DR Congo, Rwanda and proxy militias.
Washington — which has negotiated a peace settlement with the warring parties — sees dangling the prospect of billions of dollars in US investment in mining and infrastructure as key to persuading them to stop fighting, in an example of Trump’s signature transactional style of diplomacy. Rubaya was one of a number of assets the embattled DR Congo president Felix Tshisekedi touted when he first approached Washington in February offering mining rights in return for help in ending a rebellion in the country’s east, according to Congolese officials. The Rubaya mine has been controlled by different militias as the 30-year conflict has ebbed and flowed ©
Both Washington and Kinshasa have expressed hope that any deals that flow will also dilute Chinese dominance in what is Africa’s richest store of minerals. DR Congo accounts for about 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt, as well as some of the continent’s largest reserves of gold, copper, coltan, tin and diamonds. “When the US stepped in, they wanted to frame their approach to a peace settlement differently than in the past,” said one regional participant in the plans, on condition of anonymity. “They were looking at what the business and economic side of the deal would be that allows this region to prosper, so we don’t get back into this all over.”
Beach, a former hedge fund manager and long-standing college friend of Trump’s son Donald Jr, has experience in DR Congo dating back to a previous 2004 mining venture. Beach was also involved in ventures in the DR Congo with the late Congo-born basketball legend Dikembe Mutombo. Although Donald Jr and Beach are old college friends, the president’s son has no involvement in Beach’s business ventures, according to a person close to Donald Jr. America First Global, which declined to comment, is part of a consortium including the Swiss commodities group Mercuria, that hopes to develop the mine in a joint venture with Congolese state miner Sakima. Mercuria — which also did not comment — would buy offtake from the mine, which according to people involved could require in excess of $500mn in investment.
“Rubaya is an important part of the peace process . . . We hope to dramatically expand it, reorganise it, and make it a world-class example of how to do mining,” one participant of the consortium said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. DR Congo and Rwanda on Friday signed an agreement to end the conflict, which dates back to the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, when millions of refugees fled across the border. Foreign ministers from both countries signed the peace deal in Washington in what Trump had hailed on Truth Social as “A Great Day for Africa and a Great Day for the World”. But it remains unclear how the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels may be persuaded to withdraw from the swaths of territory they control, or to relinquish cash cows such as Rubaya. PLAY | 00:13 Show video description The artisanal mine at Rubaya has been at the centre of the trade in smuggled coltan © Reuters
The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the private sector development-lending organisation set up by Trump during his first term, may support some of the US investments as part of a separate strategic minerals agreement with DR Congo, officials have said. This economic component of the settlement — designed to herald US investment in cobalt, copper and lithium mines, as well as infrastructure — is still some way off, according to people familiar with the talks. The DFC said it “can’t comment on transactions it may or may not be considering due to commercial sensitivities”. Rubaya has become synonymous with hellish conditions and the plunder of DR Congo’s riches by its neighbours.
It has been controlled by different militias as the 30-year conflict has ebbed and flowed, with its output frequently smuggled on to international markets through Rwanda and Uganda, according to reports by UN experts. Longer term, some of the coltan mined at the site would be exported legally through Rwanda and processed for export at a new smelter in Kigali. The smelter would be built by a separate consortium made up of Mercuria, Beach’s America First Global and Rwandan state investor Ngali Holdings, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Some regional experts remain sceptical about the plans, given the central role Rubaya has played in fuelling conflict. But one person familiar with the matter argued that the deal would be “all about business building the bridges”. Additional reporting by Alex Rogers and Guy Chazan
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A legal battle that has spanned close to two decades is getting ready to rev up once again.
In December of 2008, weeks after Barack Obama was elected as President for the first time, Gentry Beach sued his former employer, Touradji Capital, over compensation he believed he was owed. His former colleague, Robert Vollero, was added to the suit in early 2009.
