- The New York Attorney General Office’s probe of the Trump Organization “uncovered significant evidence” suggesting that the company’s financial statements for more than a decade relied on misleading valuations of its real estate assets, the office said
- Those potentially inaccurate valuations were used “to secure economic benefits — including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions — on terms more favorable than the true facts warranted,” the office said in a court filing.
- The filing was made in response to the Trump Organization and former President Donald Trump’s appeal of a judge’s order that Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, had to submit to interviews under oath by investigators from James’ office.
The New York Attorney General’s Office has “uncovered significant evidence” suggesting that the Trump Organization’s financial statements for more than a decade relied on misleading valuations of its real estate assets, the office said in a court filing Tuesday.
Those potentially misleading valuations “and other misrepresentations” were used “to secure economic benefits — including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions — on terms more favorable than the true facts warranted,” the office said in the filing.
Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and Controller Jeffrey McConney “played a role in crafting the financial statements at the crux of this investigation,” according to the filing by AG Letitia James.
The attorney general said that Weisselberg and McConney were among more than 40 witnesses interviewed in a years-long civil probe of the company.
The filing was made in response to the Trump Organization and former President Donald Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan state court judge’s order last month that Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, had to submit to interviews under oath by investigators from James’ office.
James has been investigating the business owned by former President Donald Trump for several years.
The probe was sparked by sworn testimony from Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Cohen told Congress that the Trump Organization had given different valuations for the same properties in order to obtain more favorable terms on loans and insurance, and to lower their taxes.
James’ office in February revealed that the Trump Organization’s long-time accounting firm Mazars had fired the company as a client after saying that a decade’s worth of financial statements about Donald Trump’s financial condition “should no longer be relied on.”
In her filing Tuesday, James begins by noting that she is probing “potential misrepresentations or omissions in financial statements describing assets” of Trump’s company.
“So far, the investigation has uncovered significant evidence potentially indicating that, for more than a decade, these financial statements relied on misleading asset valuations and other misrepresentations,” said the filing in the First Department Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court.
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Source: Business - cnbc.com
