CGI Merchant Had A-Rod’s Backing And A $650M Fund. Then It Bought Trump’s D.C. Hotel And It All Fell Apart
When Raoul Thomas walked into Donald Trump’s New Jersey country club in the summer of 2021, he had a plan to pay no more than $350M for the Old Post Office building in D.C., occupied at that point by the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Thomas ran Miami-based investment firm CGI Merchant Group, which…