The pair's argument was straightforward: Paul Touradji, the founder of his namesake hedge fund, had verbally agreed to pay them a fixed percentage of the profits generated by their trading ideas. They claimed they were owed $60 million. Touradji, a Tiger Cub who once worked for Julian Robertson and has since wound down his fund, said all bonuses were discretionary.
Now, nearly two decades and countless trials, appeals, and motions later, the case is set to go to trial again in late October, with $165 million in compensation in the balance, thanks to nearly 20 years of interest.
At a virtual pretrial conference on Wednesday, both sides noted how long the case has been going.
"We all want this over with," said Michael Stolper, a partner of Seiden Law, which is representing the two traders.
The practical challenges of going to trial in a case involving conversations that happened before the financial crisis are plentiful, especially given that the argument hinges on an oral agreement.
"Witnesses' memories fade," said Andrew Clubok, a partner at Latham & Watkins, which is representing Touradji.
"Some of them aren't spring chickens," he said, about some of the witnesses.
Testimony in the past has been collected from the three individuals at the center of the case, as well as industry players such as Todd Kantor, the founder of Encompass Capital Advisors who once worked for Touradji, and Josh Goldstein, the COO of Verition Capital Management who was at a competing firm during the time the case is focused on.
In 2019, the case seemed over with the two traders coming out on top and winning $90 million (the jury awarded the pair $45 million of the $60 million they had originally sued for, plus interest). A jury agreed that the two had legitimate oral agreements with Touradji. A year later, the First Department, an appellate division of New York's Supreme Court, vacated the ruling due to issues in the evidentiary and discovery processes.
The second trial ended in 2023 with a deadlocked jury, and additional rulings from the First Department have this case entering its third trial in the state's Supreme Court with the central question — are these traders owed money — still unresolved.
At least one side hopes the coming argument is the last.
"I don't want a fourth trial," Stolper said Wednesday.
Bradley Saacks covers hedge funds and other asset managers for Business Insider from New York. He first wrote about the multi-trillion-dollar industry for Business Insider from New York in late 2018, after spending two years covering mutual funds for the Financial Times' trade publication, Ignites.He left Business Insider for a little over a year, starting in mid-2022, and worked as a business reporter for Semafor, a media startup. He rejoined Business Insider in 2023, this time in the publication's London office, and has since relocated back to New York. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Media and Journalism, he was the recipient of the O.J. Skipper Coffin Award, which is given to the top graduating senior in the reporting track.During his time at Business Insider, he has broken news on the biggest names in hedge funds, including Paul Singer's Elliott Management, Ken Griffin's Citadel, Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, and more. He is interested in telling stories about the people behind the scenes who are driving big changes at the biggest firms.
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https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/aiming-to-take-down-fox-donald-trump-jr-reportedly-investing-in-far-right-oann/
Investors aligned with Donald Trump Jr. and Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair Tommy Hicks Jr. have acquired a major stake in One America News Network (OANN), sources familiar with the deal told Vanity Fair.
“Tommy Hicks and Don Jr. have been looking to buy a station for Trump TV,” a person briefed on the negotiations told Vanity Fair.
“This is all about building a Fox competitor. Trump is really aiming to take down Fox,” the person said.
The report is the first to connect the Trump family to the acquisition, discussions of which were first _{reported}_ in January by the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal reported that Hicks Equity Partners, a firm belonging to the family of Tommy Hicks Jr., the RNC co-chair, was negotiating a $250 million deal with Herring Networks, the parent company of OANN, a _{low-impact}_ far-right network that offers a home to the likes of Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec and has _{defended Roy Moore}_ and _{endorsed Russian propaganda}_.
Sources told Vanity Fair the deal has stumbled along for months and still hasn’t closed, but that the Trump-affiliated group had reportedly talked Herring down to $200 million. VF said it was also unclear whether Donald Trump Jr. invested Trump money in the deal, or was given equity.
