Former United States (US) President Donald Trump and three of his children were sued on Wednesday, 22 September, for what the New York state attorney general called numerous fraudulent acts and misrepresentations, as well as wrongly quoting the value of real estate properties to get favourable loans ad tax benefits.
The lawsuit, filed at a New York state court in Manhattan, accused the Trump Organisation of wrongdoing while preparing annual financial statements from 2011-21.
The lawsuit also named the former president's children, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump.
Attorney General Letitia James said that her office had uncovered over 200 examples of incorrect asset valuations. Among them, 23 had been "grossly and fraudulently inflated."
"The pattern of fraud and deception that was used by Mr. Trump and the Trump Organisation for their own financial benefit is astounding," she said at a press conference.
"Claiming that you have money that you do not have does not amount to the 'art of the deal,' it's the art of the steal," she further added, citing the title of the book written by Trump in 1987.
Through the lawsuit, James seeks to permanently bar the former US president and his three children from serving as officers or directors at any New York corporation.
The lawsuit also seeks to bar Trump and the Trump Organisation from entering any commercial real estate deals in New York for a period of five years, and provide repayment of all financial benefits allegedly gained fraudulently, amounting to $250 million.
James also said that her office had rejected settlement offers by the defendants. However, she added that her doors "are always open" for negotiations in the future.
'Another Witch Hunt': Trump
On the other hand, Trump slammed the lawsuit, calling it "another witch hunt" and particularly attacked Attorney General James, who is a democrat, as per Reuters.
"She is a fraud who campaigned on a 'get Trump' platform, despite the fact that the city is one of the crime and murder disasters of the world under her watch!" the former president said on social media.
Trump's counsel Alina Habba also alleged that the attorney general's office had "exceeded its authority" by "prying into transactions" with no wrongdoing.
Among the properties that James referred to as examples in the lawsuit included Trump's own apartment in New York's Trump Tower.
The attorney general claimed that Trump had said that the apartment was 30,000 square feet, when it was actually 10,996 square feet.
Further, she called its $327 million valuation in 2015 "absurd" since no apartment in New York City had sold for even $100 million at the time.
She further said that Trump had valued his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida at $739 million, when in fact it should have been valued at $75 million.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
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