NY - $250m fraud against Former President Donald Trump, Trump Org., Eric, Donald Jr., Sept 2022, Trial 2 Oct 2023

[Niner]

Wednesday, Oct. 11th:
*Bench Trial continues (Day 7) (@ 10am ET) – NY - New York vs. Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr. & Eric Trump & the Trump Organization, Inc. (Allen Weisselberg & Jeffrey McConney) is being sued by Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, who is leading a civil investigation (which cannot result in criminal charges filed on 9/21/22) & has spent years looking at whether the company committed various acts of fraud over several decades. In the civil case, Ms. James has filed a lawsuit against Trump & two of his children accusing them of "astounding" fraud & deception.
New York is seeking $250 million in financial penalties & asked the court to ban Trump, Donald Trump Jr. & Eric Trump from serving as an officer or director in any corporation registered or licensed in New York. James also requested the court ban the former president & his business from acquiring real estate in New York or from applying for loans from any New York financial institution for five years. James's civil case accuses Trump of lying from 2011 to 2021 about asset values at the Trump Organization, as well as his own net worth, in order to obtain better terms from lenders & insurers.
Lawsuit against: Donald John Trump, Donald Trump, Jr, Eric Trump, Allen Weisselberg, Jeffrey McConney, The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, The Trump Organization, Inc., Trump Organization LLC, DJT Holdings LLC, DJT Holinds Managing Memer, Trump Endeavor 12 LLC, 401 North Wabash Venture LLC, Trump Old Post of Fice LLC, 40 Wall Street LLC & Seven Springs LLC.
All charges against Ivanka Trump were dismissed.
Bench Trial began on 10/2/23. (could last until 12/22/23 per Judge).
The lawsuit’s remaining 6 counts allege similar acts of fraud (that Trump inflated his assets on statements of financial condition that he submitted to banks & insurers for personal gain).
Judge Arthur F. Engoron presiding / NY State Attorney General Leticia James / Defense attorney Christopher Kise & Jesus Suarez & Alina Habba for Trump, Weisselberg & the rest of the defendants for Trump Org. / Clifford Robert of Robert & Robert PLLC for Donald, Jr. & Eric.
Case & court info from 9/21/22 thru 9/28/23 & Bench Trial Day 1-5 (10/2-10/6/23) reference post #569 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...mp-org-and-executives-oct-2023.673964/page-29
10/10/23 Tuesday, Bench Trial Day 6: State witness: Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.
For more info see posts #571, 573, 575 & 577 to 579 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...mp-org-and-executives-oct-2023.673964/page-29
Bench trial continues on Wednesday, 10/11/23.

 

[tlcya]

Donald Trump's civil fraud trial is set to resume this morning with the testimony of Nicholas Haigh, a credit risk executive who worked at Deutsche Bank when it issued loans to the former president.

Deutsche Bank was the largest single lender to the Trump Organization between 2011 and 2022, according to the New York attorney general.

Owing approximately $340 million to the bank at one point, the Trump Organization used Deutsche Bank to secure favorable loans related to its purchase of the Old Post Office Hotel in Washington, D.C., the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, Illinois, and Trump National Doral golf club in Florida, according to the AG's complaint.
Deutsche Bank executive set to take stand

 

[tlcya]

While the Trump Organization's relationship with Deutsche Bank goes back 30 years, the attorney general alleges in her complaint that in 2011, Trump began doing business with the private wealth managers at the bank, rather than bankers who specialized in commercial real estate.

"In essence, rather than obtain credit facilities through the wing of Deutsche Bank with an expertise in commercial real estate, Mr. Trump began to seek funds from a wing of Deutsche Bank focused on servicing ultrawealthy clients," the attorney general's complaint said. "Hence, Mr. Trump's personal guaranty, and his representations regarding his finances that backed up that guaranty, featured prominently in Mr. Trump's loan transactions through the [private wealth management] wing of Deutsche Bank."

During the attorney general's investigation, Deutsche Bank credit risk executive Nicholas Haigh told investigators that he "may not have authorized" Trump's loans if he was aware of the inflated values in Trump's financial statements, according to a letter the state submitted to the court.
New York AG not attending trial today

 

[Smelly Squirrel]

On yesterday.

New York v. Trump on Day Six: Allen Weisselberg Forgets Much on the Stand, But Remembers a Key Detail

Ex-Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg said that Trump 'periodically' commented on financial statements sent to him before his presidency

themessenger.com

During the afternoon session, Weisselberg acknowledged that he provided statements of financial condition at issue in the trial to Trump between 2011 until the time of the former president’s election. Weisselberg confirmed that Trump “periodically” sent back comments, as first reported by NBC News.