As the buyout talks progressed, President Trump has repeatedly expressed his growing distaste with Fox News — long perceived as the only network he likes, and certainly the only network that consciously slants coverage and analysis in his favor.
Last month _{Trump accused Fox News of “being on a bad path,”}_ and has _{asked twice now}_ “what the hell is happening” at the network. He _{attacked Fox reporters}_ twice last month _{during White House coronavirus briefings}_, and has taken several potshots at several of the channel’s shows and personalities, _{tweeting}_ in January that Fox News was “really pathetic” and “so politically correct,” _{singling out Chris Wallace’s impeachment coverage}_.
After it was reported that Fox had fired MAGA-world luminaries Diamond and Silk for hawking ludicrous coronavirus conspiracy theories, Trump _{tweeted}_ his support for the duo: “But I love Diamond and Silk, and so do millions of people!”
In late April, _{Trump took to Twitter once again to call for an alt-Fox, pro-himself network}_:
“The people who are watching @FoxNews, in record numbers (thank you President Trump), are angry,” he wrote. “They want an alternative now. So do I!”
During this same period, Trump often promoted OANN, providing the nascent network — which is viewed with disdain by many reputable journalists — with cover against the White House Correspondents’ Association. Trump even plugged OANN by name in _{a tweet last month}_ as the alternative he has been asking for.
But _{this isn’t the first time}_ Trump has appeared to be switching media mistresses. When Fox soothes him, he reciprocates. When they rankle him, he pumps OANN.
OANN, which has roughly one-third of Fox’s reach, with ratings _{reportedly}_ lower than the Tennis Channel, appears to have no problem _{serving as the president’s megaphone}_.
For instance, OANN hired former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo— the newly-hired spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services who recently disgraced himself witha barrage of racist, pandemic-related tweets— who hosted aspecial program dedicated to “the Ukraine Hoax.” Late last year a network crew accompanied Rudy Giuliani and _{personal assistant Christianné Allen}_ on a trip to Ukraine, which resulted in a _{three-part series}_ that mainlined viewers with apparentRussian disinformation.
Spokespeople for Trump Jr. and Hicks denied involvement in the deal to Vanity Fair.
President Trump, who is in no financial position to acquire Fox News, views OANN as a fallback business opportunity should former Vice President Joe Biden defeat him in November, according to Vanity Fair, which reported the president might look to OANN as a “post-presidential television platform.”
The cash from the buyout will reportedly help OANN increase its production values and campaign to expand its viewership, two elements Trump would demand of any home for a post-White House TV home.
Trump Jr. and Hicks have been wrapped in scandal before. The president’s eldest son and his younger brother Eric were — along with Hicks and Dallas-based investment manager Gentry Beach — co-registrants for a nonprofit called Opening Day, which insinuated itself in Trump’s inauguration. Trump’s sons had to abandon the organization weeks after its inauguration event was announced, amid _{allegations that they were selling access}_ to their father.
An associate ofGentry Beachdeclined to comment when Salon inquired about his possible involvement in the OANN deal.
Kirk, a former contributor to Breitbart News, the online platform of the racist alt-right, is an ally of the Trump administration. He worked for the Trump campaign in 2016 and spoke at the Republican National Convention that year. Kirk has appeared on Fox News alongside members of the Trump family.
Two members of the TPUSA advisory council, investor Gentry Beach and Thomas Hicks, Jr., the son of a Dallas billionaire, worked with Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric to establish a Texas nonprofit to sell access to the president to big donors during inauguration festivities in January. Beach and Hicks, who were both national vice chairmen of the Trump campaign, raised millions of dollars for the campaign. Beach has visited the White House multiple times in 2017.
Beach’s father, Gary, was indicted on five charges of bankruptcy fraud in 2016. Charlie Kirk's father is allegedly Robert W. Kirk, the project architect manager for Trump Tower in New York City.
