NEW YORK — The New York attorney general said on Friday her office actually underestimated how much Donald Trump bloated his net worth when running his dad’s real estate empire.
Based on evidence that Letitia James says the former president doesn’t dispute, he overstated his value by $3.6 billion, up from the $2 billion that her office reported last week in court papers.
“There is far more evidence beyond just what is undisputed that the People will present at trial, as necessary, to establish the enormous extent to which Mr. Trump’s net worth was overstated in each year from 2011 to 2021,” lawyers for the AG wrote in Manhattan Supreme Court filings, opposing Trump’s request to throw out the $250 million suit slated for trial next month.
James’ lawsuit seeks $250 million in ill-gotten gains and to severely restrict how the Trumps do business in the Big Apple. Her September 2022 suit accused him and his executives of inflating the value of Trump Organization assets to secure better loan and insurance terms.
Valuation experts and accountants working with AG investigators found Trump inflated his net worth by $1.9 to $3.6 billion during the decade James’s case covers when accounting for modern-day market factors, the AG said. The evidence Trump doesn’t dispute — like valuing his Trump Tower Triplex based on it being around 33,000 sq ft when, in reality, it’s around 10,000 sq ft — shows him annually inflating his worth by between $812 million to $2.2 billion, James showed in court filings last week.
James described the astonishing $3.6 billion sum as still conservative when considering that “many of the inputs and assumptions used by” Trump and his codefendants that valuation experts accepted for argument’s sake “would otherwise be rejected in a full-blown appraisal review.”
The AG’s office said Trump and his associates “grossly and deceptively inflated his assets and net worth” to banks and insurers “based on this mountain of evidence” establishing fraudulent business transactions.
As Trump’s lawyers asked for the case to be thrown out, James’ office asked state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron on Aug. 30 to find them liable for one of her chief claims alleging their financial statements from 2011 to 2021 were false or misleading and repeatedly used in business transactions.
On Friday, she said “ample evidence” supports her remaining claims Trump and co made false entries in business records, falsified financial statements, committed insurance fraud, and conspired to break the law.
Trump lawyers, who argue that most of the AG’s claims are time-barred, have further argued that the AG lacks authority to bring the case and has failed to show that financial statements were fraudulent.
“In the NYAG’s obsessive, compulsive attempt to ‘get’ President Trump, she even continues to unfairly drag his children Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. along for the ride, despite their having had no direct involvement in the creation, preparation, or use of the [financial statements]. It’s time for the Court to put an end to this crusade by dismissing this action in its entirety,” Michael Madaio wrote the court Friday, opposing the AG’s request that Engoron rule in her favor on the top claim.
Engoron is expected to hear arguments on James and Trump’s motions for summary judgment, which could dodge a trial, at a hearing on Sept. 22. And he is still to rule on a request by James’ office to issue sanctions against the former president, his codefendants, and their lawyers for repeating legal arguments rejected several times in the last year, related to her ability to bring the case.
On Wednesday, The judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the case by three weeks as “completely without merit.” Logistics announced Friday estimate that the trial will run five days a week from Oct. 2 to Dec. 22.
Lawyers for Trump and co did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The AG’s office declined to comment beyond what was said in court filings.
The case is one in a litany facing the former president, including his four criminal cases, as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination. It will be his first trial of potentially six before the 2024 presidential election.
