“Fraudulent or misleading” practices.

The New York State attorney general, Letitia James, accused Donald J. Trump’s family business late Tuesday of repeatedly misrepresenting the value of its assets to bolster its bottom line, saying in court papers that the company had engaged in “fraudulent or misleading” practices.

The filing came in response to Mr. Trump’s recent effort to block Ms. James from questioning him and two of his adult children under oath as part of a civil investigation of his business, the Trump Organization. Ms. James’s inquiry into Mr. Trump and the company is ongoing, and it is unclear whether her lawyers will ultimately file a lawsuit against them.

Still, the filing marked the first time that the attorney general’s office leveled such specific accusations against the former president’s company. Her broadside ratchets up the pressure on Mr. Trump as he seeks to shut down her investigation, which he has called a partisan witch hunt. Ms. James is a Democrat.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/nyregion/trump-organization-fraud-letitia-james.html

https://int.nyt.com/data/documentto...ing-january-18-2022/e4038cab1ecf788a/full.pdf

Seems as though the NY AG is inching closer to an indictment. Obviously, she wants Trump and the offspring to testify as to what they knew. Obviously, they will refuse. What else is new?

 

Link provided above.

As alleged in detail below, OAG has obtained documents and testimony from numerous witnesses that were involved in creating and disseminating the misleading statements and omissions at issue in this investigation. However, witnesses closest to the top of the Trump Organization have asserted their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Certain others have professed faulty memories or asserted that they were following instruction from more senior employees. And as the Court is well aware, other testimony and documents have been withheld under assertions of privilege, including assertions on behalf of Mr. Trump himself: for instance, Sheri Dillon, a respondent in OAG’s motion that began this proceeding, was Mr. Trump’s personal tax counsel.

 

Eric Trump took the 5th more than 500+ times in front of this Grand Jury.

 

This is shaping up to be the mother of all stonewalls.

 

It would boil down to this.
They must have a historical idiot for a DA who thought they could depose someone they plan on charging or doesn't know that the state (not Trump) sets the value on his properties for tax purposes.

So you either have a fake news piece for the left to chew on (because they don't know any better) or the dumbest DA on the planet that doesn't know people they accuse of a crime have the right to remain silent while they think Trump is setting his own state property values for tax purposes.

 

he underestimates the value & size of his properties for tax purposes, but then OVERestimates the value and size of his properties for loan purposes.

total felon.

 

That's the allegation. He's put himself in a bind with respect to refusing to testify after previously claiming only criminals plead the 5th.

 

he will be indicted.

 

The banks normally do an appraisal when they are lending substantial sums of money. The state does an appraisal for tax purposes. The person can appeal those rulings. I have personally appealed property appraisals by the state. Sounds like the AG might have a very tough row to hoe.

In addition, the loans and appraisals for tax purposes are done from different standpoints. When getting a loan, the value might be elevated because with the loan the barrower to make a bigger profit in the future. The property appraisal for tax purposes is based on the value of the property at the time it is appraised.

Trying to get favorable appraisals is neither illegal nor immoral.

 

lying on a loan application, is illegal.

lying on your taxes, is illegal.

 

See my above amended post.

 

Misleading asset valuations in Trump financial statements

29. The Statements described Mr. Trump’s (or the Trustees of the Revocable Trust’s) valuation process in broad terms and in ways which are often inaccurate or misleading to a reader when compared with the supporting data and documentation that the Trump Organization submitted to Mazars.
Among other things, the Statements or the backup material:
a. Misstated objective facts, like the size of Mr. Trump’s Trump Tower penthouse;
b. Miscategorized assets outside Mr. Trump’s or the Trump Organization’s control as “cash,” thereby overstating his liquidity;
c. Misstated the process by which Mr. Trump or his associates reached valuations. INDEX NO. 451685/2020 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 358 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 01/18/2022 9 of 115 9
d. Failed to use fundamental techniques of valuation, like discounting future revenues and expenses to their present value;
e. Misstated the purported involvement of “outside professionals” in reaching the valuations; and
f. Failed to advise that certain valuation amounts were inflated by an undisclosed flat percentage for brand value, despite express language on the Statements asserting that the value of Mr. Trump’s brand was not reflected the Statements pursuant to generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”).