“We stay totally removed from restricted political activity,” said Kirk. “Instead, we focus on starting chapters, hosting debates on campus, planning training seminars, and hosting national training conferences such as our upcoming one in Palm Beach in December.”
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https://www.dallasnews.com/news/donald-trump-1/2017/05/22/art-schmooze-trump-pal-dallas-enjoys-special-access-white-house
The art of the schmooze: Trump pal from Dallas enjoys special access to White House
FILED UNDERDONALD TRUMP AT MAY 2017 SHARE
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The guy with the slicked-back red hair, bodyguard build and quick-draw handshake glided through the hotel ballroom with his buddy Donald Trump Jr., schmoozing with GOP leaders and pointing out the Texas flag on Trump’s belt buckle.
Gentry Beach, ebullient stock trader and proud son of Highland Park, had become a rising star in Republican fundraising almost overnight. He was one of two Texans Trump singled out from the stage of the Dallas Omni at the March event.
Not only did they raise millions of dollars for the campaign, Trump said, but they also spent seven months with him on the road, doing everything from “taking selfies to carrying my bags.”
“I was basically their dancing monkey,” Trump said about Beach and Tom Hicks Jr., a Dallas businessman.
Beach’s friendship with Don Jr. and his role in the campaign have won him rare access to the White House and the Trump administration. That access has come with questions.
Beach was at the center of a controversial effort late last year to set up a nonprofit with Trump's sons, which critics said appeared to sell access to the president.
Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. distance themselves from Dallas-based nonprofit's inauguration party
“If I called up there and asked someone to do me a favor, could I get in the door? Sure,” Beach said in one of several conversations with The Dallas Morning News.
But Beach, 41, says he has no plans to take advantage of that access. He has no record of political activism and little history of making campaign contributions before Trump became a candidate.
“I need nothing from the government,” he said. “I didn’t have a desire to go into politics.”
On the other hand, he has been spending time in Washington recently, and not just at the annual Easter Egg Roll.He shrugs off as a happy accident his appearance at an Interior Department photo-op when the new secretary rolled back an Obama-era regulation. Then there was a reported visit to the White House with an energy lawyer, which Beach won’t discuss. A photo recently on the Instagram account of his wife’s clothing business showed her posing with President Trump as she models one of her designs.
“I have many friends throughout the entire White House,” Beach said.
Tommy Hicks Jr. (left), Donald Trump and Gentry Beach. Hicks and Beach, two Dallas businessmen, were credited with raising millions for Trump's presidential campaign.(Courtesy of Tommy Hicks Jr.)]
For almost a decade, Beach has been embroiled in financial and legal disputes, which culminated in a federal criminal investigation involving his family’s financial dealings.
He canceled several interviews before finally agreeing to sit down with The News, saying he’s tired of getting calls from the media.
“You put a target on your back and nothing good comes from that,” Beach said.
Mastering the schmooze
The son of an oil and gas man, Beach was a popular athlete at Highland Park High School. In a 1993 photograph taken by a News photographer, Beach and seven other football teammates flex their biceps to show off the benefits of hiring a personal-fitness trainer.
The team’s former quarterback remembers Beach as a player “you want on your side’’ and a guy he couldn’t recall being negative.
"He was always selling himself,'' said Ty Hudnall, now a paramedic. “He had this endless, but not quite hyper, energy. And a lot of confidence.''
Gentry Beach (middle row, third from left) poses with Highland Park High School teammates in a 1993 photo.
(1993 File Photo/Dallas Morning News)
Gentry Beach (middle row, third from left) poses with Highland Park High School teammates in a 1993 photo. (1993 File Photo/Dallas Morning News)
Beach’s football talent hooked recruiters at the University of Pennsylvania, and he joined its team after graduating from high school in 1994. Injuries soon cut short his budding gridiron career.
But through the university’s Wharton School, he earned an economics degree in 1998 after studying alongside Donald Trump Jr., the oldest son of the future president.
