The New York attorney-general claimed ‘significant evidence’ of Trump’s fraud

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New York Attorney-General Letitia James said she found “significant evidence” that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization had fraudulently described the value of their assets to banks, insurers and financial institutions, according to in court proceedings.

James said he did not determine whether the evidence was worthy of legal action but argued that the grounds for continuing his two-year investigation were “self-evident.”

The confrontation was aimed at forcing the former president and two of his children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, to testify under oath – something they have until now resisted.

“We found significant evidence suggesting Donald J Trump and the Trump Organization wrongly and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those amounts to financial institutions for economic benefit,” he said. James in a statement.

“Trumps must comply with our legal subpoenas for documents and testimony because no one in this country can pick and choose if and how the law applies to them.”

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and dismissed the investigation as a political “witch hunt” set up by two Democrat-led prosecutorial offices.

“The only one who deceives the public is Letitia James,” said the Trump Organization, which accused the attorney-general of basing his candidacy on a promise to prosecute the former president. “Three years later, he is now faced with the very fact that he has no case.”

The confrontation, which came late Tuesday night, offers the best insight into the progress of an unprecedented investigation by New York authorities into the former president and his family. James ’office works in conjunction with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which was recently taken over by Alvin Bragg.

Manhattan prosecutors have already charged Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, with tax fraud. But they had a hard time persuading Weisselberg, one of the family’s most loyal lieutenants, to turn away from them and cooperate with the investigation. He was not guilty.

What began as a multipronged investigation will focus on whether the Trump Organization increased the value of certain real estate properties to secure financing-at a time when many lenders avoided them-while minimizing them for tax and insurance purposes.

The investigation began after Michael Cohen, Trump’s one -time fixer, told Congress in 2019 that it was a routine practice in the Trump Organization.

According to James, a net worth statement prepared by Trump since 2004 with Weisselberg is often inaccurate. The document is provided to lenders and other counterparts. Among other alleged inaccuracies, it exaggerated the value of his penthouse apartment by approximately $ 200m and incorrectly listed other assets as “cash”, making Trump’s finances more liquid than it actually is. , aniya.

The filing includes a host of specific examples, including Seven Springs, a Westchester estate that the Trumps hope to turn into housing. They valued it at $ 291m in 2012, according to James, while a professional appraiser put its value in 2016 at $ 56m. Trump subsequently hid Seven Springs in his financial statement by moving it to the “catch-all” category where no asset value was mentioned, he said.

James said Trump also increased the stated value of many of his assets by 30 percent, based on the Trump brand, and increased the value of his Aberdeen country club with expected condominium sales to exceed what as permitted by law.

The attorney-general also flagged 40 Wall Street, an office tower in Lower Manhattan. Trumps valued it at $ 601m in 2010 and $ 530m in 2013. That’s more than double the $ 200m to $ 220m judged by Cushman & Wakefield after an analysis it conducted for one of Trump’s lenders, the Capital One.

Trump used the inflated valuation to argue that Capital One should renegotiate the loan before the $ 5m principal payment arrives, James said. The bank declined, he claims, and then Trump turned to Ladder Capital, a company where Weisselberg’s son works, to refinance the debt.

Both Cushman teams, according to the filing, then valued the property at $ 550m, based on Trump’s representations. The Trump Organization, meanwhile, raised its value to $ 735m in June 2015.

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