NY’s attorney general is speculating about possible fraud in Donald Trump’s family business

By Jonathan Stempel and Shivam Patel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York State Attorney General has accused Donald Trump’s family business of repeatedly falsifying the value of its assets for economic gain, saying there was significant new evidence of possible fraud.

Prosecutions by Attorney General Letitia James point to a significant rise in civilian investigations into the business of the former U.S. Republican president, the Trump Institution, and the roles of his adult children.

Donald Trump and his children are part of his effort to force Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump to swear an affidavit that the family has asked a judge to block.

Neither Trump nor his children have been charged with felony criminal mischief. Although James cannot file criminal charges because of his civil investigation, he can sue Trumps and company.

James is examining whether Trump has violated a New York law aimed at “permanent fraud or illegality” that has allowed him to stop damages or any wrongdoing ordered by the court.

Trump has called the nearly three-year investigation by Democrat James a political “witch hunt.”

In a lawsuit filed in a New York state court in Manhattan on Tuesday night, James described what he called misleading statements about the values ​​of Trump’s six properties, as well as the “Trump Mark.”

Properties include suburban golf clubs in Aberdeen, Scotland, and near New York City, the West Springs Estate in Westchester, the buildings on Wall Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan, and the Trump Penthouse in Trump Tower.

James is investigating whether real estate values ​​were inflated to obtain bank loans and reduce tax bills, and his files described evidence of errors to lenders, insurers and the Internal Revenue Service.

The attorney general wants the judge to order Trump to testify within 21 days.

“We have found significant evidence that Donald J. Trump and the Trump Institution have falsely and fraudulently misappropriated multiple assets and that they have falsely misrepresented these values ​​to financial institutions for economic gain,” James said in a statement.

‘UNFOUNDED ATTACKS’

Alina Habba Trump’s attorney, James’ accusations, “are just the latest in a series of baseless attacks on my client and an obvious attempt to distract the public from his misconduct. Letitia, you’re not over the top.” law”.

The Trump organization said in a statement that it would defend James’s “baseless” allegations, accusing him of distorting the facts and misleading the public because he was confronted with a “gross reality that doesn’t matter.”

James ’investigations also partially overlap with Alvin Bragg’s office in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which merged with James in May in the Trump Organization’s internship.

The attorney general said the Trump Organization “has done nothing to produce Mr. Trump’s documents in full,” including from cabinets with his files.

Lawyers for the Trump family have argued that James’ subpoenas are an inappropriate way to gather evidence in a civil investigation and then be used in a criminal investigation.

Alan Futerfas Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump’s attorney said in a statement that James’s files did not address “repeated threats to target the Trump family” and override their constitutional rights overlapping investigations.

In July, the Trump Institution and its former Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded not guilty in a criminal investigation into a 15-year tax fraud charge that allegedly “off-book” benefits to company executives.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Many of James’s accusations are based on Donald Trump’s statements of the year’s “financial situation,” which gives lenders and other opponents values ​​and liabilities associated with various assets.

James said Trump had shown that he was “personally involved” in approving the statements, and that he had used them “for many financial purposes for his own financial benefit.”

He said a statement in June 2015 valued Trump’s $ 735.4 million building on Wall Street 40 and set nearly $ 200 million in its appraisal value, just eight months after a lender valued the building at $ 257 million.

James said Trump inflated the values ​​of the Scottish Golf Club and Seven Springs, based in part on the belief that residential homes could be built there.

Trump also said in his 2015 and 2016 statements that he exceeded the value of his penthouse by putting in $ 327 million, saying it was 30,000 square feet and 10,996 square feet described in several unsigned documents.

Asked by his office, Weisselberg admitted that “this was a $ 200 million” grant or take, a “surpass,” James said in a filing.

Last month, Donald Trump took James to court in a federal court in the state capital, Albany, as a means of halting his civil investigation, harassing and intimidating a political opponent.