Fortune hunting
After graduation, Beach got a job with Enron Corp., at the time one of the world’s fastest-growing energy corporations. Beach worked there for less than a year, scouting for possible mergers and acquisitions, before going to work on Wall Street as an investment banker and money manager.
By the mid-2000s, Beach had married Kathryn Munson of Denison and moved to Manhattan. And he had reunited with his college chum, Don Jr. Both joined a private shooting club outside New York City, and started traveling the world together hunting, Beach said.
Under the tutelage of veteran hunter Peter Horn, who runs New York’s high-end Beretta Gallery gun dealership, Beach stalked European brown bears in Romania.
In his 2014 memoir, Hunting Across the Danube, Horn wrote of one successful trip in which Beach took down a large bruin.
“The bear fell not thirty yards from the point of impact in full view of the smiling Texan,’’ Horn wrote. A photo shows Beach propping his Winchester against the bear’s belly.
“He’s fearless and he knows what he’s doing,” Horn said in an interview.
On other trips, Beach said, he grew to admire Don Jr.’s judgment and enjoyed “just being in the outdoors’’ with his fellow hunters. Beach later turned to the hunting community to drum up support for the Trump candidacy.
By 2005, Beach's career appeared to be humming. He lived in expensive apartments near Central Park, city records show, and with his wife appeared in photos from society parties.
In November, a photographer captured images of Beach adjusting Don Jr.'s bow tie before his wedding at his father's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
Dallas businessman Gentry Beach (right) helped his friend Donald Trump Jr. prepare for Trump's wedding ceremony in 2005 at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla.(C. Allegri/Getty Images)
Dallas businessman Gentry Beach (right) helped his friend Donald Trump Jr. prepare for Trump's wedding ceremony in 2005 at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla. (C. Allegri/Getty Images)
That year, Beach was hired to manage energy investments by Touradji Capital Management, a hedge fund founded by Paul Touradji, an accomplished Wall Street trader.
In his first year, he earned more than $2 million, according to court documents. A supervisor later gave him high marks in an evaluation for “finding what ideas are going to make big $.’’ The review also noted that he could improve his leadership skills, describing him as “aggressive and powerful, but doesn’t get the buy-in of his troops.’’
Beach introduced his father, Gary, to Touradji, and the trio agreed to operate an oil-and-gas exploration company together, with the senior Beach managing the new firm.
But the business didn’t pan out, and the partners quarreled. Touradji pulled out of the venture and demoted Beach at the hedge fund. Beach said he was due millions in bonuses for other successes at the firm; Touradji said he wasn’t.
In September 2008, tensions erupted in a shouting match in Touradji’s office, and Beach resigned the next day, according to court records. Beach filed a police report saying Touradji had threatened his life. In court papers, Touradji denied that and said the complaint never led to charges.
Then ensued an eight-year legal battle that spilled into courts in New York and Texas.
Legal wars
Beach’s father fired the first salvo, suing Touradji in Texas for breach of contract over the oil company and asking for $8 million. Gentry Beach then sued Touradji in New York saying he was owed $23 million in bonus pay. A colleague, Robert Vollero, joined that lawsuit, saying he too was owed millions.
Touradji countersued, accusing Beach’s father of taking $500,000 from the oil company. Touradji accused the son of ruining fund investments, hiding information and conspiring with his father to steal money, according to court records.
Beach and Vollero, meanwhile, started their own hedge fund, Vollero Beach Capital, whose portfolio focused on energy investments.
As the lawsuits progressed, Beach and his wife maintained close ties with the Trumps. They appeared with Ivanka and Don Jr. at a Manhattan charity fundraiser, and posed for pictures at Donald Trump’s Central Park skating rink with their kids. Don Jr. became a godfather to one of Beach’s sons.
But there were problems. In late 2009, and again in 2010, Beach’s fund made some stock trades that regulators would later say violated federal securities rules. The fund paid $800,000 to settle the complaints without admitting wrongdoing.
