Trump Falsely Boosted Net Worth by Up to $2.2 Billion, New York AG Claims in Unsealed Filing
Aug. 30 2023, Published 6:50 p.m. ET
Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth to financial institutions by as much as a staggering $2.2 billion, according to newly unsealed court filings.
The filing submitted by New York Attorney General Letitia James' office argued that he and some Trump Organization employees used financial statements as a "vehicle" to fraudulently boost that number annually between 2011 and 2021, detailing their alleged efforts to attract favorable loan agreements.
Trump was accused of inflating the number 17 to 39 percent each year during that time frame.
"Since at least 2011, Defendants and others working on their behalf at the Trump Organization have falsely inflated by billions of dollars the value of many of the assets listed on Donald J. Trump's annual statement of financial condition ('SFC'), and hence his overall net worth for each of these years," according to a partial summary judgment motion made public Wednesday, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Trump and his lawyers previously argued that James is politically motivated.
Prosecutors told the court to consider "two simple and straightforward" questions: whether Trump's statements of financial conditions from 2011 to 2021 were "false or misleading" and whether defendants "repeatedly or persistently" used the docs for business, arguing the answer was a resounding yes based on a "mountain of evidence."
The GOP frontrunner was also accused of inflating the value of his triplex apartment at Trump Tower by nearly tripling its actual square footage, raising its value substantially "by approximately $100-$200 million each year from 2012 to 2016."
James' sweeping $250 million civil lawsuit accuses Trump and his kids Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump of creating more than 200 misleading evaluations of the company's finances.
The 2024 hopeful's daughter Ivanka Trump was also previously named in the lawsuit, but ultimately dismissed from it.
"This is just the tip of a much larger iceberg of deception Plaintiff is prepared to expose at trial," the filing stated.
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The lawsuit is set to go before a judge in October, kickstarting a list of civil and criminal trials for the former president.
Trump will not be required to attend the fraud trial as James seeks the $250 million with other stipulations. The New York AG is also seeking to permanently ban Trump and his sons from serving as an officer or director of any business registered in the state and block them from engaging in any new real estate transactions for five years.