Donald Trump's pledge to entrust his business empire to his sons does little to allay concerns about conflicts of interest between the incoming Republican president and the company he has run as an autocrat.
"Even though I am not mandated by law to do so, I will be leaving my busineses (sic) before January 20th so that I can focus full time on the Presidency," the president-elect announced on Twitter late Monday.
"Two of my children, Don and Eric, plus executives, will manage them. No new deals will be done during my term(s) in office," he added.
The brief statement came after Trump postponed until sometime next month a news conference originally scheduled for tomorrow at which he intended to unveil arrangements for his business after he takes office.
The 70-year-old, who is the wealthiest man to become US president, has been beset by accusations of conflict of interest ever since his shock electoral defeat of Democratic former secretary of state Hillary Clinton last month.
Those accusations have not been eased by the largely private nature of his conglomerate The Trump Organization, which is not listed on the stock market but whose network of hotels, golf clubs and luxury residential towers stretches across 20 countries, from Britain to Dubai, from the Philippines to India.
The company releases no public statistics and in the absence of tax returns, which the billionaire has still refused to publish, relatively little is known about the extent of its interests.
According to PrivCo, which seeks to provide financial and business information on private companies, The Trump Organization employs about 22,000 people and had revenues of USD 9.5 billion in 2014.
Even Trump's personal fortune is in dispute. After launching his presidential bid last June, he declared himself worth USD 10 billion. Forbes estimated his fortune at USD 3.7 billion in October and Bloomberg at USD 2.9 billion in 2015.
The company serves as an umbrella organization for numerous assets, which today mostly revolve around Trump's marketing savvy.
Moving on from big investments of the 1980s -- such as Trump Tower, the company headquarters which opened in 1983 -- the company today mostly licenses the Trump name to a plethora of projects that he does not actually own.
Take for example Trump Tower in Manila, a luxury skyscraper currently under construction in the Philippines's capital.
Although he is not the owner, Trump has already been paid as much as USD 5 million for allowing use of his name, according to CBS.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
