In a statement outside courthouse on the first day of Donald Trump‘s fraud trial, New York Attorney General Leticia James said the former president defrauded lenders by inflating the value of his businesses.
“It’s simple: No matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you think you have, no one’s above the law,” James said.
Reuters reports that James said the Trump Organization “ignored the most basic rules and standards for financial reporting,” including falsely claiming to have readily available cash and ignored factors that lower property values and changing the valuation methodology “without reason or notice.”
From Reuters:
Donald Trump sat in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday and listened to a New York state lawyer accuse him of generating more than $1 billion by lying about his real estate empire, claims the former president called a “scam.”
The trial in a downtown Manhattan courtroom case concerns accusations by state Attorney General Letitia James that Trump inflated his assets and his own net worth from 2011 to 2021 to obtain favorable bank loans and lower insurance premiums.
James is seeking at least $250 million in fines, a permanent ban against Trump and his sons Donald Jr and Eric from running businesses in New York and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization.
Read the full report over at Reuters.
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