Correct. This story has been around forever. Part of the reason no bank worth its salt would lend him shit in the late 80s/early 90s. Not just too much leverage/bad timing like with plenty of other developers, but actual criminal behavio(u)r well beyond the pale of others. Eventually Deutsche — those fucking idiot morons, well known in financial circles for being THE dumbest real estate lenders in the Western world — would.
Since that’s the biz I started in, I knew he was a lying criminal scumbag 35 years ago. Which is why it was easy to be right about him from day one, and why those who defended/ignored him were wrong from day one.