New York judge finds Donald Trump liable for fraud https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/politics/trump-organization-business-fraud A New York judge has found Donald Trump and his adult sons liable for fraud, saying the Trumps provided false financial statements for roughly a decade. Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling came days before the civil case involving the New York attorney general’s office and the former president was set to go to trial. This story is breaking and will be updated.
Donald Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his assets, a New York judge determined, in a major victory for the state’s attorney general. The decision precedes a trial that is scheduled to begin on Monday, and will considerably smooth Attorney General Letitia James’s path forward in her civil case against the former president. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/nyregion/trump-james-fraud-trial.html Tuesday, September 26, 2023 5:17 PM ET The New York attorney general won a major victory in her civil case against Donald J. Trump on Tuesday when a New York judge determined that the former president fraudulently inflated the value of his assets to obtain favorable loans and insurance deals. The decision by Justice Arthur F. Engoron precedes a trial that is scheduled to begin Monday, and will considerably smooth Attorney General Letitia James’s path forward as she seeks a penalty of about $250 million. Justice Engoron’s decision narrows the issues that will be heard, effectively deciding that the trial was not necessary to find that Mr. Trump was liable and that the core of Ms. James’s case was valid. It represents a major blow to Mr. Trump, whose lawyers had sought to persuade the judge to throw out many of the claims against the former president. In his order, Justice Engoron wrote scathingly about Mr. Trump’s defenses, saying that the former president and the other defendants, including his two adult sons and his company, ignored reality when it suited their business needs. “In defendants’ world,” he wrote, “rent-regulated apartments are worth the same as unregulated apartments; restricted land is worth the same as unrestricted land; restrictions can evaporate into thin air.” “That is a fantasy world, not the real world,” he added. The judge also levied sanctions on Mr. Trump’s lawyers for making arguments that he previously rejected. He ordered each to pay $7,500, noting that he had previously warned them that the arguments in question bordered on being frivolous. Repeating them was “indefensible,” Justice Engoron wrote. Mr. Trump still has an opportunity to delay the trial, or even gut the case against him. Mr. Trump has already sued Justice Engoron, and an appeals court is expected to rule this week on his lawsuit. But if the appeals court rules against him, Mr. Trump will have to fight the remainder of the case at trial. Ms. James started investigating Mr. Trump in March 2019 and filed a lawsuit against him last September, accusing him of “staggering” fraud in representing the value of his apartment buildings, hotels and golf clubs, among other assets. Her filings have accused Mr. Trump of using simple, duplicitous tricks to multiply the value of his signature properties, from Trump Tower to Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Trump knowingly overvalued his assets by as much as $2.2 billion in some years, Ms. James has argued. Her lawsuit seeks a fine of roughly $250 million and to sever the Trump family from leading the Trump Organization. Mr. Trump’s lawyers had asked Justice Engoron for a so-called summary judgment — a ruling that they are entitled to a victory before trial based on undisputed facts — seeking to toss out many claims against him. They relied heavily on an appeals court ruling from June that raised the notion that some claims against Mr. Trump might be too old to proceed to trial. Justice Engoron denied Mr. Trump’s request, while granting Ms. James’s similar bid for partial summary judgment. Mr. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has accused Ms. James, a Democrat, of political persecution. His lawyers have noted that the banks that lent Mr. Trump money were hardly victims — they turned a profit.
Trump OVERSTATED the asset value to get loans from banks. He UNDERSTATED the value for property tax purposes to local governments.
"He also seems to imply that the numbers cannot be inflated because he could find a ‘buyer from Saudi Arabia’ to pay any price he suggests."
Mercor can't believe that a guy who ran a fake university and a scam charity is a fraud. Now watch him relay debunked talking points about Burisma.
Go read the judges decision. It outlines all of this information. Link is in the sentence of the article of in my initial post on this thread.