Trump Entertainment seeks to stop pension payments

The much beleaguered Trump Entertainment – a company formerly associated with celebrity millionaire Donald Trump – will go before a bankruptcy judge Oct. 2 in an attempt to get out of its pension obligations, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Trump Entertainment attorney Kris Hansen told Judge Kevin Gross that escaping the pension payments that it is obligated to make is essential to the company’s survival, the news source reported. Hansen went on to compare the pension fund to “a black hole.” Gross agreed to hear the pension question in light of the “immediate and irreparable” harm to the gambling company.

Union and pension fund attorneys argued that the hearing should not occur because halting pension payments is just one of the things that needs to happen for Trump Entertainment to exit bankruptcy for the fifth time, according to the Journal. The company would also need to receive tax relief from Atlantic City, money for capital improvements from the state of New Jersey and debt relief from Carl Icahn, a secured lender. A failure of any of these events to occur would almost certainly cause the company to go under, Kathy Krieger, lawyer for a union that represents 1,200 Trump Taj Majal workers, told the news source.

Already, Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian has publicly rejected the company’s call for tax relief, the Journal reported, which signals poorly for the former gambling empire’s future. Union lawyer William Josem said that many casino workers already struggle to put food on the table with the pay packages they are receiving, and that further cuts could lead some to lose their homes. Nevertheless, attorney for Mr. Icahn’s funds Allan Brilliant told the news source that there would be no debt relief should the pension issue not come off smoothly.

Trump Entertainment has been struggling for years, causing Donald Trump to file a lawsuit recently demanding that his name be taken off of the Trump Taj Majal and the recently closed Trump Plaza, The Associated Press reported. 

“I want it off both of them,” Trump said, according to the news source. “I’ve been away from Atlantic City for many years. People think we operate [the company], and we don’t. It’s not us. It’s not me.”

Atlantic City is taking hit check out some of my previous posts on bankruptcy of the city’s most popular casinos:

• Taj Mahal Casino of Atlantic City May File For Bankruptcy
• Atlantic City’s Revel To File For Bankruptcy Again
• Atlantic Club Casino Seeks Bankruptcy Protection