Donald Trump has lied about his golf scores, his weight, the size of the crowds he draws, and — according to New York Attorney General Letitia James — his net worth.
A new filing from the Attorney General’s office in the state’s civil fraud lawsuit against the former president alleged that Trump inflated his net worth by hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars over several years, with the largest discrepancy being an over-valuation of more than $2.2 billion in 2014.
The AG argued that the evidence of the former president’s financial misrepresentations was enough to merit a partial summary judgment in the state’s case that Trump and the Trump Organization committed fraud by manipulating the stated value of their assets and misrepresenting those values to financial institutions for their own benefit.
According to the filing, Trump inflated the values of his various properties, including his golf clubs, residential properties, and commercial holdings over several years, creating multi-million dollar disparities in the valuations of his assets.
“Correcting for these and other blatant and obvious deceptive practices engaged in by Defendants reduces Mr. Trump’s net worth by between 17-39% in each year, or between $812 million to $2.2 billion, depending on the year,” the filing states.
“Based on the undisputed evidence, no trial is required for the Court to determine that Defendants presented grossly and materially inflated asset values in the SFCs and then used those SFCs (statements of financial condition) repeatedly in business transactions to defraud banks and insurers,” prosecutors wrote.
James brought her case against Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, The Trump Organization, Inc., and several other parties in September of last year. The Attorney General is seeking $250 million in financial penalties and a ban on Trump and his family from running a business in the state.
In April of this year, Trump was deposed in relation to the suit, which is expected to go to trial in October.
Source link: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-inflated-net-worth-new-york-attorney-general-1234815743/
