Scottish govt urged to probe Trump golf investments

The government in Edinburgh has been urged to order an investigation into the financing of US President Donald Trump's business interests in Scotland.

Scottish Green Party leader Patrick Harvie asked First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to use the Criminal Finances Act to probe Trump's two golf courses in the country.

Trump owns Trump International Golf Links Scotland in Aberdeenshire, northeast Scotland, and Turnberry, in southwest Ayrshire.

Harvie told First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in parliament on Thursday there was a "need to protect Scotland's good name from association with the toxic Trump brand".

In a debate, he said there were "long-standing concerns about Trump's business activities", including "patterns of buying and selling... suggestive of money laundering".

He highlighted accusations the Trump Organization repeatedly reporting different financial details in the United States to those in the UK about his Scottish golf courses.

"The Scottish Government is able to go to court and ask for an unexplained wealth order to start getting answers," said Harvie.

"Now that Trump is due to lose immunity from prosecution in the US, he may finally be held to account there. Is it not the case that he is also held to account here?"

Unexplained wealth orders -- also called "McMafia laws" -- were introduced by the UK government in 2017 as a mechanism to fight money laundering.

It gives law enforcement agencies the power to seize and, if necessary, sell suspicious assets, particularly property, whose owners cannot explain how they paid for them.

Harvie's party has opposed the development of Trump's Aberdeenshire course -- and proposals to build a second nearby -- on environmental grounds.

Scottish National Party leader Sturgeon, whose predecessor Alex Salmond has criticised Trump's failure to keep his investment promises, said it was not a matter for ministers.

"In matters such as this, (Scottish prosecution service) the Crown Office operates independently of the Scottish ministers, as is right and proper," she said.

Trump bought the 1,400 acres (567 hectares) of land in Aberdeenshire in 2006, pledging to build "the world's best golf course" and to create 6,000 jobs.

His mother was from the Isle of Lewis, off the west coast of Scotland.

He bought the Turnberry golf resort in 2014 and also owns a course in Ireland.

In October last year Trump International Golf Club Scotland reported a loss of £1.07 million for 2018 after a £1.25 million loss in 2017.

There was no immediate response from the company when contacted by AFP and the Crown Office said: "Unexplained wealth orders are civil, not criminal proceedings.

"As a matter of course, we neither confirm nor deny whether civil recovery unit investigations are taking place."