Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump campaigns at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. August 12, 2023. REUTERS
The attorney general of New York state suggested on Friday that Donald Trump’s riches may have been exaggerated considerably more than previously anticipated, her latest volley in her legal case against the former U.S. president and his family business.
Attorney General Letitia James stated in a petition in a New York state court in Manhattan that her valuation and accounting experts believe Trump falsely increased his net worth by $1.9 billion to $3.6 billion each year over a decade.
This is more than the $812 million to $2.23 billion range she predicted last week based on “undisputed” data, which Trump denies.
James said a “mountain of evidence” shows how Trump and his associates lied about his assets and net worth to obtain better terms on loans and insurance, justifying a ruling even before the Oct. 2 trial that his financial statements were fraudulent.
The attorney general wants a $250 million fine, and to bar Trump and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump from leading their family business, the New York City-based Trump Organization.
Lawyers for Trump, who wants the entire case dismissed, fired back six minutes after James’ filing.
They said Trump was “without question, worth many billions of dollars,” and had even made “substantial sums of money” for the companies that financed and insured the real estate properties in his “phenomenal corporate empire.”
“There was no fraud. There are no victims,” the lawyers said.
Trump’s lawyers also maintained that statutes of limitations bar most of James’ claims, and accused her of having “maligned, demeaned, and libeled President Trump and his entire family via an opportunistic lawsuit filed for political gain.”
James is a Democrat, while Trump holds a dominant lead in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.