The art of the deal:
"In1988, Griffin purchased Resorts International and two of its hotels, one in Atlantic City, New Jersey; and another on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, from Donald Trump and other investors. Part of the deal was that Trump would buy Resorts' interest in the yet-to-be-constructed Taj Mahal project for $273 million, and that Trump would own Resorts International Air, which included three Sikorsky S-61 helicopters. In early 1988, Trump wanted to take Resorts private; but Griffin, through Griffin Gaming & Entertainment, offered the minority shareholders significantly more than Trump in April 1988. After Trump paid $101 million for Resorts International Inc. in 1987, Griffin bought it back from him for $365 million and assumed the hotel-casino's debt of $925 million on November 15, 1988. After ten months of ownership, Griffin reported a loss of $46.6 million. He had used $325 million in junk bond financing at nearly 14% from Drexel Burnham Lambert's Michael Milken, but suspended interest payments in early 1989. Cash flow was about $70 million short of what was needed to service the Resorts' debt in 1989, and Griffin sought bankruptcy court protection for Resorts on December 23, 1989.
The background to this was on November 12, when Resorts reached a tentative agreement with certain bondholders, several bondholders petitioned the United States Bankruptcy Court in Camden, New Jersey, to put the company into involuntary bankruptcy to protect legal claims they might have against Trump, the real estate investor Griffin outbid for Resorts the prior year. As a result, this literally wiped out or greatly reduced the investments of the bondholders, so that Griffin could sue Trump and yet still retain a significant portion for himself.
Besides Resorts International, the holding company for casinos in Atlantic City and the Bahamas, three company affiliates also filed for Chapter 11 protection: Griffin Resorts Inc., Resorts International Financing Inc. and Griffin Resorts Holding Inc."