State of New York vs Trump, et al - the civil fraud case against the Trump Organization

[raison de arizona]

He paid $1.7M in property taxes at Mar-a-Lago last year, up from $1.5M the previous year. It’s a scam.
https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/stor ... 654132002/

[bill_g]

He paid $1.7M in property taxes at Mar-a-Lago last year, up from $1.5M the previous year. It’s a scam.
https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/stor ... 654132002/

Thank you. From the article his tax total of $1.7M is for ten properties, including MAL, in Palm Beach County.

The latest taxes on Trump’s 10 properties in the county total about $1.7 million, compared to the $1.5 million he was charged last year. That’s according to an analysis of his bills by the Palm Beach Daily News, the first media outlet to report the former president’s tax obligations in the county for 2022.

Further down, they parse out MAL's assessed property value and taxes. However, it also suggests the MAL taxes are not based on it's assessed value, but rather on its gross revenue.

The Mar-a-Lago Club’s tax bill jumped from $521,698 last year to $547,242 this year, thanks to a $2.76 million increase in its taxable value, which stands at $30.36 million. Mar-a-Lago's value is not based on a traditional reading of real estate values but is instead figured by Jacks’ staff based on an “income approach” formula that capitalizes annual revenue — a standard practice for private clubs. By law, Jack’s office keeps the club’s revenue figures confidential.

Continuing further down, the combined Trump properties have a market value of $110M which is a wee bit shy of a billion.

The Trump-controlled properties in the county have a combined total market value of about $110 million, a hike from about $83.4 million in last year’s tax rolls. Of this year’s total, $91.35 million is taxable, the records show.

[p0rtia]

No need to guess --

From James's request for partial summary judgement:

Screenshot 2023-09-27 at 10.48.57 AM.png (112.33 KiB) Viewed 1128 times

Screenshot 2023-09-27 at 10.49.07 AM.png (97.43 KiB) Viewed 1128 times

[raison de arizona]

The judge didn’t value anything, you twit. That was the tax value in 2011, it’s a simple undebatable fact.

► Show Spoiler

IMG_5873.png (318.66 KiB) Viewed 1062 times

[much ado]

Today's developments.

NYT gift: Trump’s Lawyers Try to Grasp the Implications of Judge’s Fraud Ruling

At a hearing, lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump and New York State began sorting through the real-world meaning of a finding that he inflated the value of his holdings.

Lawyers for Donald J. Trump appeared in a New York courtroom Wednesday morning, struggling to understand the consequences of a ruling a judge had issued the night before that dealt a serious blow to the former president’s business empire.

The ruling, which found that Mr. Trump had inflated the value of his holdings to win favorable terms on loans, stemmed from a civil fraud case brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. The surprising decision came before a trial that could begin as soon as Monday and could summarily strip Mr. Trump of control over signature properties, including Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan.



In his order on Monday, Justice Engoron canceled those certificates. But he also expanded on the punishment that Ms. James had sought, canceling those of any entity controlled by Mr. Trump’s sons. While Mr. Trump could ask a higher court to overturn the ruling, and has sued the judge himself over his legal decisions, the outlook is stark if he is unsuccessful.

[chancery]

This is from a post on the implementation of Judge Engoron's order on DC Report, a website started by David Cay Johnston, an investigative journalist.

I'm not familiar with Johnston's work. His website bio reads:

David Cay Johnston co-founded DCReport. He is a best-selling author and investigative journalist who for 13 years reported for The New York Times. Johnston is a specialist in economics and tax issues. He won a 2001 Pulitzer Prize. He teaches at Syracuse University College of Law.

https://www.dcreport.org/2023/09/26/don ... for-fraud/

Barring a highly unlikely reversal by an appeals court, Trump’s business assets eventually will be liquidated since he cannot operate them without a business license. Retired Judge Barbara Jones was appointed to monitor the assets, an arrangement not unlike the court-supervised liquidation of a bankrupt company or the assets of a drug lord.

Creditors, any fines due the state because of the fraud, and taxes will be paid first from sales of Trump properties.

The various properties are likely to be sold at fire sale prices and certainly not for top dollar when liquidation begins, probably after all appeals are exhausted.

I'm skeptical about that last paragraph, and I doubt that the receivers could treat the Trumps like convicted drug lords. It would surprise me if the receivers in liquidation do not owe substantial fiduciary responsibilities towards the beneficial owners of the defendants' assets, namely Trump and his family. The truth is that Executive Law §63(12), which is not a forfeiture statute, has never been applied to a conglomeration of enterprises of this size and complexity. Any extreme fire-sale procedure would raise serious due process issues.

Ironically, a liquidation supervised by someone as smart, experienced, and fair-minded as Judge Barbara Jones might turn out to be a good thing for the extended Trump family.

[NewMexGirl]

Today's developments.

NYT gift: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/27/nyre ... areTrump’s Lawyers Try to Grasp the Implications of Judge’s Fraud Ruling

Thanks for the gift.

Short and snappy version of the NYTimes article: Everybody is confuzzled!

[raison de arizona]

That's so sad. Maybe they should have actually owned their homes and not sheltered them through an LLC. There are upsides and (welcome to the) downsides to that.

Mr. Kise said in court that the ruling could oust the sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, from their New York homes, which he said are owned through the types of limited liability companies that Justice Engoron dissolved.

