The New York state attorney general has accused the family business of former President Donald Trump of repeatedly misrepresenting the value of its properties for financial gain. To this end, she cited this Wednesday (19) what, according to her, are significant evidence of fraud.
Letitia James’ accusations mark a deepening of the civil investigation that began in 2019 around the Republican’s business, the Trump Organization and the roles of his children in the case.
Letitia has been trying to force the former president and his children Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump to comply with subpoenas to testify under oath, which the family has tried to stop in court. Neither Trump nor his children have been charged in the criminal sphere because the investigation is civil.
The former president called the Democratic Party-affiliated Letitia investigation a “witch hunt”.
In all, according to the investigation, six Trump family properties had distorted values, including golf clubs in Aberdeen, Scotland, and Westchester, near New York. Also included in the investigation is a mansion in the same county as Westchester, buildings on Wall Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan, as well as a penthouse apartment in Trump Tower.
The suspicion is that property values ​​have been altered to obtain bank loans or reduce taxes to be paid. According to the prosecutor, the distorted figures were presented to creditors, insurance companies and the IRS.
Many of the allegations focus on Trump’s annual statements of financial condition, used as a source of information to creditors about the values ​​associated with various assets. The prosecutor says she found evidence that the Republican was “personally involved” in approving the statements and used them “in numerous business transactions for his own financial benefit.”
She said a June 2015 filing valued Trump’s Wall Street building at $735.4 million, just eight months after a lender deemed the same building worth $257 million.
The investigation also points out that Trump inflated golf club values ​​in Scotland and Westchester based on speculation that residential housing could be built there.
According to Letitia, the former president, in his 2015 and 2016 statements, also exaggerated the value of the Trump Tower penthouse, valuing it at $327 million and claiming that the property is 2,787 m2.2, not the 1,022 m2 described in other documents that he himself had signed.
Letitia tries to get a court order for Trump to testify within 21 days.
“We have uncovered significant evidence that suggests that Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued various assets and misrepresented those values ​​to financial institutions seeking economic benefit,” she said in a statement.
Alina Habba, the former president’s lawyer, called the allegations “just the latest in a long line of baseless attacks” in “an obvious attempt to distract the public from their own misconduct”. She said, “Letitia, you are not above the law.” The Trump Organization said it would defend itself against the prosecutor’s “baseless” allegations, whom the conglomerate’s defense accused of distorting facts and misleading the public.
Alan Futerfas, attorney for Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, said the charges ignored the Republican leader’s “repeated threats to attack the family” and violated constitutional rights by conducting overlapping investigations – because the civil investigation coincides with a criminal, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg about the former president’s company practices.
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