New York Attorney General Letitia James claims her office has uncovered “significant evidence” of fraud in her office’s civil investigation of the Trump organization and former President Donald Trump.
New “significant evidence” of fraud by Trump organization NY AG says
On Wednesday, Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, announced that her office has uncovered “significant evidence” of fraud. ABC reported its ongoing civil investigation of former president Donald Trump and the Trump organization.
This is the first time in 34 months that the New York Attorney General’s office as level-specific allegations at trump in his organization, MSNBC reported. The NY AG alleged the Trump organization committed “significant” fraud and “pervasive” deceptions.
The Attorney General’s office filed a motion late Tuesday to compel the Trumps to testify.
The investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office was opened nearly three years ago.
“Thus far in our investigation, we have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit,” James said in a written statement released late Tuesday night. “The Trumps must comply with our lawful subpoenas for documents and testimony because no one in this country can pick and choose if and how the law applies to them.”
“New York Attorney General Letitia James disclosed new details Tuesday night about her civil investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business, saying the probe has uncovered evidence suggesting the fraudulent valuing of multiple assets and misrepresentations of those values to financial institutions for economic benefit” NBC reported.
“In light of the pervasive and repeated nature of the misstatements and omissions, it appears that the valuations in the Statements were generally inflated as part of a pattern to suggest that Mr. Trump’s net worth was higher than it otherwise would have appeared,” James added.
What accusations of fraud did the District Attorney’s Office make?
The written statement issued by the New York Attorney General’s office on Tuesday listed the following accusations.
“The Trump Organization submitted to its accounting firm. Among other things, the statements:
“Misstated objective facts, like the size of Mr. Trump’s Trump Tower penthouse;
“Miscategorized assets outside Mr. Trump’s or the Trump Organization’s control as “cash,” thereby overstating his liquidity;
“Misstated the process by which Mr. Trump or his associates reached valuations, including deviations from generally accepted accounting principles in ways that the statements did not disclose;
“Failed to use fundamental techniques of valuation, like discounting future revenues and expenses to their present value, or choosing as ‘comparables’ only similar properties to impute valuations from public sales data;
“Misstated the purported involvement of ‘outside professionals’ in reaching the valuations” and
“failed to advise that certain valuation amounts were inflated by an undisclosed amount for brand value.”
