Donald Trump could lose control of several notable properties in his extensive portfolio after a New York judge ruled that the former president and some of his businesses had committed fraud over a number of years.
In a ruling concerning a civil case against the former president, his sons and the Trump Organization on Tuesday, Judge Arthur Engoron found that they had overvalued several of Trump’s properties and exaggerated his net worth to secure loans and business deals.
He ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses in New York be rescinded and that the companies that own some of his properties be handed over to independent receivers in what some have described as a “corporate death penalty”—something that has rarely been used before.
“It means you are no longer a company, and the judge is appointing someone to take over the assets and distribute them as the court sees fit,” John Moscow, a former financial crimes prosecutor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, told Business Insider.
He added that the order means Trump will continue to own the properties but would no longer have the authority to sell the assets or use them to secure loans. If the court does choose to sell them, the former president would receive any excess funds after debts and liabilities have been repaid.
Lawyers for Trump have vowed to appeal the ruling, and both they and Trump described the order as politically motivated.
“The decision seeks to nationalize one of the most successful corporate empires in the United States and seize control of private property all while acknowledging there is zero evidence of any default, breach, late payment or any complaint of harm,” Christopher Kise, a Trump attorney, told Newsweek.
It remains to be seen if, in the case an appeal were unsuccessful in wresting ownership of the properties back and they were sold, Trump would attempt to buy them back. When asked about this, Kise said “The full impact of the decision remains unclear.”
Mar-a-Lago, Florida
Among the properties mentioned in the 35-page ruling was Trump’s Florida residence and club resort in Palm Beach, which during his term in the White House he often retreated to and conducted some government business from.
He wrote that while the Palm Beach County assessor had appraised Mar-a-Lago’s market value to be between $18 million and $27.6 million, Trump had put it at between $426.5 million to $612.1 million in filings—”an overvaluation of at least 2,300 percent.”
“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron said.
Trump and his sons contested the relatively low valuation of the property by the local appraiser, citing other, smaller properties in the area that were on the market for over double what had been quoted. The former president contended that “it could be worth almost 100 times that amount.”
Trump Tower Triplex, Manhattan
Walls coated in gold and marble, Trump’s 10,996 square foot penthouse apartment in his namesake skyscraper in New York City is where he spent election night in 2016, watching the results come in as he was crowned the 45th U.S. president.
According to the court order, Trump claimed that the triplex was 30,000 square feet and had overvalued it “by a factor of three” at $327 million. Engoron sided with New York Attorney Letitia James that the property had been overvalued by between $114-$2017 million.
“If the area is rounded or oddly shaped, it is possible measurements of square footage could come to slightly differing results due to user error,” he wrote. “Good-faith measurements would vary by as much as 10-20 percent, not 200 percent.”
Trump Park Avenue, Manhattan
Originally built as a hotel, the residential building near Trump Tower and Central Park in New York City contains 120 luxury flats and eight penthouse apartments. Engoron said that between 2011 and 2021, several of its apartments were subject to rent restrictions under city law.
As of 2020, six units remained under rent restrictions, giving them a combined value of $22.8 million, but the judge wrote that between 2014 and 2021, the Trump Organization had treated them as if the rent restrictions did not apply to them, “inflating the value of each unit between as much as 700 percent (in 2014) and 64 percent (in 2021).”
40 Wall Street, Manhattan
The court order noted that Trump owns the ground lease at the 72-story, 1930s neo-Gothic property in New York City’s financial district, where he leases luxury apartments directly opposite the New York Stock Exchange.
Engoron wrote that despite multiple independent appraisals valuing Trump’s holdings there at $200-$220 million between 2010-2012, Trump gave it a value of between $524.7 million and $527.2 million. The same independent assessor gave 40 Wall Street a value of $540 million in 2015, but that year Trump listed it as being worth $735.4 million.
Seven Springs Estate, New York
The Seven Springs Estate is 200 acres of contiguous land in the towns of Bedford, New Castle, and North Castle in the area of New York immediately north of New York City.
“Notwithstanding received market values from professional appraisals in 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2014 valuing Seven Springs at or below $30 million, Donald Trump‘s 2011 [Statements of Financial Condition] reported the value to be $261 million, and his 2012, 2013 and 2014 SFC’s reported the value to be $291 million,” Engoron said.
Aberdeenshire Golf Course, Scotland
In 2014, Trump also valued his Aberdeenshire golf club in Scotland at $435 million. However, this valuation was said by prosecutors to have arrived on the assumption Trump had the right to build 2,500 luxury homes on the property, despite only approval to build less than 1,500 holiday apartments and golf villas.
Engoron wrote that in 2019, Trump had adjusted the valuation down by more than £164,000 ($199,000) to reflect the lack of undeveloped properties on the land. Lawyers for Trump said he had taken “optimistic views of potential future value,” but the judge said that their defense failed.
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