Massive Civil Fraud Lawsuit Hits Trump’s Inflated Real Estate Empire

Our suit against Donald Trump and the Trump Org alleges a years-long financial fraud scheme.

Here’s how Trump generated false and misleading values on his annual financial statements, which were then used to pay lower taxes, guarantee loans, and get better insurance rates:

— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) September 21, 2022

The suit claims that Trump has regularly inflated the value of pretty much all of his assets—from Trump Tower to Mar-a-Lago to the former Trump hotel in Washington, D.C., in order to secure favorable loan and tax arrangements. For example, the suit alleges that Trump has valued Mar-a-Lago as high as $739 million, when it should have been valued at $75 million.

We found that Trump, his family, and the Trump Org used fraudulent and misleading asset valuations over 200 times in 10 years on his annual financial statements.

These statements were then used to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and insurance coverage.

— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) September 21, 2022

Trump used that higher valuation, James alleges, ”based on the false premise that it was unrestricted property and could be developed for residential use, even though Mr. Trump himself signed deeds donating his residential development rights and sharply restricting changes to the property.”

“Mr. Trump made known through Mr. Weisselberg that he wanted his net worth on the Statements to increase—a desire Mr. Weisselberg and others carried out year after year in their fraudulent preparation of the Statements,” the lawsuit said. “The scheme to inflate Mr. Trump’s net worth also remained consistent year after year.”

James is restricted from pursuing criminal charges in the matter, but is referring her findings “to the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, noting that the conduct detailed in the complaint appears to violate federal law, specifically bank fraud and false statements to a bank.”