AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
New York Attorney General Letitia James scored a major win in her civil suit against former President Donald Trump and some of his adult children on Tuesday as a judge ruled the GOP frontrunner had indeed been committing fraud for years.
Judge Arthur Engoron “found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers, and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing,” reported the Associated Press Tuesday. Engoron’s summary judgment found Trump liable for the key claim in James’s lawsuit alleging Trump committed fraud by inflating his assets by billions of dollars since 2011.
The AP added that Engoron ruled Trump, “his company and key executives repeatedly lied” about the value of assets “on his annual financial statements, reaping rewards such as favorable loan terms and lower insurance premiums.”
Engoron also “canceled the certificates of various Trump businesses, appointed a former judge as an independent monitor of the Trump Organization, and will appoint receivers to manage the canceled LLCs,” noted former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti, who added, “This is a pretty big deal.”
“Trump inflated his net worth by as much as $2.23 billion, and by one measure as much as $3.6 billion, on annual financial statements given to banks and insurers,” reported Reuters on James’s claims.
“He claims that if the values of the property have gone up in the years since the (financial statements) were submitted, then the numbers were not inflated at that time,” Engoron wrote, adding:
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.
James is suing the Trump Organization for $250 million in penalties and to ban Trump and his adult children from doing business in New York. Ivanka Trump was dismissed from the case in June.
The suit is now set to go to a non-jury trial starting October 2nd, in which Engoron will decide on the remaining allegations in James’s suit and on the penalty Trump and his company may pay.
This is a developing story and has been updated.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
