By T N ASHOK / New York
Aug 31: Former US President Donald Trump inflated his net worth by as much as $6.1 billion over 10 years to secure millions of dollars in loans from banks and insurance benefits to expand his Trumo Organisations real estate business, the New York DA Ms Letitia James office has alleged in a new updated law suit against him.
Trump inflated his proerty values by $2.2 billion in a single year in 2014 , lawyers in the DAS office alleged as part of their civil fraud suit against the former president, his adult sons and the Trump Organization.
Trump’s net worth in his realty business actually comes down by 17 to 39% in a year if one takes into account his evaluations of his properties over a protracted period of 10-years, the attorney general’s office said in the latest update on the case.
Trump’s net worth comes down by between $812 million to $2.2 billion, depending on the year.” The $2.2 billion disparity was first noticed in 2014, the DA’s office said. The new allegations came to light in a partial summary judgment motion made public Wednesday by New York Attorney General Ms. Letitia James, a Democrat, CNN reported.
She has also sued Trump in the lower Manhattan court for orchestrating a tax fraud availing concessions he was not entitled to by defrauding the state and inflating his property values disproportionate to his assets real values to secure loans from banks, especially the Deutsche bank. Ms James has sued him for penalties in tax evasion to the tune of $250 million.
Trump’s CFO Alan Weiselberg confessed to the tax fraud, and pecuniary benefits he received as expensive cars and fees for high end schools for his children , perpetrated over 10 years. He had taken a bargain plea for jail while he did not implicate Trump openly in the case, though he has promised to testify further in the case, it may be recalled.
“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 (statements of financial condition) and then used those SFCs repeatedly in business transactions to defraud banks and insurers,” the attorney general’s office wrote.
“Notwithstanding defendants’ horde of 13 experts, at the end of the day, this is a documents case, and the documents leave no shred of doubt that Mr. Trump’s SFCs do not even remotely reflect the ‘estimated current value’ of his assets as they would trade between well-informed market participants, ” the updated lawsuit by the DA said.
Trump’s lawyers have responded appealing to the court with a filing arguing that the case be dismissed, as the Trump Organization’s financial statements were not misleading.
DA Ms Letitia James office claimed valuation and accounting experts determined that “Mr. Trump’s net worth in any year between 2011 and 2021 would be no more than $2.6 billion, rather than the stated net worth of up to $6.1 billion, and likely considerably less if his properties were actually valued in full blown professional appraisals.”
Letitia James’ office has asked the judge presiding over the case to find that Trump and others made false or misleading financial statements from 2011-2021 and benefited from inflating assets by receiving favourable loan terms and insurance rates, CNN said.
The judge is not expected to rule on the motions until just before the trial.
Trump claimed financial statements were not misleading. There is no wrongdoing by him and and others connected in the Trump Business said. Trump’s lawyers said in a court filing that the Trump Organization’s financial statements were not misleading and it never missed a loan payment, arguing the judge should dismiss the attorney general’s fraud lawsuit since no parties were harmed.
Trump lawyers argued there was no intent to defraud lenders or insurers and the statements contained caveats explaining that they were unaudited and departed from Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
Trump’s lawyers pointed to deposition testimony from Rosemary Vrablic, the former head of private wealth management at Deutsche Bank, which loaned the Trump Organization hundreds of millions of dollars over the years.
Vrablic testified “to the best of her knowledge” Trump didn’t submit materially misleading statements to the lender. The bank made over $75 million in interest on the loans, according to Trump’s filing. Another lender, Ladder Capital, made $40 million in interest, the filing said.
David Miller, a former executive at Erie Insurance, testified that insurer Zurich “didn’t rely on asset valuations at all,” according to the Trump filing.
DA Letitia James’s $250 million lawsuit will stand trial in October, climaxing several months of civil and criminal trials for the former president. Trump is not required to be present. The trial could extend upto to six weeks on.
The DA’s $250 million lawsuit is a high stakes one as Trump and his family sought to be permanently barred from serving as an officer or director of any business registered in New York state and blocked from engaging in any new real estate transactions for five years, the reports said.
Trump, his adult sons and the Trump Organization are alleged to have enriched themselves inflating numerous property values , including Trump’s triplex apartment at Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago in Florida and a large number of golf courses including the Bedminister one in New Jersey. (