https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/21/poli...eneral-letitia-james-fraud-lawsuit/index.html The New York state attorney general filed a sweeping lawsuit Wednesday against former President Donald Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization, alleging they were involved in an expansive fraud lasting over a decade that the former President used to enrich himself. In the more than 200-page lawsuit, Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, alleges the fraud touched all aspects of the Trump business, including its properties and golf courses. According to the lawsuit, the Trump Organization deceived lenders, insurers and tax authorities by inflating the value of his properties using misleading appraisals. "These acts of fraud and misrepresentation were similar in nature, were committed by upper management at the Trump Organization as part of a common endeavor for each annual Statement, and were approved at the highest levels of the Trump Organization -- including by Mr. Trump himself," the lawsuit states. Trump and his children, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Allen Weisselberg, former CFO for the Trump Organization, and Jeff McConney, another longtime company executive, are also named. James said she believes state and criminal laws may have been violated and referred the matter to the US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York and the Internal Revenue Service. James is seeking $250 million in allegedly ill-gotten funds and to permanently bar Trump and the children named in the lawsuit from serving as the director of a business registered in New York state. She is also seeking to cancel the Trump Organization's corporate certificate, which, if granted by a judge, could effectively force the company to cease operations in New York state. Trump previously called James a "renegade prosecutor" who he said is running a "vindictive and self-serving fishing expedition." The Trump Organization called her previously allegations "baseless" and denied any wrongdoing. The civil lawsuit comes as Trump is under increasing legal pressure as prosecutors are taking investigative steps that move ever closer to his inner circle. Trump is facing numerous criminal investigations from federal and state prosecutors involving the accuracy of his company's financial statements, interference in the 2020 presidential election, and his handling of classified documents after leaving office. Trump has denied any wrongdoing. Three-year investigation The announcement is the latest development in what has been a three-year investigation led by James into the Trump Organization's finances. In January, James' office said it found "significant" evidence indicating the Trump Organization used false or misleading asset valuations in its financial statements to obtain loans, insurance and tax benefits. The following month, Trump's long-time accounting firm resigned. James' launched her investigation in 2019 after Trump's former fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen testified before Congress alleging that Trump inflated the value of certain assets to obtain loans and insurance and undervalued others to gain tax benefits. In addition to the new fraud lawsuit, the Trump Organization is going on trial next month on charges it was engaged in a 15-year tax fraud scheme and its long-time chief financial officer has agreed to testify against the company. Weisselberg, who served as chief financial officer at the Trump Organization for decades, pleaded guilty in August to his role in a 15-year-long tax fraud scheme, and as part of the deal, he had agreed to testify against Trump's real estate company at trial. In recent weeks, the Trump Organization had offered to settle to ward off the lawsuit even as they denied any wrongdoing, but James' office made it clear it wasn't interested in a deal, people familiar with the matter said. Family was deposed by AG's office In April, after a protracted legal fight to enforce subpoenas for Trump and his adult children's depositions, lawyers with James' office saying they were nearing the end of the investigation and needed the Trumps' testimony before making a decision. Last month, Trump did not answer questions and asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when deposed by the attorney general's office. Eric Trump, who runs the business on a daily basis, also invoked his Fifth Amendment right in 2020 in response to more than 500 questions. Since Trump and Eric Trump declined to answer questions, if the case goes to trial, the jury can draw an "adverse inference" against them for not answering questions. That could result in a higher judgment against them or the company if they're found liable. Ivanka Trump and Trump Jr. both answered questions during interviews that spanned more than seven hours, sources told CNN.
Watching the announcement now, in real time. Music to my ears. And this is just the beginning of Trump's unravelling.
What's new? New Yorkers have been hearing the same stories for decades, nothing came off it. And there are many other shady real estate business owners like him.
LOL, Everyone knew this, and maybe it has finally caught up to him. Forbes has documented this many times when he threatened to sue because he wasn't higher on their billionaires list. At the same time all those lenders went right along with him to nab the cash. No doubt they knew he was falsifying his numbers, it is their job.
Saw it on CNN as well. If one were looking for competence OR ethics, they would be disappointed by both the New York District Attorney and Trump’s legal team. I will characterize any settlement offer by Trump as either his lack of confidence on his legal team, desire to save legal expenses, or both. While I am confident the Trump organization valued their assets according to their needs at the time, leading to seemingly conflicting or unreasonable values, insurance companies and banks recognize these practices occur fairly often and can take steps to protect themselves. I say “Can”, because in pursuit of business, these entities will often allow some “Discretion”, if not actual encouragement, as has been the practice of at least some in the financial industry for decades. Case in point: Who do you think would be the most sought after financial institution? The financial institution who is known for getting things done or the one who is known for saying “No”. Financial institutions either have their own in-house or contract appraisers as well as their own contracts that address situations concerning financial losses involving fraud they could not have reasonably known about. Perhaps ElOchoCinco will chime in with his legal knowledge and property ownership history. From what I saw of the New York district attorney’s presentation, she seems to have a lot of holes in her case against Trump. At one point of her presentation, I actually thought she would make a great witness for the defense! Speaking of property valuations, care to help reconcile this article from wikipedia.org: In 2005 Obama purchased a new home in the Kenwood District of Chicago for $1.65 million (which was $300,000 below the asking price but represented the highest offer on the property) on the same day that Rezko's wife, Rita Rezko, purchased the adjoining empty lot from the same sellers for the full asking price.[35] Obama acknowledged bringing his interest in the property to Rezko's attention,[36] but denied any coordination of offers. According to Obama, while the properties had originally been a single property, the previous owners decided to sell the land as two separate lots, but made it a condition of the sales that they be closed on the same date. Obama also stated that the properties had been on the market for months, that his offer was the better of two bids, and that Ms. Rezko's bid was matched by another offer, also of $625,000, so that she could not have purchased the property for less.[37] After it had been reported in 2006 that Rezko was under federal investigation for influence-peddling, Obama purchased a 10-foot-wide strip of Ms. Rezko's property for $104,500, $60,000 above the assessed value.[7][35] According to Chicago Sun-Times columnist, Mark Brown, "Rezko definitely did Obama a favor by selling him the 10-foot strip of land, making his own parcel less attractive for development."[38] Obama acknowledges that the exchange may have created the appearance of impropriety and stated "I consider this a mistake on my part and I regret it."[37] On December 28, 2006, Mrs. Rezko sold the property to a company owned by her husband's former business attorney. That sale of $575,000, combined with the earlier $104,500 sale to the Obamas, amounted to a net profit of $54,500 over her original purchase, less $14,000 for a fence along the property line and other expenses.[39][40] In October 2007, the new owners put the still vacant land up for sale again, this time for $1.5 million.[41] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Rezko Edit: Further, some “Evidence” obtained through Deutsche either involved breach of client confidentiality or may have been inappropriately obtained, potentially being inadmissible.
To be honest this has been several years of non-stop diarrhea so I have basically tuned out of it... I always find it dubious when attorney's spend more time presenting their case to the media than actually filing the case and bringing it to court.....either you have th evidence or you don't. And a case like this is all about opinion on numbers where both sides can find experts to claim it was done properly or improperly. until then this is much ado about nothing for me...