NY attorney-general files suit against Donald Trump
Donald Trump, former US president, is facing a lawsuit filed by the state of New York. Letitia James, the attorney-general of the state, said Trump is being sued along with his family and his inner circle.
“The complaint demonstrates that Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system, thereby cheating all of us. He did this with the help of the other defendants,” she said.
Guardian reports that the New York suit represents an escalation of the serious legal jeopardy Trump already faces on numerous fronts, including possible indictment over his retention of classified records after his time in power and multiple investigations of his attempts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
The latest suit accuses Trump and his co-defendants of engaging in years of financial fraud to obtain a host of economic benefits.
“The lawsuit alleges that Donald Trump, with the help of his children Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, and senior executives of the Trump Organization, falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company, to satisfy continuing loan covenants, induce insurers to provide insurance coverage for higher limits and lower premiums, and to gain tax benefits, among other things.”
Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump were all deposed during the state investigation.
The former Trump Organization chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, and the Trump Organization comptroller, Jeffrey McConney, were also named by James on Wednesday. In a separate criminal investigation, in New York, Weisselberg, 75, has pleaded guilty to tax fraud.
James alleged that the defendants in her investigation made more than 200 false and misleading asset valuations in financial statements between 2011 and 2021.
