New York’s attorney general sued former President Donald Trump and his company for fraud on Wednesday, alleging they inflated his fortune by billions of dollars by lying about the value of valuable assets, including golf courses, hotels and his homes in Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. Attorney General Letitia James called it: “The Art of Stealing.” James’ lawsuit, filed in New York state court, is the culmination of a three-year political investigation of Trump and the Trump Organization. Trump’s three oldest children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump, were also named as defendants, along with two longtime company executives, Allen Weiselberg and Jeffrey McConney. The lawsuit strikes at the core of what made Trump famous, casting a black light on the image of wealth and opulence he embraced throughout his career — first as a real estate developer, then as a reality TV host on “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice.” ». “, and later as president. James wants Trump and the other defendants to pay at least $250 million, which she said was the approximate value of the benefits she received from fraudulent practices. Coyne: Donald Trump’s date with reality may be fast approaching Jacobuski: Would prosecuting Trump be worth the toll it would take on a divided nation? James, a Democrat, announced details of the lawsuit at a news conference Wednesday. She said her office filed the case – which is civil and not criminal in nature – after rejecting settlement offers made by lawyers for the defendants. The alleged scheme was aimed at tarnishing the billionaire Trump’s image and the value of his assets when it gave him an advantage, such as getting favorable loan terms, and at other times reduced the value of assets for tax purposes, the office said of James. . “This investigation revealed that Donald Trump engaged in years of illegal conduct to inflate his net worth, defraud the banks and people of the great state of New York,” James said at the press conference. “Claiming to have money you don’t have is not the art of the deal. It’s the art of stealing.” James said her investigation revealed possible criminal violations, including falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud, conspiracy and bank fraud. She said her office is referring those findings to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service. In a statement posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the lawsuit “Another witch hunt by a racist attorney general” and called James, who is black, “a fraud who campaigned on a ‘get Trump’ platform.” , despite the fact that the city is one of the world’s scourges of crime and murder under her watch!” Trump’s attorney, Alina Haba, said the lawsuit “focuses neither on the facts nor on the law — rather, it focuses solely on advancing the attorney general’s political agenda,” accusing James of abusing her authority “by investigating transactions where there is none absolutely no wrongdoing. took place.” Haba said the allegations in the lawsuit are “without merit.” James is seeking to remove the Trumps from businesses involved in the alleged fraud and wants an independent monitor appointed for at least five years to oversee Trump’s compliance, financial reporting, valuations and disclosures to lenders, insurers and tax authorities. It seeks to replace the current trustees of Trump’s revocable trust, which controls his business interests, with independent trustees, to bar Trump and the Trump Organization from entering into commercial real estate acquisitions for five years, from taking loans from banks in New York for five years and to permanently bar Trump and three of his adult children from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or similar business entity registered and/or licensed in New York State. It also seeks to permanently bar Weisselberg and McConney from serving in the financial audit function of any New York corporation or similar business entity registered and/or licensed in New York State. James’ lawsuit comes amid a whirlwind of unprecedented legal challenges for a former president, including an FBI investigation into Trump’s handling of classified records and investigations into his efforts to sway the 2020 election. The Trump Organization is set to go on trial in October in a criminal case that alleges it planned to give tax-free perks to senior executives, including its longtime chief financial officer Weisselberg, who himself took home more than $1.7 million more. Weiselberg, 75, pleaded guilty on August 18. His plea agreement requires him to testify at the company’s trial before beginning a five-month prison sentence. If convicted, the Trump Organization could face a fine of twice the amount of unpaid taxes. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is conducting a parallel criminal investigation into the same business practices at the center of James’ civil suit. That investigation lost momentum earlier this year after Bragg raised internal questions about whether a criminal case was viable, but the Democrat said it has not been abandoned. At the same time, the FBI continues to investigate Trump’s storage of sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and a special jury in Georgia is investigating whether Trump and others tried to influence state election officials. All the legal drama is playing out ahead of November’s midterm elections, where Republicans are trying to win control of one or both houses of Congress. Meanwhile, Trump is laying the groundwork for a potential comeback campaign in 2024 and has accused President Joe Biden’s administration of targeting him to hurt his political chances. State law allows for a wide range of civil remedies against companies that commit commercial fraud, including revoking licenses to do business in the state, removing company officers, and ordering restitution or disgorgement. James’ office could also seek to bar Trump from being involved in certain types of businesses, as happened in January when a judge banned former drug company CEO Martin Shkreli from the drug industry for life. In a previous clash with Trump, James oversaw the shutdown of his charity, the Trump Foundation, after her predecessor in the attorney general’s office, Barbara Underwood, filed a lawsuit alleging she misused her assets to settle business disputes and boosting the White House claim. A judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million to a number of charities to settle the issue. James, who touted his campaign as a Trump critic and watchdog, began scrutinizing his business practices in March 2019 after his former personal attorney Michael Cohen testified to Congress that Trump overstated his wealth in financial statements he provided at Deutsche Bank when trying to get financing. to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. Since then, James’ office and Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly clashed over the direction of the investigation and Trump’s reluctance to comply with subpoenas for his testimony and records. Trump spent months fighting the subpoena that led to his testimony in August, with his lawyers unable to convince courts that he should be excused from testifying because his answers could be used in Bragg’s criminal investigation. In May, Trump paid $110,000 in fines after being held in contempt of court for failing to respond to a subpoena issued by James’ office seeking documents and other evidence. The contempt finding was lifted in June after Trump and his lawyers submitted documents showing they had made a good-faith effort to find relevant documents.
