New York Attorney General Letitia James wants Donald Trump to pay $370 million in his fraud case. She claimed in her closing remarks in the trial that both the former president and other senior executives of the Trump Organization used “myriad deceptive schemes” to falsely inflate their assets.
The tax fraud trial against the Republican is entering its final stage. Both New York state attorneys and the defense submitted their final letters before making closing arguments.
James' lawsuit is more than 200 pages long and alleges Trump's businesses were rife with fraud, as well as that the Trump Organization deceived tax officials, lenders and insurers by inflating property values through deceptive appraisals.
"These acts of fraud and misrepresentation ... were committed in every annual return by senior management of the Trump Organization. … And they were approved at the highest levels of the Trump Organization, including Mr. Trump himself," the document reads.
BREAKING: New York Attorney General (@NewYorkStateAG) Letitia James (@TishJames) just informed the court that she's seeking over $370 million from Donald Trump in a civil fraud trial.
NOTE: James claims that Trump illicitly gained profits through deceptive schemes, overvaluing… pic.twitter.com/qYZY3oPHPk
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) January 5, 2024
James' lawsuit also involves Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, children of the current presidential candidate, who asked that the accusations against them be dismissed. According to them, the official could not prove that they had "anything more than a peripheral knowledge or involvement in the creation, preparation or use" of their father's financial statements.
$370 million fine
According to the New York attorney general's findings, "The conclusion that defendants intended to defraud when preparing and certifying Trump's statements of financial condition is inescapable," which is why she asked the judge in the case to force the former president to pay $370 million fine and prohibit him from doing real estate business in the state.
The defense's response
As in the course of the trial, Trump's lawyers repeated that the banks that worked with the Trump Organization at the time did their own corresponding investigations and found no evidence of exaggeration of assets .
“Errors or misstatements happen all the time in accounting, if there are no indicia of fraud such as concealment, forgery, or deceit, then there is no basis to determine that these SFCs are fraudulent, and any misstatements are just accidental errors," notes the defense brief.
"The record evidence and testimony adduced at trial conclusively establishes that the SFCs were prepared, in their entirety, by others at the company working in conjunction with the company’s long time outside accountants," concluded Trump’s lawyer, Clifford Robert, in a joint post-trial brief.
