In some cases, like the Azerbaijan case, Trump dealt with an identified corrupt government official (why would Trump deal with someone like this?) and this is a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He even sent Ivanka to see the property and she did a Youtube video on it. He may have cut a deal on this one. What the Russian oligarchs and gangsters (as well as corrupt state operators) have done for years is they lure you into a deal, then they add things that are "slightly" illegal instead of the one originally named. Pretty soon it is money laundering and too late to pull out. Then they blackmail you with the next deal. Or they bail you out like they did when one of the hotel deals Trump did was sued by the investors-- the VB bank run by Putin bailed out Trump by settling and paying off the lawsuit (Trump and the bank settle out in the future). It sounds crazy, but there is a Russian mob. They do it all the time.