The Internal Revenue Service filed a lien against Beach and his wife for $240,000 in back taxes, which they paid.
An Instagram post by Kathryn Beach pictures her and President Donald Trump as she wears one of the hunting vests her business sells.
(The Dallas Morning News)
An Instagram post by Kathryn Beach pictures her and President Donald Trump as she wears one of the hunting vests her business sells. (The Dallas Morning News)
And in 2011 Beach's father lost his Houston lawsuit. The court ruled he and one of his companies owed Touradji almost $3 million. He appealed.
A few days later, Beach's father filed for bankruptcy protection. Under the law, a government-appointed trustee was supposed to round up his assets and use them to pay as much of the bills as possible.
Just days before Gary Beach had filed for bankruptcy, a trust fund he and Gentry controlled bought a million-dollar house for Gary on Beverly Drive. Gary didn't disclose the house on his bankruptcy paperwork.
Money from the same family trust also helped pay for Gentry's own red-brick colonial in Highland Park, according to court records.
In 2013, the bankruptcy trustee sued Gentry and Gary Beach for fraud, alleging that they had spent all the money in the trust to try to keep it out of the hands of creditors (mainly Touradji).
The Beaches settled that case without admitting wrongdoing but agreeing to pay $1 million. Gary had also lost the appeal of his Houston case. Gentry Beach declined to comment on the bankruptcy or Touradji-related litigation.
But by 2014, federal prosecutors had begun investigating.
Late last year, the presidential election loomed. Gentry Beach, one of several national vice chairmen for the Trump campaign, focused on drumming up money on a final swing through the west. He hosted receptions in Salt Lake City and Dallas where the admission price for couples soared as high as $893,000, according to invitations obtained by The Center for Responsive Politics.
Charlie Kirk, director of the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, said Beach held strong during the dark days of the campaign following the release of a recording of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women.
“He was steadfast in his support of the mission,” Kirk said in a recent interview in Dallas. “I think that speaks a lot about a person’s character.”
Then, just seven days before the election, a grand jury indicted his father on charges of bankruptcy fraud. Federal prosecutors charged Gary Beach with seven counts of lying about his income during his bankruptcy proceedings; each count carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
He pleaded not guilty and declined to comment for this article. A trial is set for September.
Gentry Beach was not charged with any crimes, but the indictment cited his involvement in financial transactions in the case. He said he is not under investigation. The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment.
Looking forward
Meanwhile, Beach’s energy fund merged with a bigger operation and he soon left that firm. He recently joined forces with other Dallas businessmen to form a company to develop roof-top wind turbines, and is pursuing a futuristic farming venture.
When Beach sat down for an interview, he brought along a business partner who is also a minister, Eric Schick, who vouched for Beach’s character and faith.
“That’s what I’ve identified in this man: God works through this man so possible things become very possible,’’ Schick said.
Life’s challenges, Beach said, have deepened his spirituality.
“I've learned a lot of lessons along the way, and a lot of humbling moments, and if it's not for God, it's not for me,’’ he said. “That's the way I feel.’’
Gentry Beach (far right, left of a woman in purple coat) was in attendance as President-elect Donald Trump arrived for his inauguration.
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Gentry Beach (far right, left of a woman in purple coat) was in attendance as President-elect Donald Trump arrived for his inauguration. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Beach has continued to lead a fast-paced life. His 6,500-square-foot home has a pool and three fireplaces. He drives Jaguars and Range Rovers and was ticketed in 2015 for going 101 on the Dallas North Tollway in a Mercedes.
Beach's wife, Kathryn, runs her own businesses, including one that has moved from selling cashmere baby clothes to children's party outfits. The couple has five children.
Another of her ventures — producing women's hunting vests — has used a photo of her modeling a vest and ruffled white blouse with President Trump at a National Rifle Association convention.
