The Guardian reports on the work of prosecutors in New York who are digging into Donald Trump’s alleged bank, insurance and tax fraud. The essence of the fraud is massively overstating the value of his real property. The civil side of the case involves massive financial liability while the criminal side of the investigations could lead to jail.
Lock Him Up!!!
Published
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
Establishing fraud in real estate valuation is a tough climb.
In 1975, I built a house in Louisiana, for $46K. The oil patch boomed in response to the breaking of the OPEC embargo and I refinanced take some equity to build a dental office, with the house appraised at $140K in1980. At the time, the market was hot and houses that came on the market sold before relator could get their signs up. The valuation was based both on improvements I had made and comparable sales.
Then, Jimmy Carter’s Fuel Use act destroyed the domestic petroleum industry, and people left the area so fast that the banks owned half the house through foreclosure. The mayor of Morgan City LA put up a billboard that said, “Last one out please turn off the lights.” I left LA in 1987 and my house sold a year later for $41K. It took me years in VA to pay off the loan on that house.
But in a space of 12 years, that real estate tripled in value, and then fell below its original price(and remember that at the time inflation was even higher than now.)
So, did I defraud the bank? They provided the appraiser. What was the accurate value of the house? What it originally cost me to build it? The boom market value? The collapsed value market?
Real estate is highly volatile due to conditions often outside the owner’s control.
Trump’s property likely went through similar price fluctuations. So, what date’s value is the honest one?
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“So, what date’s value is the honest one?”
In Mr. trump’s case, likely NONE of them.\
And I am pretty sure the AG of NY is a lot. smarter than you are giving her credit for.
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Very smart people driven by hatred, which she has exhibited for years can do some very stupid things.
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“Very smart people. . .”
So, let it begin.
Never mind the criminal, never mind the evidence, let’s attack the prosecutor. So predictable.
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ANd it wasn’t the value of the property that was inflated; it was the actual SIZE of the property. Valuation fluctuates; size, in Real Estate doesn’t.
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I usually glance at the Guardian before looking at the National Enquirer to the right in the check out aisle. Liberal buffoons have been wringing their hands for years over impeachment and “locking up” Trump up on specious conspiracy theories and down right lies to no avail. Your silly obsession is good for the GOP though. Keep it up.
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Seriously, had there been any ‘there’ there does anyone really think Hillary wouldn’t have used in it 2016?
After all, the Clintons are experts in real estate fraud.
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“After all, the Clintons are experts in real estate fraud.”
Not too laughable.
I suppose you are referring to Whitewater where tens of millions of dollars and years of investigation lead only to Monica Lewinsky’s little blue dress. But I get it. A hater has got to hate.
In 2016 the people able to provide the evidence around deeply disguised frauds were loyal to Trump. Now they are not.
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Sure, and Hunter Biden’s business dealings are all on the up-and-up too,
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So?
Different case (if there ever really was a case).
Maybe Hunter is not a great person. Do you think this exonerates Trump? Or just “whataboutism”?
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Nope, the point is that if there was provable fraud in Trump’s dealings, the Clintons would have found it and used it in 2016.
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You know this how?
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Because if there was something real, they wouldn’t have had to fake the Steele Dosier
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Prosecuting a man like Trump takes a lot of time. Nick Cohn, his Dad’s family business attorney, played the courts and judges like a master musician. Then we have presidential immunity that shielded Trump for 4 years.
So now that he is a civilian, he still has to face the charges.
You speculation on what Clinton coulda, shoulda, woulda is just that, speculation. Maybe some wishful thinking too.
In any case, the bank fraud case might pale in comparison to the coming grand jury about felonious election interference, extortion, etc.
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Well, I guess if your party can’t come up with policies that don’t alienate 70% of the country in less than a year you have to pin your hopes on a kangaroo court to take out your competition.
Even if you did take out Trump, the GOP as at least 50 better candidates on the bench than the Democrats have.
But keep on fantasizing about getting Trump while your party self destructs.
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I did not know how much you admired tax evasion, bank fraud, election tampering and extortion. Is that part of the Libertarian creed?
His tax and bank fraud actions were well known before he even ran for president. And it takes a long time to investigate a man like Trump.
You folks savaged the Clintons for years about a land deal, then a BJ, then some email fiasco, then, ironically, a terrorist attack on American soil for 7 investigations.
So I think fraud and extortion are worth a few months at least.
“Force or fraud” are the only things you want government to regulate. So here we are, a libertarian dream.
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You forgot cattlegate
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More “BS”😇
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Cattlegate was a bribe pure and simple.
You just don’t care.
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First, I was making a joke.
Second, I do care about honesty and integrity in government. More than most Americans, and seemingly, more than you.
And if people commit fraud as government officials, I would want them to be prosecuted.
Cattlegate was almost 50 years ago. That does not excuse illegal activity, but what does that have to do with our past president’s actions?
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Trump was in the real estate business in NYC.
Did he have some shady transactions through subordinates? Probably, but we are talking about NYC and New Jersey and nothing happens there without appeasing sime union people.
