Donald Trump, who wants to be re-elected President of the United States, has been accused since Wednesday in a civil lawsuit by the New York judiciary of overstating his assets by “billions of dollars” every year from 2011 to 2021 because of fraud in 2022.
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New York State Attorney General (equivalent to regional attorney general) Letitia James sent hundreds of pages of accusatory documents to the local Supreme Court to support the civil lawsuit she filed in September 2022 seeking $250 million in damages from To challenge Mr. Trump, his children and their children, the Trump Organization tax and financial fraud group.
Ms. James, a Democratic elected judge, accuses the Republican billionaire and his children of “deliberately” manipulating the valuations of the group’s assets – golf clubs, luxury hotels and other properties – up and down to make cheaper loans to preserve banks or reduce their taxes.
A civil trial is scheduled to take place in New York starting October 2nd, following a preliminary hearing in the state Supreme Court on September 22nd.
In court documents released by Ms. James’ office, prosecutors estimate that Mr. Trump overstated his financial situation by “between 17% and 39%” each year between 2011 and 2021 – including when he was in the White House from 2017 to 2021 “between $812 million and $2.2 billion” per year.
“Since at least 2011, defendants and others working for them at the Trump Organization falsely inflated the value of their assets listed in Donald J. Trump’s annual financial disclosures by billions of dollars,” prosecutors in York wrote.
“Given this irrefutable evidence, the court does not need a trial to find that the defendants have substantially increased the value of their assets,” Ms. James said in a court document.
Last January, the Trump Organization was sentenced in New York to a maximum fine of $1.6 million for financial and tax fraud – albeit under criminal law.
This fall’s civil trial, if it takes place, promises to be more spectacular, ahead of all the trials in 2024 that await Donald Trump, who hopes to return to the White House on January 20, 2025.
In the case of Ms. James’ complaint, Mr. Trump has often denounced a “ridiculous” case led by a “racist” African-American judge.