APRIL 9--As the story goes, when defaults, bankruptcies, and assorted chicanery left Donald Trump a late-90s Wall Street outcast, he found shelter in the welcoming arms of Deutsche Bank, the only financial institution then willing to risk lending money to the dodgy developer.
While Trump’s dealings with the German multinational--which have continued for 20 years--are now the subject of investigations by two House of Representatives committees and the New York State Attorney General’s Office, there was actually another institution that first lent the toxic Trump money in the wake of the financial beating the real estate tycoon inflicted on his many creditors and bondholders.
Beginning in early-1995, the Union Labor Life Insurance Company, or ULLICO, was involved in loans to Trump totaling nearly $350 million, according to mortgage filings in New York and Florida. 
Over a five-year period, ULLICO made eight separate loans to Trump covering three of his properties: the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, the 40 Wall Street office tower in Manhattan, and a supertall condominium development across from the United Nations (seen above).
The ULLICO loans carried the hint of corruption that has become synonymous with the business practices of Trump and his development organization. The transactions were tainted by questionable benefits provided by Trump to an influential union official and the use of Trump’s now-shuttered charitable foundation as a source of improper slush fund payments to a group controlled by the labor leader.
Founded by labor organizations as a vehicle through which their pension monies could be invested, ULLICO stakeholders include nearly all public- and private-sector unions, from Teamsters and teachers to steelworkers and social workers. In 1977, ULLICO began offering construction loans to developers, a method by which to optimize investment returns while