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Obviously you just don’t care either. All this bluster about principle and Libertarianism is limited to what suits you.
And that’s fine. Now at least we know where you really stand.
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Hunter Biden?
Good grief!
I am not as polite as Len.
What an absolutely moronic defense of Dear Leader. In effect you are saying. . . It doesn’t matter what Trump did, look at what Hunter Biden did. (Which, if anything at all, was an absolute nothingburger in comparison).
Trump has been a criminal his entire adult life. Sex crime, tax crime, fraud of every sort, extortion, insider trading, black mail, bribery. He has been able to shelter behind a wall of lawyers, pay-offs, threats of reprisals, plea agreements, NDAs, and Presidential privilege. No more. He will have to answer for his crimes.
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I guess I have more confidence in the competence of the Clintons than you do.
If there was evidence of any of that, they would have used ot in 2016.
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Let’s see, so far. . .
Have I missed anything?
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That the Clintons are true experts in corruption, and that if Hillary couldn’t find something to use against Trump in 2016, it isn’t there.
The Clintons are evil, but they are competent.
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“The Clintons are evil, but they are competent.”
Whatever they are, it says NOTHING about Dear Leader’s life of crime. DUH!!!
And, of course, you are full of shit. Obviously.
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So, you’re thinking the Clintons looked into Trump’s business, found bad things, and simply chose to take the high road and make up easily refuted stories about bedsheets and prostitutes instead?
And you’re saying I’m full of shit?
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How could Clinton look into Trump’s business dealings? It took years of subpoenas, court cases and his loss of presidential immunity to gather this info. NYT did an investigation into his taxes and they were able to access public court documents from his divorce.
Really. Think this through a bit and the absurdity becomes even greater.
As a tidbit, in one of the debates, Clinton brought up his tax issue of paying little compared to income and Trump just said it made him smart.
Without access to his taxes or dealings, which, as noted, took years, what was the point of making it a campaign issue?
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“And you’re saying I’m full of shit?”
I think I was pretty clear.
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“ Clintons are experts in real estate fraud.”
Why do you say that? I thought you intimated that they were murderers before.
Or was that just a seminal event.😇
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“Trump’s property likely went through similar price fluctuations. So, what date’s value is the honest one?”
There are two apparent issues being pursued:
1: Wildly inflated values:
The honest appraised value of a property does not include POSSIBLE future developments as Trump apparently did with respect to raising money on his Scotland golf club and others. Houses not built and not even approved have ZERO value.
2: Different values for different purposes:
Of course, property values fluctuate but not at the same moment. It cannot have one low-value appraisal used for paying taxes and a separate far higher appraisal for getting a bank loan or filing an insurance claim.
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Ridiculous. Every time a person builds a home on a vacant lot the final mortgage is based on the value of the property with the home on it. In the meantime, the building loan is based on the improved value of the property.
If only the value of the lot were considered, only people with cash in hand would ever be able to build.
You borrow on the improved value of the lot with the house on it, but until the house is built, property tax is paid on the value of the lot.
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You are the one who is ridiculous.
A building loan MUST be used to build. That is NOT what Trump was doing. He was borrowing money in the United States and Germany based on inflated values of properties not built and, with respect to his space in Trump Tower, exaggerated the square footage by a factor of three. That money in turn was loaned to those Scottish developments – not to fund building – but to keep them afloat as they hemorrhaged money every year. How they managed to lose so much money will take forensic accountants years to sort out, but I suspect it was all part money-laundering on a mammoth scale for his friends in Russia.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lost-40-million-dollars-golf-course-loans-scotland-2021-6
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Money laundering seems to be a Trump specialty.
Details escape me, but didn’t he flip a rundown mansion in Palm Beach for an extraordinary profit with a buyer from Russia who worked a deal through the bank in Cyprus that Wilbur Ross, his Commerce Secretary, was on the board, or even chairman?
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Yep.
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“We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes”.
Attributed under testimony to Leona Helmsley
She received 16 years, reduced to 19 months.
Trump pissed off a lot of people in NY during his real estate ventures. Tax evasion is now coming to the forefront. This investigation is primarily concerned with falsifying financial statements for lenders. A felony.
But Trump has a two-fer: inflating his net worth hugely by phony property evaluations while trying to pass off the same property as slum housing values for tax purposes. That would get the attention of any prosecutor. This, Don, is not the same as your housing fluctuation. Unless you told the bank your house was worth a million and the city assessor it was worth $5,000. And if you did this in roughly the same time frame.
In my opinion, Trump’s hubris developed over decades of doing as he pleased no matter how many taxes he evaded or vendors he stiffed let him ignore the eventual spotlight of political life.
But, eventually, people do get caught. Simply put, the screwer becomes the screwee by virtue of his own efforts.
Now, about Georgia. Maybe threatening Raffensberger and his staff to “find” just the number of votes to win, plus one, will also catch up to him. The state law is very specific and I believe he broke it very specifically. This is also a serious felony.
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The Fulton COunty DA wants to convene a grand jury to investigate. Oh, wait. SHe is just a hater too.😇
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