[News] New York court accuses Trump of "fraudulent" tax practices

[FazzNoth]

The judicial noose is tightening on Donald Trump: launched in 2019, a vast civil investigation by the New York prosecutor against the family group Trump Organization accuses the former U.S. president and two of his children of "fraudulent" practices in tax matters for which the justice wants to hear them.

In a documented court document of more than 100 pages and a statement sent late Tuesday night, New York State Attorney Letitia James announced "that she has uncovered significant evidence suggesting that Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued a number of assets. She accuses them of "misstating the value of these assets to financial institutions in order to gain an economic advantage.

Ms. James, an elected prosecutor and member of the Democratic Party, has been investigating possible large-scale tax evasion within the Trump Organization, the family group of the 45th president of the United States (2017-2021) and his children, for three years.

- The Trump subpoenaed -

She thus suspects the Trump Organization of having "fraudulently" overestimated the value of certain properties when applying for loans from banks and of having underestimated these same properties with the tax authorities in order to pay less tax.

In late December and early January, prosecutors subpoenaed the Republican businessman, his son Donald Jr. and his daughter Ivanka. But the Trump family has not responded to the subpoenas and is using every procedural trick in the book to "quash" the subpoenas and delay the civil investigation.

A spokeswoman for Donald Trump, Liz Harrington, replied Wednesday morning on Twitter that "the allegations (of Letitia James) were baseless and would be strongly opposed. One of his lawyers, Alina Habba, disputed in a statement sent to AFP the "hard evidence" advanced by the prosecutor.

- "Threat to democracy" -

The Trump family has been accusing prosecutor James of "political" motivations for months and has called his investigation a "threat to our democracy."

But according to excerpts from the court document filed with the New York Supreme Court, Donald Trump, had "decision-making authority over a wide range of practices at the Trump Organization, including misrepresentations to third parties, including financial institutions and the IRS."

As for his daughter Ivanka, "until January 2017, Mrs. Trump was the primary contact for the Trump Organization's largest creditor, Deutsche Bank." According to Ms. James, Ivanka Trump "was responsible for sending Deutsche Bank and the (U.S.) federal government erroneous financial documents."

Finally, "since 2017, Donald Trump Jr. had authority over numerous documents containing misleading asset estimates," including a suite in Trump Tower that was reported to be three times its true size and was overstated in value by $200 million. 

- Chess game -

In this game of chess that she delivers to the Trump clan, Mrs. James repeated Tuesday night that the civil justice of New York "would not be slowed down in the pursuit of this investigation" and that "no one (was) above the law.

Eric Trump, another son of the Republican billionaire and vice president of the Trump Organization, was heard by Ms. James' office in October 2020.

Donald Trump is also the subject of other investigations in the United States.

He had been heard on October 18 for a case in which protesters accused his security service of molesting them six years ago.

His group is also under investigation by the Manhattan district attorney for suspected financial crimes and insurance fraud.

In July, the Trump Organization and its trusted accountant, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded not guilty in a New York court to 15 counts of fraud and tax evasion. The trial is scheduled to begin in mid-2022.

At the same time, Donald Trump is fighting to avoid having to disclose years of tax returns to prosecutors, while in Washington, a special congressional committee is seeking access to White House documents about the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

https://www.msn.com/fr-be/actualite/monde/la-justice-de-new-york-accuse-trump-de-pratiques-fiscales-frauduleuses/ar-AASWkfY?ocid=BingNews