NY AG probe suggests Trump business misstated asset values for years

The New York Attorney General Office’s probe of the Trump Organization has “uncovered significant evidence” suggesting that the company’s financial statements for more than a decade relied on misleading valuations of its real estate assets, the office said Tuesday in a court filing.

Those potentially misleading valuations “and other misrepresentations” were used “to secure economic benefits — including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions — on terms more favorable than the true facts warranted,” the office said in the filing.

Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and Controller Jeffrey McConney “played a role in crafting the financial statements at the crux of this investigation, according to the filing by AG Letitia James. The attorney general said that Weisselberg and McConney were among more than 40 witnesses interviewed in the investigation.

James has been investigating the business owned by former President Donald Trump for several years.

The probe was sparked by testimony from Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who told Congress in sworn testimony that the Trump Organization had given different valuations for the same properties in order to obtain more favorable financial terms on loans and insurance, and to lower their taxes.

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