The attorney general alleges, and the trial judge has found, that Trump inflated his assets on fraudulent statements of financial condition (sometimes abbreviated as SFCs or SFOCs) that he sent to banks and insurers for financial benefits.

Later in the day, Assistant Attorney General Louis Solomon pressed Weisselberg on who had the “final sign-off” over the statements.

"Good question," Weisselberg told Solomon.

But Weisselberg ultimately wouldn’t provide him with an answer.

The ex-CFO testified that he sometimes passed on the statements to Eric Trump, but Weisselberg said he didn’t know whether the SFCs eventually went to the former president. Weisselberg appeared to stop short, in this and other instances, from implicating his former boss.
.....
Under the terms of his plea deal with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Weisselberg ultimately testified against the company he served for 50 years, and he was released from jail after serving roughly three months of his term.

The AG’s counsel set the tone for Tuesday’s questioning by showing the court the $2 million separation agreement that Weisselberg signed with the Trump Organization on Jan. 9, the day before the ex-CFO’s sentencing earlier this year.

Now that his criminal case is over, Weisselberg is taking the stand as Trump’s co-defendant and a witness for the state in the civil case, but the way the AG’s office opened up Weisselberg’s grilling emphasized the witness’s financial ties to his former employer.

To accommodate another witness's schedule, Weisselberg's ongoing testimony will be put on pause until later in the week. The first witness to testify on Wednesday will be Nicholas Haigh, a former risk manager at Deutsche Bank.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

But Weisselberg ultimately wouldn’t provide him with an answer.

"I know nothing"

 

[tlcya]

"I know nothing"

thanks - Sgt Schultz will be living rent free in my head this afternoon

 

[legalmomma]

When Donald Trump negotiated a $125 million loan from Deutsche Bank related to his Trump National Doral golf club, the former president agreed to maintain a minimum net worth of $2.5 billion as a condition of the loan, former bank executive Nicholas Haigh testified.

The loan memorandum prepared by Deutsche Bank included a covenant that the "Guarantor shall maintain a minimum net worth of $2.5 billion excluding any value related to the Guarantor's brand value," according to a document marked as evidence today.

The New York attorney general alleges that Trump's actual net worth at the time of the loan agreement was only $1.5 billion, an amount that would have triggered a default.

New York AG not attending trial today

Get live updates from the trial of former President Trump in a $250 million fraud suit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

abcnews.go.com

 

[Smelly Squirrel]

Tantrum coming in 3, 2....

 

[Herat]

Tantrum coming in 3, 2....

Run away, run away

 

[tlcya]

To calculate Trump's net worth, Deutsche Bank looked at what Haigh described as Trump's four "trophy properties," all in Manhattan: Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, Trump Park Avenue, and Niketown -- a ground lease for a property adjoining Trump Tower.

Since the properties themselves were not provided as collateral for the loan, Deutsche Bank did not commission independent appraisals for the properties, and instead used a modified version of Trump's own numbers.

"The bank normally only commissions appraisals on assets taken as collateral," Haigh said.

Deutsche Bank adjusted their assessment in 2012, when they learned of a separate appraisal of Trump Tower that offered a lower value of the property than what Trump had provided.

"The bank felt that it had an independent view on the value of the asset," Haigh said of the appraisal that prompted his bank to lower their value for Trump Tower from $1.2 billion to $992 million.
New York AG not attending trial today

 

[tlcya]

Former president Donald Trump and his company bid $1 billion in 2014 in an attempt to purchase the Buffalo Bills football team.

The only problem was that Trump needed a bank to help finance his bid.

Former Deutsche Bank executive Nicholas Haigh testified that when Trump turned to his bank for help, bank executives declined, fearing it would increase their financial exposure to Trump.

"Deutsche Bank was not willing to increase its credit exposure to Donald Trump at that time," Haigh said.

But the bank was still willing to help Trump by sending a letter to support his bid, according to Haigh -- on the condition that Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney certify that the company was still in compliance with the covenants of the three outstanding loans the bank had given Trump.

McConney verified that Trump had over $300 million in liquid assets in 2014, and that it suffered no material decrease in the value of his illiquid assets, according to a document entered into evidence today.

With that verification, Deutsche Bank issued a letter that Trump had the "financial wherewithal" to fund his bid.

Trump's effort to purchase the Bills was ultimately unsuccessful.

Following this line of questioning, state attorney Kevin Wallace concluded his direct examination of Haigh. But he never asked Haigh if he would have approved Trump's loans had he known about the inflated assets alleged by the attorney general.

