Ivanka Trump's Old Jewelry Business Linked To Laundering Money

A powerful oil trading family used first daughter Ivanka Trump's defunct jewelry business to conceal roughly $100 million it owed to the Commercial Bank of Dubai, GQ pointed out Friday, citing a June filing at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The Commercial Bank of Dubai received permission to subpoena Trump's old jewelry line after the Al Saris, an Emirati family, allegedly borrowed from the bank and neglected to pay them back.

The Al Sari family is being accused of concealing their money through the purchase of diamonds from Trump's business, a company to which she had licensed her name. The family also reportedly purchased diamonds from Jacob Arabo, also known as "Jacob the Jeweler," with the same intent.

Trump and Arabo aren't directly being accused of any wrongdoing, however. While the court documents don't specifically reference Ivanka Trump by name, they seek permission to subpoena Madison Avenue Diamonds, which was the name of the jewelry line before Trump partnered with its owner Moshe Lax.

The subpoena was reportedly approved in August, but Lax denied he was served. Lax also denied all money laundering allegations.

"They might have bought a piece of fashion jewelry at our former boutique," Lax wrote in an email to GQ. "We will fully comply in verifying and providing info the court might ask from us."

Lax has come under fire for an assortment of fraudulent business practices, some of which involved Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry. Mahipal Singhvi of KGK — a company that was given a multimillion-dollar reward after Lax, his wife and their businesses didn't pay for a large sum of KGK diamonds — claimed to Politico in August that "he cheated not just us, he also cheated Ivanka."

Trump spoke of her "good working relationship" with Lax in 2010 memoir, "The Trump Card." While she detailed that he was "struggling" business-wise, Trump still admired that he was an "entrepreneur through and through."

"Moshe was looking to take his business to a whole new level," Trump wrote of Lax in her memoir. "In that way, I suppose, we were a lot alike, trying to make our own way along a path set out for us by our fathers and trying to extend that path in exciting new directions, which I guess explains why we hit it off."

Trump concluded her partnership with Lax at the end of 2016.

This wouldn't be the first time one of Trump's business ventures has been linked to a financial scandal. Trump and her brother, Donald Trump Jr., were investigated in 2012 for real estate fraud. The president's eldest children were accused of giving false condominium sales numbers for Trump SoHo to wealthy investors. The pair avoided potential fraud and larceny charges, as the investors involved agreed to a settlement.