Before Donald Trump became president. He was better known
for this. You're fired. Donald Trump was known
through and through as a New Yorker, a businessman
, a socialite, essentially that reputation is now at
the center of Trump's civil fraud trial in Manhattan where
he and his adult Children face allegations that they falsified
the value of their assets, millions in ill gotten
gains. This is a rare scenario where you have
a case of this financial significance with a player of
this public visibility and involving so much real estate or
so many assets in New York. Here's how Trump's
civil fraud trial could deal a blow to the former
President's New York empire and the business titan persona he's
built over the course of decades. Trump faces four
criminal indictments related to his time as president. But
for him, the civil fraud case in Manhattan court
is personal. This could have potentially crippling effects on
Donald Trump's business interests in New York and the Trump
organization's ability to continue to do business in New York
. He spent decades pursuing business deals across the city
, residential, commercial in a 2022 lawsuit. New
York Attorney General, Letitia James accused Trump and his
adult Children of engaging in a decade long scheme to
fraudulently and falsely value their assets resulting in$250 million
in unlawful gains. James, a Democrat and a
vocal critic of Trump alleges the former president was able
to obtain bank loans on more favorable terms by overvaluing
his real estate. These properties include Trump's flagship Manhattan
building. Trump tower, an office building known as
40 Wall Street, the residential building, Trump Park
Avenue and in a state north of New York City
known as Seven Springs. Cases like this are not
rare, but uh this is one of the most
unusual ones because of the high profile identity of the
person involved. The fact that it involves substantial number
of properties with high values. Uh, in New
York, the lawsuit said the triplex apartment in Trump
Tower was calculated at 30,000 square feet. When in
reality, it's nearly 11,000 square feet that resulted in
a valuation of$327 million in 2015, more than
triple the record setting price for any apartment ever sold
in the city at that point. And Trump Park
Avenue. The lawsuit claimed 12 rent stabilized units were
appraised at$750,000 total. According to Trump's financial statements
in 2011 and 2012, those units were valued as
if they were unrestricted for nearly$50 million. In
the law, there is no bright line uh between
what constitutes a reasonable perhaps exaggeration. But when you
get to the point where the uh, statement of
value is so many multiples 1020 100 times, what
would be shown to be the actual value? A
judge or jury can draw the conclusion if he wishes
and it would be justified that this is a,
uh, a fraud. Trump has denied any wrongdoing
and called the case. A witch hunt. His
lawyers have argued that his business dealings have been profitable
for the banks involved. The banks got back their
money again. There was never a default. It
was never a problem. Everything was perfect. There
was no crime in the early proceedings before the trial
. A New York judge ruled that Trump and two
of his adult Children, Eric Trump and Donald Trump
Jr committed fraud. Both Donald Trump, Jr and
Eric Trump have criticized the ruling saying they relied on
the company's accountants to compile their father's financial statements.
Ivanka Trump was dismissed from the case after an appeals
court ruled the state's legal claims against her were too
old in September. The judge ordered the cancellation of
business certificates that allowed Trump to operate in the state
which could lead him to lose control of some New
York properties. You can't just take assets from somebody
without compensation. If this goes forward, there has
to be a process which is certainly fair to the
defendant to Trump to realize the prop proper value of
those assets. Whether or not that Trump name was
gonna come off, the buildings is very much intertwined
with what is the way to realize the most value
if those assets are sold. One of that,
Trump is not hiding at all his displeasure with this
entire process. The attorney general wants to prohibit Trump
and his company from entering into New York State commercial
real estate acquisitions and applying for loans with state registered
lenders for five years in early January James said Trump
and his company should pay about$370 million in penalties
more than the$250 million she originally estimated for their
ill gotten gains. There's a lot of questions of
where Trump would get the cash freed up to satisfy
that one possibility is he would have to sell some
properties off or other assets to free up that amount
of cash in October. An appeals court temporarily postponed
the cancellation of Trump's business certificates while his lawyers contested
the ruling. The irony here is if this goes
forward and Trump is no longer involved, the very
thing that he says, uh would lend extraordinary value
to these properties beyond, for example, the appraisal
values would haunt him because these properties would no longer
have the Trump brand and the values that would be
realized one would think would be substantially lower. Some
legal experts say Trump's lawyers seem focused on building a
detailed legal record for an appeal. The appellate road
is long and it is not quick. And if
we consider where we are now, I think that
the scale tips heavily in favor of the Trump organization
in being able to delay any final resolution of this
case until after the next presidential election. Politically Trump
has so far used this and the other legal that
he faces to paint himself as a victim of political
persecution in a lot of ways, it's worked with
Republican core voters, but a loss could kind of
turn the tables on that. Some of his legal
problems could compound and he could be hurt in the
face of voters as he tries to return to the
White House.