The New York Attorney General’s Office has been investigating Donald Trump since 2019 for possible financial crimes. However, since the ex-US President refuses to hand over his documents, he is now threatened with a hefty fine.
Donald Trump has been accused of dubious business and financial practices for decades. But the investigations into his real estate empire in New York are likely to be a thorn in the side of the former US President, with a view to a possible further candidacy.
Since 2019, Attorney General Letitia James has been investigating suspicions that the family holding company, the Trump Organization, artificially inflated the value of real estate when it wanted to obtain loans from banks, and undervalued other cases in order to have to pay less taxes or insurance premiums.
Since Trump has so far stubbornly refused to release his financial documents, the Attorney General wants him to pay a fine of $10,000 (9,210 euros) per day. James applied for the fine in court on Thursday.
Attorney General: “No one is above the law”
In mid-February, a judge ordered Trump, his daughter Ivanka and son Donald Junior to testify under oath as part of the investigation. He also obliged Trump to hand over tax and accounting documents from the Trump Organization to the Attorney General by the end of March. To date, this has not happened.
Trump is violating the court order and is guilty of contempt of justice, said Attorney General James. The court must “intervene immediately, because nobody is above the law”. A lawyer for Trump dismissed the demand for fines as “vexatious and unfounded”.
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In January, James said he had collected evidence of fraudulent financial practices. “In our investigation, we uncovered significant evidence suggesting that Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization misvalued numerous assets and fraudulently.” The assets were misrepresented to financial institutions to gain “economic benefits.”
Donald Trump is flirting with another candidacy
In parallel with the Attorney General’s investigation, the Manhattan Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal investigation into Trump Corporation’s business conduct. In July last year, charges were brought against the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, for tax fraud.
It is still unclear how dangerous the investigations in New York Trump could be. The 75-year-old has repeatedly raised a possible re-election for the presidency in 2024. The right-wing populist is still held in high esteem by his supporters, and he is still the strong man in his Republican Party.
Source: Stern
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