In a letter to the court and in previous arguments, lawyers for the attorney general had suggested that the hypothetical question would be a central element of Haigh's testimony.
New York AG not attending trial today

I am curious why that question wasn't asked.

 

[Inthedetails]

"They called it the Trump 'haircut.'

Really, that was what Deutsche Bank – Donald Trump's most generous lender – called the routine cuts they applied to whatever the former president told them he was worth."

The Trump 'haircut': yes, Deutsche Bank really used this term in reducing what Trump said he was worth

In planning for a possible default, Trump's favorite lender chopped down what Trump said he was worth by up to 75%, fraud-trial testimony revealed.

www.yahoo.com

 

[SkyBoomer]

Trump is such a cheesy pompous little man.

You misspelled “lying rapist thief”.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Allen Weisselberg testified against Donald Trump. Or did he?

Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg took the witness stand on Tuesday in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case against Donald Trump and others, including Weisselberg himself.

www.msnbc.com

Confronted with emails and news clippings he sent to Trump employee Patrick Birney to influence Birney’s valuation of Mar-a-Lago, for instance, Weisselberg readily admitted the selling price, and not the asking price, of real estate is an appropriate metric of its value. That concession probably meant little to him, but it was huge for the AG’s office, which has shown evidence that McConney used the asking price of certain New York residences to inflate the estimated value of Trump’s Trump Tower triplex apartment.

At other times, on the other hand, Weisselberg appeared to realize exactly what he stepped into. Asked whether his 2017 representation to accounting firm Mazars that the statements of financial condition were presented in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) was accurate, Weisselberg said slowly, “We relied on Mazars to know GAAP.”

That’s when a gleeful Louis Solomon, the prosecutor questioning Weisselberg, went in for the jugular, “Are you saying that you relied on Mazars to make representations to itself?” Weisselberg said no.

Later Tuesday, Weisselberg admitted that prior to Trump becoming president in 2017, he gave Trump the statements of financial condition before they were finalized and that Trump had an opportunity to review them. Weisselberg said he “periodically” received comments from Trump about the statements.

On the other hand, after Trump became president, he started giving those statements to one of Trump’s eldest sons — either Donald Trump Jr. or Eric Trump — but Weisselberg said he could not recall exactly who he gave them to or whether he discussed them with either brother. It’s curious that Weisselberg more clearly remembered the period before Jan. 2017. One has to wonder whether, in light of who currently manages Trump’s real estate empire day-to-day, Team Trump desperately wants to insulate the two brothers from admissions of wrongdoing.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Weisselberg tried to distance himself from the Trump Organization’s insurance program, insisting those responsibilities were mostly shouldered by an employee named Ron Lieberman, along with Cohen and Matthew Calamari. He also suggested that he had no idea where a Zurich Insurance employee, Claudia Mouradian, got the impression that the Trump Organization utilized appraisals of certain properties from the Newmark Group, as she later reflected in internal communications. Instead, Weisselberg insisted the Trump Organization had “no real reason” to obtain any appraisals while conceding it was “possible” appraisals performed for the benefit of their lenders or others were in their possession.

But ultimately, he was forced to acknowledge he was a member of what one insurance employee referred to as the Trump “team of four” with whom they interacted and that insurers visited their offices to review statements of financial condition.

Because of another witness’s schedule, Weisselberg’s testimony is not expected to resume on Wednesday.

Allen Weisselberg testified against Donald Trump. Or did he?

Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg took the witness stand on Tuesday in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case against Donald Trump and others, including Weisselberg himself.

www.msnbc.com

 

[JerseyGirl]

Donald Trump fumes over true size of Trump Tower being revealed

Responding to articles about him in Forbes, Trump claimed the magazine is owned by the "Communist Chinese Government" and described it as "a Globalist 'Rag."

www.newsweek.com

"I hereby demand a full apology from the failing Forbes Magazine, and their third-rate psycho writer, Dan Alexander, for the many false and libelous articles they have written about me, and for the cooperation they have given to the Racist and Incompetent A.G. of New York State, Peekaboo James," Trump wrote on the social media site, Truth Social.

Trump went on to describe Forbes as being "owned by the Communist Chinese Government, and China will do anything to stop MAGA. Forbes, a Globalist 'Rag,' is a propaganda play against TRUMP."

Last week, Alexander published an update on Trump's wealth, in which he said the former president is "nowhere near as rich as he boasts, nor as poor as some critics claim," placing his net worth at $2.6 billion.

