“That is a fantasy world, not the real world.”
So wrote Arthur Engoron, a New York State judge, in an unexpected ruling late yesterday that threatens the heart of Donald Trump’s business empire. Engoron was referring in particular to arguments offered by the former president’s attorneys in the case, but his words describe many of the details of the case—such as the valuations of Trump’s properties and even the square footage he claimed they contained, both of which the court found were “clearly” fraudulent. Much of the reputation Trump cultivated as a business mogul was built on lies.
The surprise is not that Trump and his co-defendants, including his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, committed fraud. What is surprising is that he could finally be punished for it—and quite harshly. The scheme that New York Attorney General Letitia James alleged last year was simple. When Trump wanted to lower his taxes, he’d claim a low valuation for a property. When he wanted to get cheap loans, he would inflate the valuation. This allowed him to inflate his claimed net worth each year, which let him obtain loans on better terms by personally guaranteeing them. Evidence of this pattern had already turned up in reporting, especially by WNYC and ProPublica, and James’s case offered much more.
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No paywall https://archive.ph/mkO95
Doing God’s work.
I hope they have their houses sold out from under them.
My suspicion has always been that trump moved to Florida because they have enhanced protection against garnishing seniors.
Hello Zillo…!
Trumps lawyer apparently told the judge that the son’s homes are apparently owned by trump org LLCs, they just happen to live in them. So they get to take big business deductions on where they live. How is that accounted for in their personal taxes? Are they paying rent to trump llc? Or do they live in these places rent free? Do they report in their taxes the monetary benefit of living in a trump org llc owned property rent free as an income item? Likewise trump basically lives full time at maralago, and that’s a country club business.
Imagine trying this nonsense on your taxes or anything relatively important, you’d feel the weight of the justice system on you pretty quickly.
It feels like the financial version of the old “one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic” line.
Maybe the financial system, like the political system just wasn’t ready for someone so willingly to brazenly lie about huge truths like building values or electoral results.
While I really really want this to happen (breaking up all Trump’s businesses), can he yet again stall for years by appealing this all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Hey Trump, time to lose weight so you can look good in that orange jumpsuit.
Removed by mod
Goodness, your post history is magnificent. Not sure if your just a downvote troll because it’s fun to be an anonymous asshole on the internet, or if your actually that miserable of a person in real life.
Regardless, it seems your past time is primarily to just just say inflammatory shit on posts to piss people off and it’s kinda tragic. I’m really not sure what you get out of it besides looking like a pedantic, uneducated little twit.
Doesn’t matter though. Orange Man is getting his comeuppance, and it’s fucking fantastic to see his little troll army fucking squirm.
Thanks for the low-quality reply and adding nothing to the community, diocan, really appreciated
I’m sorry you’re like this. I hope things get better for you.
