President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was embroiled in a messy legal tangle with his ex over a $2million loan which, he alleged, his former lover failed to repay, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Court documents exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com show how the once intimate relationship devolved when Bessent filed a lawsuit against William Trinkle, 66, which sparked a litany of petty counter-complaints as his ex hurled a host of accusations of his own.
These included allegations that the openly gay billionaire hedge-fund heavyweight recruited private detectives to spy on Trinkle before and during their seven-year relationship, failed to honor a promise to pay half of the medical bills when their dogs became terminally ill, stiffed him on a large sales commission due from a previous property purchase, and did not return items of Trinkle’s mother’s estate following their split.
Trinkle, a successful real estate developer now living in Virginia, also accused Bessent of holding onto the entirety of their wine collection which was stored in New York, as well as cases of expensive South African wines which belonged to him alone and were housed in a London property they once shared.
In his original suit, filed June 23, 2010, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bessent, 62, accused Trinkle of defaulting on a $2million mortgage agreement drawn up between the two men in 2008.
According to the terms of the agreement Bessent lent Trinkle $2million to purchase a property in East Hampton, New York in August 2008.
The terms set an interest rate of 5.6% on repayments made between September 1, 2008 and March 31, 2010. That then jumped to a default interest rate of 11.6% from April 1, 2010 to continue until the, ‘full payment and satisfaction of funds.’
Trinkle acknowledged the existence of the loan when he filed his answer to Bessent’s complaint but denied any wrongdoing on his part, focusing instead on several counterclaims of his own.
Scott Bessent (left) who has been nominated as Trump’s Secretary of Treasury was involved in a messy legal battle over money and property with his ex-partner of seven years, William Trinkle (right), DailyMail.com can reveal
Bessent, 62, primarily lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his husband, John Freeman, and two children. The couple are pictured together in 2014
According to Trinkle, in or about 2001 Bessent asked him to find a New York property for him to purchase in which they could live as a couple.
Trinkle found three penthouse units in a luxury apartment development at 252 Seventh Avenue in Chelsea on Manhattan’s West Side. Bessent bought the lot.
The purchase contract named Trinkle as co-broker along with the developer’s estate agent a role which, with a brokerage commission of approximately 2.5% on the $6.5million purchase would have entitled Trinkle to a lump sum of $162,500.
Trinkle waived this fee and Bessent received it as a credit on the purchase price on condition that the men would live in the building, ‘for at least several years.’
Instead, ‘on Bessent’s insistence,’ Trinkle alleged they never shared the property.
In addition to this Trinkle claimed that, before and/or during their relationship, ‘Bessent hired private detectives…to conduct investigations of Trinkle, including his movements, appointments, meetings and personal matters.’
The findings were then compiled in a report which the detectives furnished to Bessent along with other materials which, at the time of the lawsuit, Bessent still had in his possession.
According to Trinkle, Bessent had promised and failed to return all these personal files to him when the relationship, which began in 1997, ended around January 2004.
In his original suit, filed June 23, 2010, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bessent, 62, accused Trinkle of defaulting on a $2million mortgage agreement drawn up between the two men in 2008
Trinkle acknowledged the existence of the loan when he filed his answer to Bessent’s complaint but denied any wrongdoing on his part, focusing instead on several counterclaims (pictured) of his own
Trinkle is a successful real estate developer now living in Virginia with his family (pictured)
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Trinkle also claimed that Bessent still had items belonging to him from his mother’s estate, including ‘family photographs and furniture,’ which were inadvertently shipped to a residence of Bessent’s in Bedford, New York.
Despite Bessent promising to deliver the items back to Trinkle, his ex claimed he had yet to receive them.
During their relationship the men owned two dogs together which Trinkle kept after their split.
In 2008 both dogs developed terminal illnesses and, Trinkle alleged, it was agreed that the former partners would split the medical bills. According to Trinkle, Bessent reneged on the agreement.
Similarly, both men shared a wine collection which was stored in New York but Trinkle claimed he owned cases of South African wine in addition to this which was stored in their London home.
Despite agreeing to split the New York wine collection and return the South African cases, Trinkle claimed, Bessent failed to do either.
Both Bessent and Trinkle were staunch Democrats during their time together.
Not only was Bessent a major Democrat donor, he and Trinkle co-hosted an East Hampton fundraising event for then Vice President Al Gore at the heat of the 2000 presidential campaign.
Bessent’s original lawsuit against his ex sparked a litany of petty counter-complaints from Trinkle, who then accused the openly gay billionaire hedge-fund heavyweight of spying on him and failing to financially hold up his end of their agreements during their seven-year relationship
According to his countersuit, Trinkle found three penthouse units in a luxury apartment development at 252 Seventh Avenue in Chelsea on Manhattan’s West Side (pictured). Bessent bought the $6.5M lot with Trinkle as co-broker – which would’ve entitled him to a lump sum of $162,500
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And while Bessent has won the trust and support of President Trump and his inner circle and is now poised to lead a Republican economic agenda of cutting taxes, culling federal regulations and introducing a raft of tariffs, back then he shared his house and his life with a partner who was a vocal advocate of an altogether more liberal agenda.
Between 1999 and 2008 Trinkle was Co-Chair of the board of Empire State Pride Agenda.
The organization was once the largest statewide lesbian and gay political advocacy and civil rights organization in the United States.
Based in New York it was a statewide political advocacy group that focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. It was disbanded after former Governor Andrew Cuomo passed an executive order protecting the rights of transgender citizens.
Speaking to the New York Times on Trump’s announcement of Bessent as his Treasury pick Trinkle recalled that his former partners: ‘Was very supportive of the causes and the people that we supported.’
Those people included his mentor, liberal billionaire philanthropist George Soros who gave money to top Democrats including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Barack Obama.
Bessent and Trinkle eventually settled their suit in September, 2010.
Like Bessent, Trinkle (pictured in a recent and older photo) has two children. His LinkedIn profile states that his primary home with them is in Charlottesville, Virginia
Scott Bessent is pictured alongside his husband John Freeman and one of their two sons, Cole Bessent Freeman. Pictured together in July 2012
Trinkle agreed to sell the East Hampton property and repay Bessent the money he owed – which at that time stood at $1,765,888 – in a settlement that included legal fees, brokerage commission and costs and totaled $2,548,389.
Property records show that he purchased the home for $2,775,000 in 2008 and that it sold for $2,395,000 in April 2011.
The settlement agreement also included the dismissal of Trinkle’s counterclaims, ‘with prejudice’ preventing him from re-filing the same claim in the future.
Today Trinkle is President, CEO and fourth-generation solo owner of C.W. Francis & Son, Inc, listed on his LinkedIn profile as, ‘a closely-held real estate development, management, sales, leasing and family investment office founded in 1910 by his maternal great grandfather.’
The firm, which is based in Roanoke, Virginia is described as, ‘the region’s oldest real estate firm, with a long and respected history, LGBTQ+ owned and operated, by Will…since 1995.’
Like Bessent, Trinkle has two children. His LinkedIn profile states that his primary home with them is in Charlottesville, Virginia.
For his part, Bessent has been married to former attorney, John Freeman, 62, for 13 years, marrying him in 2011, the year after he settled his lawsuit with Trinkle.
Bessent tied the knot with the former prosecutor in New York City but has lived with him in their $6.5million eight-bedroom, ten-bath home in Charleston in Bessent’s native South Carolina since 2019.
The men purchased the three-story stucco home, which was formally run as the Pink Palace bed and breakfast, in 2016 but didn’t move there with their two school-age children until they had completed a colossal three-year renovation.