People walk past the Trump World Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York, New York, U.S., April 30, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
This is not a surprise to anyone who has paid attention, but it is fundamental to dismantle the potential lawlessness propping up Donald Trump’s image. In a new filing on Friday morning, the New York attorney general’s office alleges that defendant Trump’s net worth was inflated by up to $3.6 billion in a given year.
“Citing an analysis by valuation and accounting experts and taking into account other adjustments, the AG alleged that Trump’s net worth in any given year between 2011 and 2021 was overstated by $1.9 billion to $3.6 billion,” CNBC reported Friday.
And it might actually be a lot worse. AG Letitia James said in the filing that this is “‘still a conservative estimate,’ “because those valuation experts still accepted many of the assumptions used by the defendants in their annual financial statements.”
James is referring to the fact that Trump et al were allowed to state certain “assumptions” in annual financial statements, and these assumptions/numbers were used by the experts to do their valuations. It is highly likely, if history is any indication, that these numbers have also been adjusted favorably for Trump in whatever form is most advantageous for the purpose of the financial statements.
People who are savvy about playing the system will sometimes use different numbers for different purposes. So, as a hypothetical example, to get a loan they inflate value and to pay taxes they underestimate value.
James’ suit against Donald Trump et al is for “years of financial fraud to obtain a host of economic benefits,” and “alleges that Donald Trump, with the help of his children Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, and senior executives at the Trump Organization, falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company, to satisfy continuing loan covenants, to induce insurers to provide insurance coverage for higher limits and at lower premiums, and to gain tax benefits, among other things. From 2011-2021, Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization knowingly and intentionally created more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets on his annual Statements of Financial Condition to defraud financial institutions.”
But even using Trump el al’s assumptions, the experts have determined that Trump’s net worth was massively over-inflated by billions in any given year between 2011-2021, which includes years in which he, perhaps falsely, presented himself as a successful businessman in order to run for president of the United States.
Trump is innocent of all charges until proven guilty and he has denied all charges against him. He claims all of the different grand juries that have found evidence to charge him are part of a massive Democratic “witch hunt” against him to keep him from winning the 2024 election, although he lost the 2020 election by over seven million votes. That election was deemed the “most secure election” in modern U.S. history.
The Republican presidential 2024 front-runner is currently charged under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act for his efforts to steal the 2020 election, as well as facing a total of 91 felony charges in a total of 4 separate criminal indictments that break down into 44 federal charges and 47 state charges.
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