I saw this story the other day, “The Trouble With Ivanka’s Business Partner”. Amongst all of the news, bad and worse, about that person and his family, I’ll admit it’s not an important story. And the point of the article can be summed up by its lead paragraph:
His vendors call him a “career grifter.” His father’s creditors claim he’s a fraud and a serial extortionist who shakes people down with trumped-up threats of criminal charges. With these and other allegations piling up in court records along with judgments—against him, his wife and his businesses—for millions of dollars, his lawyers are abandoning him, saying he’s a deadbeat. All the while, he’s been living in one of the most luxurious mansions in the Bronx.
In other words, here is a story about one more sleazy person in that person’s orbit, named Moshe Lax. Not a member of his inner circle, nor one of the Russian Mafia, just one of the many unethical businessmen of New York who somehow always seem to be an associate of that person.
What kept me thinking about this person — as opposed to the countless other sleazy & unethical people in his circle — were two things. First, Lax has a number of similarities to Ivanka’s father. Both have burned business partners; both have associated with some shady people; and both have stiffed their own attorneys. Lax has even cheated Ivanka in their partnership. Yet Lax continues to live an affluent life, and treated like a close friend of the family. This similarity is related to the second item.
Maybe it’s just me, but if a business partner treated me half as shabbily as Lax has Ivanka, I’d terminate all business and personal contact with him. It’s just a matter of practical sense. If you can’t trust someone, don’t associate with him. Nonetheless, Ivanka does. Which makes me wonder about her. Maybe she has grown up with this image that everyone cheats, lies and steals from others to make their living; she expects everyone to be like her toxic father.
And if she expects that from Lax, what does that say about her husband, Jared Kushner? Yes, I’ve seen stories about him that indicate he is ethically challenged — such as this one about his Baltimore properties — but I find myself now wondering if he has the same exploitative relationship with his other business partners and friends. Perhaps even with Ivanka.
That’s a depressing thought, the one person many had hoped, once upon a time, might moderate his destructive behavior, actually considers it normal and expected. But what is worse is that she can’t even draw lines to defend her own safety, but was raised and trained to be exploited by the men around her. Thus the only people who can exist in that person’s worlds are those who are willing to be his victims.
Which is an even more depressing thought.
