Trump returns to NYC fraud trial, where Trump Org appraiser condemns company’s ‘inaccurate and inappropriate’ statements
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Trump returns to NYC fraud trial, where Trump Org appraiser condemns company’s ‘inaccurate and inappropriate’ statements
Molly Crane-Newman and Harry Parker, New York Daily News
5 min read
NEW YORK — Donald Trump returned to his Manhattan fraud trial on Tuesday, lashing out at authorities outside the courtroom and sitting stone-faced inside it as a real estate appraiser testified it was “inaccurate and inappropriate” for the Trump Org to credit him for its lousy math.
Instead of a reunion with his former right-hand man turned chief nemesis Michael Cohen — whose testimony has been delayed per a medical issue — Trump spent most of the day listening to dense testimony that tore apart assurances made by his top executives about his company’s business deals.
In statements shown in court tallying Trump’s worth between 2013 and 2018, former Trump Org controller Jeff McConney cited advice Doug Larson gave him over the phone in breaking down the methodology used to assign astronomical price tags to assets, including Trump’s Wall Street skyscraper.
But Larson, the executive director of Cushman & Wakefield when he dealt with Trump’s company, said the call never happened. He denied working “in conjunction” with Trump, McConney, or anyone at the company to value the assets, contrary to what McConney claimed.
“It’s inappropriate and inaccurate,” Larson said when confronted with one of the statements. “I should have been told, and an appraisal should have been ordered.”
As Trump sat hunched over the defense table, attorney general lawyer Mark Ladov pulled up paperwork showing how the Trump Org ignored math that the appraiser did do for one of Trump’s lenders.
After Larson valued 40 Wall St. as worth $540 million in 2016, the company tacked on 35% more value in that year’s financial statement, recording Trump’s neo-Gothic skyscraper as worth $735.4 million. Larson said he had nothing to do with that valuation, despite Trump execs saying it was based on his advice.
In 2013, Trump’s company cited Larson’s input in adding a 3.12% capitalization rate to 1290 Avenue of the Americas — ballooning its value to $989 million, more than an appraisal he’d carried out months before.
Trump walked into court with a forlorn expression just before 10 a.m. flanked by his attorneys, glancing briefly at state Attorney General Tish James seated in the front row.
On his way in, the Republican frontrunner for president derided James and the presiding judge in comments to reporters, describing the sweeping fraud case against him and his top executives as “a witch hunt by a radical lunatic attorney general.”
“We built a great company — a lot of cash, it’s got a lot of great assets, some of the greatest real estate assets, anywhere in the world,” Trump said.
Trump is under two gag orders. On Monday, D.C. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over his Jan. 6 case, ruled that he can no longer intimidate potential witnesses and threaten Special Counsel Jack Smith or his family and staff.
After proceedings wrapped for the day, AG James said Trump could “rant and rave” and call her names, but none of it would change the fact that “he built his empire on lies” and is not worth as much as he claims.
“Mr. Trump may lie, but numbers don’t lie,” James said. “Mr. Trump’s entire empire is built on nothing but lies. Sinking sand.”
James says that the former president sought to illegally profit in loan deals by lying about the value of assets emblazoned with his name — inflating his net worth by up to $3.6 billion some years between 2011 and 2021.
Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his co-defendants are liable for the AG’s top fraud claim, finding they engaged in persistent fraud between 2014 and 2021 by misstating the value of his assets in business deals by between $812 million to $2.2 billion.
Trump has argued that his alleged offenses constituted standard business practices and had no victims as he didn’t default on any loans — that banks and lenders got richer by doing business with him. But Engoron shot down that argument in his Sept. 26 ruling.
“The next borrower, or the one after that, might default, and if its (financial statements) are false, the lender might unfairly be left holding the bag,” Engoron wrote. “This will distort the lending marketplace and deprive other potential borrowers of the opportunity to obtain loans and create wealth.”
The pretrial ruling also ordered Trump stripped of his New York business certificates, setting him up to lose control of prized properties in his real estate portfolio if upheld on appeal.
Engoron is hearing the case without a jury per state law as the remedies sought by the AG are all equitable, rather than legal remedies like requesting monetary damages. James is seeking to recover at least $250 million in illegal profits and restrict Trump and his co-defendants’ ability to do business in New York
The six remaining claims Engoron will consider at the trial, which is expected to run through late December, mainly relate to the intent and conspiracy underlying the fraudulent statements.
Trump, who told reporters he planned to return to the trial on Wednesday, had some jabs for his former fixer outside court, saying Cohen “didn’t have the guts” to face him.
Cohen, who went to prison for his work for Trump, said he’s not scared of his former boss.
“If I was afraid of Donald, I wouldn’t have written 2 NYT bestsellers, testified before the Mueller team, seven congressional committees, 23 appearances before the Manhattan DA, and provided information to the NYAG that is the basis of this trial,” Cohen said in a text to the Daily News.
Addressing Trump, Cohen added: “Looking forward to seeing you in court very soon!”
