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Nope, we're talking about personal loans, personally guaranteed by him. No intermediary, no holding company.

This is briefly discussed in the NYT article. Apparently some of the loans are borrowed against his personal holdings.

That may be the case but I would be surprised the NYT would know, unless they have seen the terms of the loan.

No. Recourse loans are listed on tax filings separately from non-recourse. The personal guarantee means it shows up on personal income statements. So no other records are needed.

Because it's so easy to play asset stripping games, personal guarantees are very common in the commercial real estate world.