New York’s attorney-general on Wednesday asked a state judge to declare, even before the start of a trial, that Donald Trump committed fraud by submitting false statements to bankers and insurers and overstating his net worth by up to US$2.23-billion.
In filings with a state court in Manhattan, Attorney-General Letitia James said evidence in her civil case showed “repeated and persistent fraudulent use” by Mr. Trump and his family business of false and misleading financial statements from 2011 to 2021.
Ms. James said inflating values of more than a dozen assets by hundreds of millions of dollars established the defendants’ liability for fraud under the state’s Executive Law.
“The cumulative effect of these numerous deceptive schemes to inflate Mr. Trump’s assets, and hence his net worth, is staggering,” and is “just the tip of a much larger iceberg of deception [the state] is prepared to expose at trial,” Ms. James said.
Lawyers for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ms. James filed her lawsuit last September, accusing Mr. Trump of lying about property values, including for his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and Trump Tower penthouse in Manhattan, and his own net worth to obtain better terms from lenders and insurers.
She is seeking at least $250-million from Mr. Trump, his adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and others, and to stop the Trumps from running businesses in New York.
Mr. Trump’s adult daughter Ivanka Trump was dismissed as a defendant in June.
A trial before state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron is scheduled for Oct. 2.
It is separate from four criminal indictments that Mr. Trump, 77, faces as he seeks a second White House term, including two for attempting to reverse his 2020 election loss.
Mr. Trump, the Republican front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases, calling them part of a Democratic witch hunt against him. Ms. James is a Democrat.
In Wednesday’s filing, Ms. James said correcting Mr. Trump’s suspect valuations would have reduced his net worth by 17 per cent to 39 per cent each year between 2011 and 2021.
The filing said Mr. Trump’s reported net worth peaked at $6.1-billion in both 2018 and 2019, when he was U.S. president, but would have been no more than $4.2-billion had he arranged for “full blown professional appraisals” of his properties.
Ms. James said Mr. Trump should have valued his penthouse triplex in 2016 at US$119.9-million instead of US$327-million, and valued Mar-a-Lago in 2018 at US$25.4-million, based on its restricted use as a social club, instead of US$739.5-million.