 

If it's indeed a lie -- not a mistake -- about a material fact, sure it is.

But is that what he did? Are you sure? How do you know? Say "yes", and you've disqualified yourself from ever serving on his jury.

And If EVERYONE pre-judges and says "yes, he lied about a material fact, then NO ONE will be able to sit on the jury, and in that case, there can be no conviction. Is that what you want?

Will we in this country never learn that an indictment is not a criminal conviction? This isn't even an indictment!

It's more likely that someone in the organization or an outside contractor, like an accounting firm, came up with the numbers to make him look as good as possible. With his acquiescence, yes. But acquiescence is usually not enough.

Remember when Chris Christie was supposedly going down for Bridgegate when his subordinates were indicted? It never happened despite MSNBC's certainty that he was. Did anyone here prematurely predict his demise?

Trump is innocent until proven guilty to a unanimous jury beyond reasonable doubt, which is an even higher burden than "clear and convincing."

Does Kyle Rittenhouse ring a bell? You know, the racist who murdered 2 black guys who weren't black? In self defense? Did we uncorked the champagne a bit prematurely in that one?

To be sure, I am not predicting any particular outcome. Trump may have oceans of stolen cash and dead bodies in the basement for all I know. I am insisting that Trump be presumed innocent and that the mob put away the noose for just a few minutes. Do I ask too much?

 

That's who they are. At least they got that honestly.

 

Oh. You mean they won't testify against themselves? We should go ahead and lock them up now. Don't need no stinkin' trial.

You've just disqualified yourself from sitting in judgment, by the way.

 

As a candidate for prez in 2016 Individual 1 said...“If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” Of course it is his right. But why would he need to?

 

Just can't wait for their trial to pronounce them guilty, eh? To hell with their constitutional rights, eh?

I think one of the many reasons this country is doomed is because high school civics isn't compulsory. Which is not to say that a substantial number of students would pass the course. Maybe they could incorporate some critical race theory in there to make it more attractive to demented ideologues in the departments of education, but something has to be done or we really will evolve into anarchy.

 

As I said..........As a candidate for prez in 2016 Individual 1 said...“If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” Of course it is his right.

 

You appear to be agitated over the hot water the orange MAGA god is in. Devolving in to anarchy isn't investigating possible crimes for which there is ample evidence produced so far. It's not investigating them.

 

As I suspected, the usual suspects currently predicting Trump's conviction and incarceration -- without a trial as a precondition, naturally -- were making the same wild predictions about Chris Christie after Bridgegate. He wasn't even INDICTED when some of our colleagues on the forum were pronouncing him "done!" Read all about it here:

http://www.politicalforum.com/index...o-ordered-bridgegate-three-days-later.339166/

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

 

He'll most definitely get a trial. So what's the problem?

 

"We got 'im now, boys! Yeeeeee-haaah!!!"

"Why don't we give him a trial fir --"

"Shet yore mouth Cal, or you're next!"

"Sorry, Clem, I was just a-funnin'."

 

I had a discussion with someone and I mentioned what they said during the campaign. He said you can't pay any attention to that because people say a lot of things during campaigns.

 

I'll be delighted to respond further on this once the Trump detractors have demonstrated a thorough grasp of constitutional rights, including the right to a trial by jury and the right to remain silent, the burden of proof (hint: it's not on me or on the former president), the presumption of innocence, and a firm commitment to seeing them all applied to former President Trump, just as they are applied to every person charged with a crime in the USA. Equal protection and due process are pretty important, too.

 

You accuse others of convicting him before there's a trial while claiming his rights are going to be abused before he's even indicted (assuming he is indicted).

Ms. James highlighted details of how she said the company inflated the valuations: $150,000 initiation fees into Mr. Trump’s golf club in Westchester that it never collected; mansions that had not yet been built on one of his private estates; and 20,000 square feet in his Trump Tower triplex that did not exist.

“We have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit,” Ms. James said in a statement.