NY company closely tied to Trump honors Trump businesses

NEW YORK (AP) - The Trump Grill at Trump Tower has one. So, too, does the Trump Buffet & Grill in the basement. Indeed the entire New York City skyscraper sports one for being "the ultimate residential building worldwide."

More than a dozen Donald Trump businesses - from golf courses, hotels, casinos and private clubs - have been honored over the years with "Star Diamond" awards from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences, a company that doles out shiny plaques representing "the most prestigious award of true excellence in hospitality."

But in Trump's case the academy isn't an independent observer - it is run by a longtime Trump associate, Joseph Cinque, who goes by the nickname "Joey No Socks" and has a felony conviction for possessing stolen property.

Trump, who as recently as last year was listed on the group's website as its "ambassador extraordinaire," praised Joseph Cinque in a 2009 tribute video, calling him "a special guy."

But asked about his relationship with Cinque now, Trump said he didn't know him that well and was unaware of Cinque's criminal conviction.

"If a guy's going to give you an award, you take it," Trump told The Associated Press. "You don't tend to look up his whole life story."

An AP review shows that about half of the roughly 30 American Academy of Hospital Sciences trustees listed in the company's own press materials appear to be Trump friends and business associates.

At one point, Trump's two adult sons; the chief operating officer of the Trump Organization, Matthew Calamari; and Trump's longtime butler, Anthony Senecal; all served as trustees simultaneously.

Author Harvey Mackay, who interviewed Trump about his business acumen in the 2004 book, "We got Fired!" was listed as a trustee, although a representative for Mackay denied that he was involved with the group.

Also listed are businessman Howard Lorber, who has called Trump his "hero," and actor Tony Lo Bianco, who said he believes he was introduced to Cinque years ago by Trump.

"As you know, of course Donald Trump does everything first class," said Lo Bianco.

Trump said the board members connected to the Trump Organization are likely just the recipient of honorifics.

"I don't know that anybody goes," he said. "I've never gone to a board meeting."

While the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences has given awards to hotels and restaurants around the globe, including famed Manhattan restaurants Le Cirque and Jean-Georges, the company has also honored Mexican food, Poland's tourism board and Sepp Blatter, the former president of soccer's scandal-plagued governing body, for "making the world's greatest sport even better."

Still, the ties between Cinque and Trump appear to be close. Cinque served as a judge with Donald Trump Jr. in the 2008 Miss Universe pageant. The academy honored Donald Trump with a lifetime achievement award in 2013.

"My view is that this is primarily a marketing program," said Michael Petrone, who heads up AAA's ratings program, which gives out Five Diamond status to a fraction of the hotels inspectors review annually, including to some Trump properties.

A 1999 lawsuit against Cinque by a former business partner alleges award-winners paid promotional fees to be named in the group's glossy publications, calling the academy "merely the alter ego of Cinque." It settled months later.

A decade after that, Trump friend Stewart Rahr, a billionaire pharmaceutical wholesaler, sued Cinque and his organization, saying that they failed to publish a "man of the year" profile of his philanthropic efforts in the right issue despite being paid a $25,000 fee. A judge ruled Rahr was owed the $25,000.

One former trustee, William Hetzler, founder of the German-American Hall of Fame, said he cut ties after he wasn't reimbursed for expenses related to a trip to Germany in which he connected Cinque to high-end chefs.

"If someone's not trustworthy I go the other direction," said Hetzler, whose Hall of Fame inducted Trump during a 2012 ceremony in Trump Tower.

Hetzler said Cinque sometimes gives awards for free and sometimes charges for the honor.

Trump told the AP that he's familiar with groups that try to sell awards as a marketing gimmick. But he said he has never paid Cinque's organization for its distinctions.

"Whoever received a reward qualified," said the woman who answered the phone at Cinque's company but refused to give her name. "Why don't you go after Hillary Clinton?"

A lawyer for the company, Stuart Perry, said that after past bad experiences with the media, he was wary about having Cinque speak with a reporter. But he said the company was "a pretty open book."

"The basic overall of the academy per se is dealing with five and six star properties," he said. "Only dealing with the best of the best in various categories."

Perry is also a "trustee adviser" to the academy, as is a lawyer who represented Cinque in his failed attempts to appeal a 2008 drunken driving conviction in New Jersey.

According to a 1995 profile in New York Magazine, Cinque pleaded guilty to a felony after police broke down the door of his Manhattan apartment and found a trove of valuable stolen art, including prints by Marc Chagall. Court records show he pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property in 1989.