After the election, Trump appointed Beach to raise money for the inauguration. He was among 22 financial chairmen overseeing the effort, which organizers said landed a record $100 million for the swearing in.
But Beach said he doesn’t deserve credit for anything, despite Don Jr.’s praise.
“You know who deserves the credit? The organization does, his father does,’’ Beach said. “I was a very good bag carrier, right-hand man. I would do whatever I needed to do to be helpful.’’
In December, Beach and his friend Hicks planned an inauguration event for sportsmen that would donate money to conservation causes. They formed a nonprofit to sponsor the event: two Trump sons were listed as participants. A brochure draft that leaked out promised donors who gave $1 million access to the new president or hunting trips with his sons. Hicks declined to comment.
Ethics experts said it appeared the nonprofit was trying to sell access to the president. The Trump sons’ names were removed from the venture, and the event was called off.
Those kinds of events — and the use of a presidential photo to promote someone’s business — are legal but ethically problematic, said Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush and a law professor at the University of Minnesota.
“The job of the White House ethics lawyer and the White House staff in general is to strongly discourage that,” he said.
“If I were running the White House ethics shop,” he added, “I’d have them on my watch list.”
Visits to Washington, D.C.
A few days before the inauguration, Beach greeted other guests at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. His father, whose travel had been limited to Texas after his indictment, received special permission from a judge to go to the event, court records show.
Gentry Beach (left) and his wife, Kathryn, visited the lobby of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., a few days before the inauguration.
(Eric Lipton/The New York Times)
Gentry Beach (left) and his wife, Kathryn, visited the lobby of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., a few days before the inauguration. (Eric Lipton/The New York Times)
In February, according to the news website Mic.com, Beach attended a White House meeting with Wadie Habboush, a Washington, D.C., energy lawyer, to discuss lifting sanctions against oil-rich Venezuela with national security officials. Beach denied the account, saying he has no access to the National Security Council and has nothing to do with Venezuela.
Beach said he met Habboush during the inauguration. But he wouldn’t say whether the two were later at the White House together.
“I can’t comment ever about a meeting inside anywhere,” Beach said. Habboush and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Gentry Beach (left) receives a ceremonial pen from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke as Zinke signed orders on March 2, his first day on the job.
(U.S. Department of Interior)
Gentry Beach (left) receives a ceremonial pen from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke as Zinke signed orders on March 2, his first day on the job. (U.S. Department of Interior)
In March, Beach took another trip to D.C., where he stood in the office of the new secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke. Zinke was reversing an Obama-era decision that banned lead ammunition and fishing tackle on certain public lands and waterways.
Sportsmen have argued that the higher cost of non-toxic ammunition interferes with their pastime; at the signing, Zinke was surrounded by representatives of the National Rifle Association and about 20 hunting and fishing groups.
Why was Beach there?
At first, a department spokeswoman declined to comment, writing in an email that the event’s organizer no longer works for the agency. Later she wrote it was a social visit.
Beach’s explanation: Nothing to see here. He just happened to be in Zinke’s office during the secretary’s first day on the job, Beach said.
“I randomly stopped by.”
Read the full indictment of Gary Beach:
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A new Texas nonprofit led by Donald Trump’s grown sons is offering access to the freshly-minted president during inauguration weekend — all in exchange for million-dollar donations to unnamed “conservation” charities, according to interviews and documents reviewed by the Center for Public Integrity.
And the donors’ identities may never be known.
Prospective million-dollar donors to the “Opening Day 2017” event — slated for Jan. 21, the day after inauguration, at Washington, D.C.’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center — receive a “private reception and photo opportunity for 16 guests with President Donald J. Trump,” a “multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion for 4 guests with Donald Trump, Jr. and/or Eric Trump, and team,” as well as tickets to other events and “autographed guitarsby an Opening Day 2017 performer.”