 

[musicaljoke]

Former president Donald Trump and his company bid $1 billion in 2014 in an attempt to purchase the Buffalo Bills football team.

The only problem was that Trump needed a bank to help finance his bid.

Former Deutsche Bank executive Nicholas Haigh testified that when Trump turned to his bank for help, bank executives declined, fearing it would increase their financial exposure to Trump.

"Deutsche Bank was not willing to increase its credit exposure to Donald Trump at that time," Haigh said.

But the bank was still willing to help Trump by sending a letter to support his bid, according to Haigh -- on the condition that Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney certify that the company was still in compliance with the covenants of the three outstanding loans the bank had given Trump.

McConney verified that Trump had over $300 million in liquid assets in 2014, and that it suffered no material decrease in the value of his illiquid assets, according to a document entered into evidence today.

With that verification, Deutsche Bank issued a letter that Trump had the "financial wherewithal" to fund his bid.

Trump's effort to purchase the Bills was ultimately unsuccessful.

Following this line of questioning, state attorney Kevin Wallace concluded his direct examination of Haigh. But he never asked Haigh if he would have approved Trump's loans had he known about the inflated assets alleged by the attorney general.

In a letter to the court and in previous arguments, lawyers for the attorney general had suggested that the hypothetical question would be a central element of Haigh's testimony.
New York AG not attending trial today

I am curious why that question wasn't asked.

Perhaps the question wasn't asked because the state attorney was not sure how it would be answered.

 

[Niner]

Thursday, Oct. 12th:
*Bench Trial continues (Day 8) (@ 10am ET) – NY - New York vs. Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr. & Eric Trump & the Trump Organization, Inc. (Allen Weisselberg & Jeffrey McConney) is being sued by Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, who is leading a civil investigation (which cannot result in criminal charges filed on 9/21/22) & has spent years looking at whether the company committed various acts of fraud over several decades. In the civil case, Ms. James has filed a lawsuit against Trump & two of his children accusing them of "astounding" fraud & deception.
New York is seeking $250 million in financial penalties & asked the court to ban Trump, Donald Trump Jr. & Eric Trump from serving as an officer or director in any corporation registered or licensed in New York. James also requested the court ban the former president & his business from acquiring real estate in New York or from applying for loans from any New York financial institution for five years. James's civil case accuses Trump of lying from 2011 to 2021 about asset values at the Trump Organization, as well as his own net worth, in order to obtain better terms from lenders & insurers.
Lawsuit against: Donald John Trump, Donald Trump, Jr, Eric Trump, Allen Weisselberg, Jeffrey McConney, The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, The Trump Organization, Inc., Trump Organization LLC, DJT Holdings LLC, DJT Holinds Managing Memer, Trump Endeavor 12 LLC, 401 North Wabash Venture LLC, Trump Old Post of Fice LLC, 40 Wall Street LLC & Seven Springs LLC.
All charges against Ivanka Trump were dismissed.
Bench Trial began on 10/2/23. (could last until 12/22/23 per Judge).
The lawsuit’s remaining 6 counts allege similar acts of fraud (that Trump inflated his assets on statements of financial condition that he submitted to banks & insurers for personal gain).
Judge Arthur F. Engoron presiding / NY State Attorney General Leticia James / Defense attorney Christopher Kise & Jesus Suarez & Alina Habba for Trump, Weisselberg & the rest of the defendants for Trump Org. / Clifford Robert of Robert & Robert PLLC for Donald, Jr. & Eric.
Case, Summary Judgement & court info from 9/21/22 thru 9/28/23 & Bench Trial Day 1-6 (10/2-10/10/23) reference post #581 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...mp-org-and-executives-oct-2023.673964/page-30
10/11/23 Wednesday, Bench Trial Day 7: State witness: Nicholas Haigh, a credit risk executive who worked at Deutsche Bank when it issued loans to the former president.
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg (from Tuesday's testimony)
For more info see posts #582 to 584, 587, 590, 591, 594 & 595 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...mp-org-and-executives-oct-2023.673964/page-30
Bench trial continues on Thursday, 10/12/23.

 

[Inthedetails]

Perhaps the question wasn't asked because the state attorney was not sure how it would be answered.

I honestly don't see the use of asking hypothetical questions in court. You could say anything and it cannot be verified because the situation didn't in fact exist.

jmo

 

[Smelly Squirrel]

Trump is planning to appear in court next week.

Trump to Return to NYC Court for Civil Fraud Trial (Exclusive)

The 2024 GOP frontrunner plans to fly from Iowa after a Monday rally and head to New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

themessenger.com