By Kara Scannell | CNN
Donald Trump inflated his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion in three separate years between 2011 and 2021, lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office alleged Friday, significantly more than previously purported.
The new figure, detailed in a court filing, dwarfs investigators’ previous allegation that Trump inflated his net worth by as much as $2.2 billion in one year.
Explaining the upward revision, the state attorneys said their accounting and valuation experts analyzed a number of factors a market participant might weigh when considering buying or selling property.
“After factoring in these and other fundamental considerations that any informed buyer and seller in the marketplace would take into account, Mr. Trump’s net worth would be further substantially reduced by between $1.9 billion to $3.6 billion per year, which is still a conservative estimate of the extent of the inflation,” the state attorneys said, in part.
Attorneys for Trump refuted the claim in their own filing, arguing that the financial statements in question under report his net worth. “President Trump is, without question, worth many billions of dollars, indeed billions more than what the NYAG claimed when lodging her baseless allegations,” their filing said.
The filings come as New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office is asking a New York state judge to find Trump and others liable for making false or misleading financial statements from 2011-2021 and benefited from inflating his assets by receiving favorable loan terms and insurance rates.
Trump’s lawyers are trying to sway the judge to find in his favor and dismiss the lawsuit before it goes to trial on October 2.
A hearing is set for September 22 and a decision could be made as soon as that day.
James has previously said the misrepresentations on Trump’s financial statements affected “most if not all of” his and his company’s real estate holdings in any given year.
A number of high-profile Trump ventures – including his Doral golf resort in Florida, the Old Post Office property he leased for a hotel in Washington, DC, and Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago – are implicated in the lawsuit, with James saying that loans were extended for those properties because of inaccurate representations the Trump team made to banks.
James is seeking $250 million and to permanently bar Trump and his sons from serving as an officer or director of any business registered in New York state and block them from engaging in any new real estate transactions for five years.