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New York Attorney General Letitia James recently filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, three of his adult children, and the Trump Organization over allegations of fraud involving fake financial statements.
In a 220-page civil lawsuit, James alleged that Trump falsely inflated his own net worth to secure more favorable loans and insurance for his company as well as to decrease its taxes.
Letitia James is currently seeking nearly $250 million in damages. She is making a request to permanently ban Trump and his three children from serving as executives of any company in New York.
James has also asked to permanently prohibit all of Trump’s companies named in the lawsuit from doing further business in the Big Apple. She even revealed that she had asked the IRS and federal prosecutors in Manhattan to further investigate Trump on the grounds of possible federal crimes.
Everything to know about Letitia James
Letitia James is an American lawyer, politician, and activist who currently serves as the 67th Attorney General for the State of New York. She made history by becoming the first African-American woman to serve in the role.
She was born to Nellie and Robert James on October 18, 1958, in New York and grew up with her seven siblings.
Letitia James attended Fort Hamilton High School and earned her B.A. in liberal arts with an emphasis on social work from the City University of New York's Lehman College in 1981.
She received her J.D. degree from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., and started practicing law in New York State in 1989.
James also earned a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2013.
Letitia James previously served as a public defender of the Legal Aid Society. She also founded the Urban Network, a coalition of African American professional organizations to provide scholarships to young people.
The Brooklyn native was appointed the first Assistant Attorney General in charge of the city’s regional office in 1999. She became an official member of the Working Families Party in 2003 after winning the city council run against Geoffrey A. Davis.
James was elected Public Advocate for the City of New York in 2013 and became the first woman of color to hold statewide office. Reports suggest that her office handled more than 32,000 complaints and passed more legislation than all previous Public Advocates combined.
A look into Letitia James’ lawsuit against Donald Trump
On Wednesday, Letitia James announced that she has filed a civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization, Donald Trump, and his children, Donald Trump Jr., Eric, and Ivanka. All three served as company executives.
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg and executive Jeff McConney have also been named as defendants in the lawsuit. The suit accused Trump of inflating his assets by billions to gather favorable loans:
“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. He did this with the help of the other defendants.”
James claimed that Trump and his organization inflated the value of other properties between 2011 and 2021 for “incredible financial benefits” like low tax bills, favorable loans, and cheaper insurance. The properties include a Lower Manhattan skyscraper, a Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment, and Mar-a-Lago:
“All told, Mr. Trump, the Trump Organization, and the other Defendants, as part of a repeated pattern and common scheme, derived more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets included in the 11 Statements covering 2011 through 2021.”
The legal complaint also mentioned that Trump’s personal financial statements during the decade were “fraudulent and misleading in both their composition and presentation.”
It further alleged that the number of inflated asset values is “staggering” and affected “most if not all of the real estate holdings in any given year.”
While explaining the instances of possible attempts to commit fraud, Letitia James elaborated that Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago “generated less than $25 million in annual revenue”:
“It should have been valued at about $75 million, but it was valued at $739 million.”
James also claimed that Trump reportedly “received a series of bank ordered appraisals” for his 40 Wall Street commercial property in New York City. They showed the value of the property to be $200m as of August 2010 and $220m as of November 2012.
She then said:
“Yet in his 2011 statement, Mr Trump listed 40 Wall Street with a value of $524m, which increased to $530m over the next two years, more than twice the value calculated by the professionals.”
The attorney added:
“Even more egregious, the $500m-plus valuation was attributed to information from the appraiser who valued the building at just over $200m.”
Letitia James also shed light on the Trump Tower located on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and said:
“Mr Trump represented that his apartment spanned more than 30,000 sq ft, which was the basis for valuing the apartment. In reality, the apartment had an area of less than 11,000 sq ft, something Mr Trump was well aware of.”
The lawsuit noted that the value of the apartment rose to $327M by 2015 and 2016, making it the only apartment in New York City to be sold in that amount. James alleged that “tripling the size of the apartment for the purposes of the valuation was an intentional and deliberate fraud” and “not an honest mistake.”
The complaint also alleged that the Trump Organization never retained professionals outside the company to handle Donald Trump’s finances. These statements reportedly contained the value of real estate assets that were used to gain loans and insurance:
“To the extent Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization received any advice from outside professionals that had any bearing on how to approach valuing the assets, they routinely ignored or contradicted such advice.”
According to CNBC, the seven-count suit alleges that Trump was involved in “persistent and repeated fraud; conspiracy to falsify business records; falsifying business records; conspiracy to falsify false financial statements; issuing false financial statements; conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and insurance fraud.”
In response to James’ allegations, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said the filing was “neither focused on the facts nor the law” but “focused on advancing the Attorney General’s political agenda”:
“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.”
The lawyer added:
“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.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump took to social media to call the investigation a “witch-hunt.”
Letitia James reportedly reviewed millions of documents and interviewed more than 65 witnesses as part of her investigation. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has also reportedly launched a criminal investigation surrounding the situation.
