NEW YORK — New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing former president Donald Trump, three of his grown children and executives at his company of flagrantly manipulating property valuations to deceive lenders, insurance brokers and tax authorities into giving them better rates on bank loans and insurance policies and to reduce their tax liability.
Donald Trump, 3 of his children accused of business fraud by New York AG
The 222-page civil complaint asks the New York Supreme Court to bar Trump, as well as Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, from serving as executives at any company in New York, and to bar the Trump Organization from acquiring any commercial real estate or receiving loans from any New York-registered financial institution for five years.
It seeks to recover more than $250 million in what James’s office says are ill-gotten gains received through the alleged deceptive practices. While the lawsuit itself is not a criminal prosecution, James (D) said she has referred possible violations of federal law to the Justice Department and the IRS.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba dismissed the allegations as politically motivated, saying in a statement that the attorney general’s claims are “meritless.”
The lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court, is the result of a more than two-year investigation by James and names 23 properties in the Trump Organization portfolio, including his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, his Seven Springs estate in Westchester County, N.Y., and the D.C. hotel he leased from the federal government until he sold it in May.
“The inflated asset valuations in the Statements cannot be brushed aside or excused as merely the result of exaggeration or good faith estimation about which reasonable real estate professionals may differ,” it says.
It adds to a deepening list of legal challenges that Trump faces more than 18 months after he left the White House and at a time when he remains actively involved in Republican politics and has broadly suggested he will run for president again in 2024.
In addition to naming Trump and three of his children personally, the suit names the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s longtime chief financial officer who recently pleaded guilty to tax crimes, and controller Jeffrey McConney.
Trump and his family have repeatedly called James’s inquiry a “witch hunt,” pointing to statements James made on the campaign trail in which she promised to investigate him. They have denied any wrongdoing.
“Today’s filing is neither focused on the facts nor the law – rather, it is solely focused on advancing the Attorney General’s political agenda,” Habba said in her statement. “We are confident that our judicial system will not stand for this unchecked abuse of authority, and we look forward to defending our client against each and every one of the Attorney General’s meritless claims.”
Rather than focusing narrowly on a few instances of misconduct, James’s office portrayed Trump, his family and executives of employing a wide array of fraudulent maneuvers in their dealings with lenders and regulators despite knowing that they were illegal. The suit highlights Trump’s practice of distributing statements of financial condition inflating the values of his properties and sometimes exaggerating how many acres those properties cover or how many homes could be built on them.
Defense attorneys have said in court that commercial real estate firms routinely argue for lower tax appraisals and that the company’s conduct was no different, but James said Wednesday that the misstated valuations cannot be brushed as a “good faith mistake.”
The former president and his family should be held to the same standards as everyday Americans, James said at a news conference in Manhattan, noting that it is illegal for people to lie to banks in order to secure loans to send their children to college or get a home mortgage.
“Claiming you have money that you do not have does not amount to the art of the deal. It’s the art of the steal,” James said, mocking the titled of Donald Trump’s 1987 book. “There cannot be different rules for different people in this country or in this state.”
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
O’Connell reported from Washington.
Source: WP
