Trump May Lose Control Of His NYC Properties As Judgment In Business Fraud Case Nears

This fall, a judge ruled that New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) proved core elements of her case against former President Donald Trump, a decision that found Trump and two of his children, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. – and their businesses – liable for fraud. 

Justice Arthur Engoron’s decision found Trump guilty of “repeated and persistent fraud” on his financial statements (known as SFCs) as he overvalued his properties, which enabled Trump’s company to benefit his company for millions of dollars.

Now that both sides completed their arguments in the case before the Christmas holiday, Trump is awaiting a judgment that could strip him of his entire New York City real estate empire.

The former president listed his Fifth Avenue Trump Tower residence as 30,000 square feet, although it is only 10,996. This led to an overvaluation of between $114 million and $207 million. Engoron wrote, “A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud.” 

At Trump Park Avenue, Engoron ruled that the former president had inflated the value of various units based on the “false premise” that they were exempt from the city’s strict rent control regime. Trump’s attorneys unsuccessfully argued that the units could potentially become unrestricted in the future. Engoron wrote that the SFCs were required to state the current values of the units.

The ruling went on to find that Trump overvalued multiple properties by hundreds of millions of dollars, including Trump Seven Springs in New York’s Tony Westchester County, Lower Manhattan’s 40 Wall Street, and two of his golf courses, one in the U.S. and one in Scotland.

Engoron ordered the cancellation of state business certificates filed by Trump, his two sons and the other defendants in the case. This would effectively strip the former president of any ability to do business in New York and means that he could potentially lose control of his New York properties.

Engoron had also noted that the county assessor had appraised Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence at a value between $18 million and $27.6 million, while Trump had valued the property between $426 million and $612 million.

The former president attacked the claim in a Truth Social post, and Donald Trump Jr. and Eric both defended the value of the Mar-a-Lago property on social media.

Don Jr. claimed he “knows nothing about accounting” at the trial, despite being the company’s chief financial officer.

Engoron also granted James’ request to sanction several of Trump’s lawyers when they continued to reiterate arguments that were already dismissed in court. Five of Trump’s lawyers were ordered to pay a $7,500 fine each.

Engoron wrote, “We are way beyond the point of ‘sophisticated counsel should have known better…We are at the point of intentional and blatant disregard of controlling authority and law of the case.“

Donald Trump refused to testify in his defense, calling the trial “a witch hunt.”

He repeatedly attacked the judge and his clerk and was even fined $10,000 for violating a court gag order.