New York’s attorney general is seeking $370 million from former president Donald Trump in a fraud case which has seen the real estate mogul accused of inflating the value of his properties, court documents showed Friday.Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and his two eldest sons are accused of fraudulently inflating the value of their real estate assets to receive more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.”
Record evidence… supports disgorgement of $370 million, plus pre-judgment interest,” said the filing, significantly more than the $250 million that New York Attorney General Letitia James previously said she would seek.”
The myriad deceptive schemes they employed to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation.”
The requested amount is linked to the “wrongdoer’s unlawful profits,” the filing says.
The amount to be paid will be determined by the judge, Arthur Engoron, whom Trump has repeatedly attacked on social media.It will be released in his final decision and order.- ‘Totally corrupt’ -Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, lashed out at James, calling her “totally corrupt” and saying “I did nothing wrong.””
My financial statements are great and very conservative,” he said.
“This case should never have been brought.”
Trump has repeatedly taken to social media during the case, saying it was “decided against me before it even started.”
During the trial Trump has called the judge “crazy” and “unhinged,” and denounced James, who is Black, as “racist.”
The former president will separately stand trial on March 4 in Washington in a federal case in which he is accused of seeking to upend the results of the 2020 election in a concerted effort that led to the violent January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.Trump also faces federal charges for allegedly mishandling top secret documents after he left the White House, and has been charged with racketeering in Georgia on accusations that he tried to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state.The US states of Colorado and Maine have barred him from standing in presidential primaries on the grounds that he had engaged in an insurrection on January 6.
Trump has challenged both rulings.A congressional report claimed Thursday that Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from foreign governments including China during his time in the White House. – Gregory WALTON
