Trump reaped over $100 million through fraud, New York says as trial starts
A defiant Donald Trump attacked New York's attorney general and the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial as it began on Monday, with a state lawyer accusing the former president of generating more than $100 million by lying about his real estate empire.
www.reuters.com
Basically the argument here is Trump artificially adjusted the value of his properties based on who he was dealing with. Tax officials, they cut the value by a lot to avoid paying taxes. To banks and other lenders, they inflated the value to get better deals on financing, or just access to the money. In both situations, that is fraudulent activity. Trump and his lawyers are saying that there was no material harm, because the banks made money off of the loans.
However, if things went the way of Trump Steaks or University, those financial institutions would have taken a big haircut....
Last week, the judge basically ruled that Trump Inc. was a fraudulent organization, so Trump is fighting for his business life in this case, not his freedom, which will bite him in the ass over the next year...