Major setback for Trump as Judge rules ex-US President and sons committed ‘fraud’ by inflating asset values
Trump, his two eldest sons, along with other Trump Organization executives of lying to tax collectors, lenders, and insurers for years in a scheme that routinely exaggerated the value of their properties, AFP reported. Trump's lawyers had asked the judge to throw out the case ahead of the trial by granting what is known as a summary judgment in his favor.
In addition, James had also asked for a summary judgment, however, seeking that Trump be found liable. The judge also revoked the business licenses that allowed the Trump Organization to operate some of its New York properties.
Currently, James is seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of Trump and his sons from management of the family empire, the Trump Organization. James claimed that Trump and his associates submitted ‘grossly inflated’ numbers to banks and insurers each year between 2011 and 2021 to secure and maintain loans and insurance on more favorable terms, as per AFP reports.
(Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels. Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights! Click here) They allegedly fraudulently overvalued the net worth of Trump company assets by billions of dollars, resulting in "hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten savings and profits." James has alleged that the overvaluation of Trump's assets was between $1.9 billion and $3.6 billion per year.
Among the properties falsely overvalued -- by between $114 million to $207 million -- was Trump's apartment in Manhattan's Trump Tower, whose square footage was given as 30,000 square feet when it is actually 10,996 square feet. "A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades,
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