New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing former president Donald Trump, three of his adult children, and executives at his business empire of fraudulent financial practices that she claims occurred over the course of more than a decade.
Trump and his associates are accused of manipulating property valuations to mislead lenders, insurance brokers, and tax authorities in order to receive better rates on bank loans and insurance policies and to reduce their tax liability. James accuses Trump and his three adult children — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump — of creating more than 200 misleading evaluations of the company’s finances.
The state attorney general alleges in a 222-page civil complaint filed in New York Supreme Court that Trump lied about the square footage of his own apartment in financial filings, boosting the residence from 11,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet. Trump allegedly then falsely said the apartment was worth a whopping $327 million.
She accuses Trump of inflating the value of “anticipated income” from golf club membership fees and of including money controlled by Vornado Partnership Interests as his own, despite having no access to the funds.
The lawsuit seeks some $250 million in allegedly illegal profits and to bar Trump and his three adult children from participating in any real estate transactions for the next five years. It also seeks a permanent ban on Trump and his three children from serving as directors or officers of any New York corporation or business licensed in the state.
“I’m announcing that today we’re filing a lawsuit against Donald Trump for violating the law as part of his efforts to generate profits for himself, his family, his company,” the Democratic attorney general announced at a press conference on Wednesday. “The complaint demonstrates that Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system, thereby cheating all of us.”
“The pattern of fraud that was used by Mr. Trump and the Trump organization was astounding,” she added.
Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, responded to the AG’s action on Wednesday in a statement: “Today’s filing is neither focused on the facts nor the law – rather, it is solely focused on advancing the Attorney General’s political agenda.”
Habba added: “It is abundantly clear that the Attorney General’s Office has exceeded its statutory authority by prying into transactions where absolutely no wrongdoing has taken place. We are confident that our judicial system will not stand for this unchecked abuse of authority, and we look forward to defending our client against each and every one of the Attorney General’s meritless claims.”
James, for her part, said the examples of fraud laid out in the suit are “just scratching the surface of the misconduct that we have uncovered.”
The state attorney general said she is filing a criminal referral to federal prosecutors in Manhattan and a tax fraud referral to the IRS for the allegations contained her lawsuit.