A longtime executive at Donald Trump’s real estate company admitted that he often included fake mansions and assessed rent-stabilized apartments as market rates when calculating the former president’s net worth, ending a Manhattan civil fraud The first week of the trial.
Jeffrey McConnell joins Trump Organization Trump, a defendant in the 1987 case, testified Friday that he added tens of millions of dollars each year to the former president’s annual financial statements to compensate for the value of his mansion at Seven Springs, New York. The mansion doesn’t exist.
These unfinished mansions are worth $35 million each, and Trump’s net worth has increased by $161 million annually over the years.
Rent-stabilized units on Trump Park Avenue and unfinished mansions in nearby Westchester County are among several categories of assets Trump allegedly inflated by billions of dollars each year between 2011 and 2021. It is the first of six trials Trump faces as he seeks to return to the White House.
“When you prepared these assessments, you were aware that there were these rent-stabilized units on Park Avenue, right?” asked Andrew Amell, an attorney for New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“Yes,” responded McConney, the first witness in the case who works for the Trump Organization and the first defendant to testify.
James claimed that Trump made $250 million in “illegal profits” by inflating his assets and deceiving banks into giving him better loan terms. She is seeking to repay the money and ban Trump and his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, from operating businesses in New York. A judge has ruled that the Trump family is responsible for fraud and ordered the dissolution of some of their business entities.
Trump’s lawyers asked a New York appeals court on Friday to put the civil fraud trial on hold while they challenged the ruling.
Trump, who has denied wrongdoing, unexpectedly attended the first three days of the trial, treating it as a campaign event and blaming James for prosecuting him. The former president was slapped with a gag order earlier this week for attacking a judge’s clerk on social media.
McConney worked closely for decades with former Trump Finance Chief Allen Weisselberg, who was charged last year in a separate case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges. In the case, a jury in December found two Trump companies engaged in a scheme that allowed Weisselberg and other executives for years to take advantage of benefits paid for by the company, including free apartments and luxury cars. tax evasion.
McConney’s role in Trump Organization has previously come under scrutiny in the Bragg case. He worked closely with Weisselberg for years on financial matters, and the former CFO accused his subordinates of involvement in tax schemes in the case. The controller reportedly testified before a New York grand jury, which investigated the case under immunity.
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