Website TMZ.com first published a brochure hyping the happening. The brochure says that “all net proceeds from the Opening Day event will bedonated to conservation charities,” but it does not name the charities or detail how net proceeds will be calculated.
Who’s behind the get-together?
Walter Kinzie, chief executive officer of Texas event management company Encore Live, confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity that a nonprofit group called the Opening Day Foundation hired his firm to manage Opening Day 2017.
A Center for Public Integrity review of Texas incorporation records found the Opening Day Foundation was created less than a week ago, on Dec. 14. Unlike political committees, such nonprofits aren’t required by law to reveal their donors, allowing sponsors to write seven-figure checks for access to the president while staying anonymous, if they choose.
The paperwork for the Opening Day Foundation listed four directors: Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Dallas investor Gentry Beach and Tom Hicks Jr., the son of a Dallas billionaire.
Beach and Hicks are reportedly close friends with Donald Trump Jr., and both men helped raise millions of dollars for Trump’s campaign.
“The event is being put on by the Opening Day Foundation,” Kinzie confirmed, adding: “There are a number of different individuals who are part of the foundation.”
Kinzie also said the information in the brochure posted by TMZ.com was not entirely accurate — he did not specify what was incorrect — and he added that the participation of Trump family members is not confirmed.
The Trump Organization, a spokeswoman for President-elect Trump and the presidential transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hicks and Beach also did not immediately respond to phone messages requesting comment.
The brochure for “Opening Day 2017,” an event described as “honoring President Donald J. Trump,” offers sponsor packages ranging from $25,000 to $1 million. The event will “celebrate the great American tradition of outdoor sporting, shooting, fishing and conservation,” the brochure states.
Mike Ingram, an Arizona developer who is listed as one of the co-chairmen, said Beach approached him to help.
"I’m honored to do it," he said. "It’s not going to be a black tie event. It’s going to be boots and jeans and camouflage and it’s going to raise a lot of money to go to sportsman’s charities" and conservation charities, he said.
Ingram said he could not confirm the Trump family's participation.
“This is problematic on so many levels,” said Larry Noble, the general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan campaign reform organization. “This is Donald Trump and the Trump family using a brand new organization to raise $1 million contributions for a vague goal of giving money to conservation charities, which seems a way of basically just selling influence and selling the ability to meet with the president.”
Noble cautioned that the details of the event and its association with the new nonprofit listing the Trump brothers as directors are still unclear.
“It’s really hard to identify all the problems when they’re so vague,” he said.
The Trump family has recently endured criticism for appearing to sell access to Trump’s adult children, who serve on the executive committee of Trump’s presidential transition team and have functioned as key advisers since he began his campaign.
The family canceled an auction for coffee with Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump last week after ethics experts said it was ethically questionable, according to the New York Times. The proceeds of the auction would have gone to the Eric Trump Foundation, an existing nonprofit whose mission is to support a children’s hospital.
Update, 4:18 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20:Trump's transition team emailed a statement from spokeswoman Hope Hicks. It reads: "The Opening Day event and details that have been reported are merely initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are avid outdoorsmen and supporters of conservation efforts, which align with the goals of this event, however they are not involved in any capacity."
A Trump transition official told the Center for Public Integrity that the registration document for the Opening Day Foundation, the nonprofit behind the Opening Day 2017 event, "will be amended" and that the names of Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump will be removed.
The statement and transition official did not address Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump serving as directors of the Opening Day Foundation. Nor did it explain how the Trump brothers came to be listed on the event's brochure, which organizers circulated among conservative political donors in recent days.
Beach is listed in the Opening Day Foundation's signed registration document as the group's registered agent. Texas nonprofit registration forms state that including "materially false" information is subject to "penalties imposed by law."
Houston-based lawyer Thomas M. Gregor signed Opening Day Foundation's registration document under penalty of perjury. Gregor could not immediately be reached for comment.
This story is republished with permission from the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative media organization in Washington.
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