There is 'significant evidence' the Trump Organization relied on misleading financial statements to 'secure economic benefits&...
There is 'significant evidence' the Trump Organization relied on misleading financial statements to 'secure economic benefits' like tax breaks and loans for a , New York Attorney General Letitia James' office said on Monday.
The attorney general's office has been fighting a months-long legal battle to get Donald Trump and his two oldest children to testify in James' ongoing civil investigation into the former president's real estate empire.
In a late night court filing obtained by DailyMail.com, James challenged the Trumps' claims that her probe was a 'product of political animus.'
She insisted it was based on mounting evidence that the ex-president, along with Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, played central roles in the tax fraud allegedly conducted by their family business.
James said her probe 'began after a corporate insider gave sworn testimony that the Trump Organization had engaged in widespread fraud.'
Prosecutors also claim Trump, Don Jr. and Ivanka 'were closely involved in the preparation' of financial documents and 'negotiated major transactions in which the Statements were used' despite having 'information that conflicted with the asset values appearing in the Statements.'
Of those statements, they allege: 'At various points, appellants Mr. Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., personally certified these valuations’ accuracy, and appellant Ivanka Trump used the valuations to negotiate several major transactions.'
'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 to secure economic benefits—including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions—on terms more favorable than the true facts warranted,' the court filing states.
Last week the former president's family appealed a Manhattan judge's decision that cleared the way for New York prosecutors to grill the trio under oath.
They had said that James' probe was a product of political 'bias' and the subpoenas 'followed an extraordinary and unprecedented barrage of inappropriate public statements' that the law enforcement official made against Trump.
Prosecutors in James' ongoing civil probe allege that 'at various points, appellants Mr. Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., personally certified' financial statements they knew to be misleading, and 'appellant Ivanka Trump used the valuations to negotiate several major transactions' involving a Florida golf course and hotels in Washington, DC and Chicago
Prosecutors argue in Monday's filing that 'appellants failed to offer any proof supporting their claim' and 'have not even attempted to show objectively discriminatory treatment.'
The 82-page document reveals new details about why exactly James' team wants to speak with Trump and both adult children.
The ex-president 'personally certified the accuracy of the Statements for the years prior to 2016' and 'was also involved in reviewing draft statements and preparing asset valuations.'
His oldest son Don Jr. 'was responsible for the Statements for the years 2016 to 2020,' prosecutors said, when Trump was in the White House.
James' office also claims Don Jr. 'personally certified' financial statements on his father's behalf in order to obtain loans from 2016 through 2019, even as he 'received detailed analyses of business segments in the Trump portfolio' that cast doubt on some of the statements' veracity.
Ivanka then 'was directly involved in certain financial transactions that rested on the potential misrepresentations in the Statements.'
She allegedly negotiated loans from Deutsche Bank for a golf course in Florida and hotels in Chicago and Washington, DC that relied on statements signed by her father.
All the while, prosecutors stated, Ivanka was aware of data that 'would have produced a lower value for certain properties' than those financial documents indicated.
Don Jr. along with his brother Eric Trump are executive vice presidents of the Trump Organization. Eric testified in James' probe in 2020. Ivanka was at one point also an executive in the company.
One of the examples James gives for the Trump Organization's alleged tax fraud involved financial statements from 2012 through 2016 that suggested the ex-president's three-floor luxury Trump Tower apartment in New York City 'exceeded 30,000 square feet and valued the apartment at up to $327 million.'
However in 2017, the first year Trump took office, his company 'slashed the apartment's value by two-thirds, sizing the residents at just under 11,000 square feet.'
Statements from 2010 through 2012 reflect the collective value of a group of rent-stabilized apartments to be more than $49 million -- more than 66-times the $750,000 estimate made by an outside appraiser.
The filing also indicates that an apartment Ivanka was offered to purchase for $8.5 million had been valued at $25 million from 2011 through 2013.
James' probe had been running parallel to a criminal investigation being run by the Manhattan District Attorney. However the criminal probe apparently unraveled recently, after it was taken over by new DA Alvin Bragg.
Ivanka had an option to purchase the Park Avenue apartment for $8.5 million, according to the court order seeking testimony filed by the AG's office, after leasing it on 'extraordinarily favorable terms'. Ivanka is seen in the apartment with two of her kids
The Trumps' March 21 legal brief accused New York of using civil subpoenas as an 'end-around' to force them to testify for both investigations while avoiding granting immunity that's typically given in criminal investigations.
The Monday court filing also disputes this claim, arguing that 'civil subpoenas do not compel appellants to provide information that may be used against them in a future criminal case.'
'At their depositions, should they so choose, appellants may exercise their right to decline to answer any questions calling for responses that may incriminate them. Nor do the civil subpoenas circumvent any grand jury rules.'
It also points out that James' investigation began 'nearly two years' before any criminal probe.
'Contrary to appellants’ contention, they do not have any right to be called to testify to the grand jury and obtain immunity from prosecution,' New York state prosecutors claim.
James' probe was sparked by Congressional testimony from Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen, who alleged his old boss's company engaged in fraudulent business practices from at least 2010.
'There is nothing arbitrary or discriminatory about [the New York Attorney General] opening an investigation into these troubling allegations about a purportedly multi-billion-dollar New York real estate conglomerate’s business practices, particularly when the revelations were from a senior corporate insider who was a close confidant of the entity’s owner,' the most recent filing states.
During a heated courtroom session on Monday, James' lawyers complained that Trump was dragging his feet with the investigation and only turned over 10 personal business documents since the civil probe began.
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