The Convicted Con Artist Of The Winter White House
Ari Rinkus was convicted of two felonies, owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to his victims, and has a documented habit of lying. But he’s got one big thing going for him: a wife with an important job at Donald Trump’s favorite retreat. And Rinkus is playing that for all it’s worth.
An admitted fraudster who owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to his victims has had access to President Donald Trump through his wife, who is the guest reception manager of Mar-a-Lago, the Winter White House.
Heather Rinkus is such a familiar figure at Mar-a-Lago that senior administration officials fondly call her the club’s “house mother.” Her husband, Ari, is often on hand, too. There he was in February, waiting to greet President Trump in the special access area on the tarmac of Palm Beach International Airport, a few yards away from Air Force One.
But it wasn’t that long ago that Ari, whose real name is Anthony Donald Rinkus, pleaded guilty in federal court to felony wire fraud for a complex financial con job.
That guilty plea came on the heels of a previous one in state court for conducting a car-theft ring.
In fact, Rinkus was still on probation for his earlier crime when he stood to hear his sentence for the Ponzi scheme. “I can’t imagine a worse combination of situations, to be knowing that you just contracted a state felony, that you’re on probation for it, and then to step into a whole new fraud,” federal Judge Robert Jonker said before he ordered Rinkus to serve three years behind bars.
Now he is out of prison and on probation, though a gilded one. Through Heather’s job, the Rinkuses get to witness up close the pageantry of the presidency. It’s a deal Ari has said will become sweeter if Heather gets promoted to the club’s managing director, a position he has told sources she is next in line for.
Since his inauguration, Trump has already spent seven weekends at the 20-acre club on the Atlantic Ocean, giving members who have paid more than $200,000 in fees a ringside seat on the inner workings of his administration. It was here where Trump met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, here where he was briefed on North Korea’s test of a ballistic missile, and here where he ordered the bombing of Syria.
Source: Buzzfeed
The post The House Mother and The Fraudster appeared first on Compliancex.
April 28, 2017 at 08:33PM
from The Compliance Exchange
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