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According to a suit filed on Wednesday by New York’s attorney general, Donald Trump and family members lied to tax collectors, lenders, and insurers for years in a scheme that routinely overstated the value of his properties in order to enrich themselves.
Letitia James, the top state prosecutor, claims that the former president lied about his assets’ values and his net worth in order to acquire loans, receive insurance benefits, and avoid paying taxes with the assistance of his children and others from the Trump Organization.
The broad investigation is one of several criminal, civil, and congressional inquiries into Trump, who is considering a re-election bid in 2024.
Trump reiterated his oft-repeated defence that the suit is “yet another witch hunt” against him, while his spokesperson called it a political ploy by Democrats against the Republican businessman.
The former president’s office has requested that he pay at least $250 million in penalties – a sum she claims he made from the fraud – and that his family be barred from operating businesses in the state.
She also demanded that Trump, his children Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump be barred from purchasing property in the state for five years.
In a statement, James claimed that “the whole foundation of his supposed net worth is built in incredible fraud and crime.”
She stated, in reference to Trump’s book “The Art of Deal,” that “Mr. Trump thought he could get away with the art of the theft, but today, that behaviour ends.”
– ‘Staggering’ overvaluations
Based on the three-year investigation, James said her office, which lacks the authority to file criminal charges, was making a criminal referral to the US Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service.
The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, alleges that Trump’s annual financial statements for at least a decade grossly inflated property values across his assets, from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to Manhattan’s Trump Tower, to “staggering” levels.
He did so in order to obtain favourable loans with lower interest rates and premiums, according to James, who is running for re-election in November.
In the lawsuit, Trump and his colleagues are accused of using deceptive tactics, including pretending to have cash on hand when they didn’t, drastically altering property values, and using “objectively fraudulent numbers to compute property values,” including at his infamous Fifth Avenue triplex.
James stated that “white collar financial crime is not a victimless crime.”
“When the well-connected violate the law in order to take in more money than they are entitled to, it reduces resources available to working people, regular people, small businesses, and all tax payers.”
James’ lawsuit asks a judge to appoint an independent authority to oversee the Trump Organization’s financial practises, as well as to remove the Trumps from their own family business.
An investigational web –
Since 2018, when the Manhattan district attorney opened an investigation into the then-president, who has long sought to portray himself as a self-made billionaire, New York authorities have been investigating Trump and his family business.
The civil investigation into James began the following year, after Trump’s former lawyer testified that the company had engaged in misconduct.
As of now, the DA’s criminal investigation has yielded no charges.
Last month, Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s long-time finance chief, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and agreed to testify in the former US president’s real estate company’s upcoming criminal trial.
Last month, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that he would be sentenced to five months in prison if he testified truthfully in the Trump Organization’s criminal trial on tax fraud charges in October.
On August 8, FBI agents conducted a separate search of Trump’s palatial Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, seizing numerous boxes of documents labelled “Top Secret,” “Secret,” and “Confidential.”
His attorneys have attempted to prevent the government from accessing those files by requesting that an independent arbiter review the documents to determine whether any fall under special legal privileges.
Despite the government’s appeal of the judge’s order to deny them access to those records categorised as classified, a federal judge sided with Trump and approved the appointment of a so-called special master.
The government should once again have access to the sensitive records, a three-judge appellate panel—two of whom were chosen by Trump—concluded on Wednesday.
Trump is also under investigation by the law in connection with his attempts to annul the results of the election in November 2020 and the attack on the US Capitol by his followers on January 6, 2021.