[bob]

I'm skeptical about that last paragraph, and I doubt that the receivers could treat the Trumps like convicted drug lords. It would surprise me if the receivers in liquidation do not owe substantial fiduciary responsibilities towards the beneficial owners of the defendants' assets, namely Trump and his family. The truth is that Executive Law §63(12), which is not a forfeiture statute, has never been applied to a conglomeration of enterprises of this size and complexity. Any extreme fire-sale procedure would raise serious due process issues.

Ironically, a liquidation supervised by someone as smart, experienced, and fair-minded as Judge Barbara Jones might turn out to be a good thing for the extended Trump family.

Concur. (Especially for fourth wife second daughter.)

[Gregg]

Eric pulling a Dr. Evil. It's really worth one hundred bajillion million dollars

The proper terminology would One Gazongagazillion Dollars

[Gregg]

But all this mention of Mar Grifto gets me hoping that the South Florida Cocaine Dealer's CoOperative might have to cancel their daily truck to the Southern White Trash House after a reciever sells it to help pay Trump's upcoming $250 million fine and disgorgement.

Is this possible? Is he really stupid enough to own it inside a shell that is based in New York?

[raison de arizona]

In '86 tfg claimed it was only worth $7M. It sure appreciated quick to get over a billion by 2011.

Trump Fights Property Taxes
March 29, 1988
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ Real estate tycoon Donald Trump, who calls his opulent Palm Beach home ″close to paradise″ in his best-selling book, says his $208,000 property tax bill is too high.

The assessment on the 118-room Mar-A-Lago estate is ″excessive and unlawful,″ according to Trump, though he admits having offered $8 million more for the estate than he finally paid for it.

Trump, whose worth is estimated by Forbes magazine at $850 million, paid $7 million in cash for the estate, once owned by breakfast cereal fortune heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, when he bought it Dec. 27, 1985.

On Jan. 1, 1986, Palm Beach County Property Appraiser Rebecca Walker set its value at $11.5 million.

″Market value, by law, is the test to determine the assessment,″ Trump’s attorney, Robb Maass, said. ″Our client paid $7 million just five days before the assessment, which was $4.5 million more. The assessment is unlawful.″

The county claims Trump owes $208,340 in 1986 taxes. In a suit filed against the appraiser, Trump contends he owes about $121,743.

Trump, who was scheduled to fight the assessment in Palm Beach County circuit court today, first offered $15 million for the estate in 1982, according to his book ″Trump: The Art of the Deal.″

The Post Foundation rejected the offer.

But as subsequent offers from other investors fell through, Trump continued to make bids, each one smaller than the one before, until the deal was made.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230405211 ... 06f407a91d

[much ado]

I found this Guardian article quite entertaining, worth reading.

Trump’s business empire could collapse ‘like falling dominoes’ after ruling

There are opinions from experts. Let me pull out one...

William Black, a white-collar criminologist, corporate fraud investigator and distinguished scholar in residence for financial regulation at the University of Minnesota law school, said: “In finance, once the dominoes start falling, it becomes basically impossible to save it.

“These properties are even more damaged goods today because of the success in demonstrating they are massively overvalued. The most likely thing, if you get an honest agent or receiver, they’re going to sell the properties at a loss. And when you’ve got a whole bunch of properties, with the first one you just desperately need to get some action and that gets discounted the most.”

Black, who helped expose congressional wrongdoing in the Lincoln Savings and Loans scandal of the 1980s, in which the financier Charles Keating inflated his company’s worth to bilk taxpayers for billions, called Engoron’s ruling “devastating”. He believes Trump insiders and employees would have incentive to come forward with more information if he loses his wealth and influence.

“What we experienced in the Savings and Loan debacle, we would put in an honest manager and employees would start coming to that person over time and say, ‘You know, you really ought to look at this,’” Black said.

“Trump is monumentally, stupidly greedy in that he isn’t actually paying for a number of key lieutenants in terms of their legal needs, and they’re facing financial collapse of their own, [such as] the Rudy Giulianis of this world. But a lot of folks can sink Trump.

“Having this ability to control all these assets, even if they’re massively overvalued, meant hope springs eternal among the Trump folks that he can use that money and influence to help them, but if Trump instead ends up bereft of control over the overwhelming bulk of his assets, and has lots of liabilities, sugar daddy goes away.”

Black seems to agree that Tump assets will be liquidated at fire sale prices.

[raison de arizona]

They've learned exactly nothing.
https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/ ... 22370?s=20

NEW: Donald Trump and his adult kids now claim that Mar-A-Lago is valued at up to $1.8 BILLION.

But in 2020, Trump appealed the tax appraiser's $26 million valuation and said it should be valued lower in order to lessen his tax burden.

Trump Disputed $26M Mar-A-Lago Valuation as Too High in 2020
Judge Engoron simply cited undisputed facts and Trump’s words

► Show Spoiler

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Start spreadin' the news
I'm leavin' today
I want to have no part of it
New York, New York

These ill-fitting suits
Are longing to stray
Far from the very heart of it
New York, New York

I want to wake up
In a city that’s my own fief
And find I'm king of the hill
Top of the heap

These little-hand blues
Aren’t melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
But not New York

If I can’t make it there
I'll run off
Anywhere
I hate you too
New York, New York

New York, New York
I want to wake up in a city
That’s my own fief
And find I'm A number one

Top of the list
King of the hill
A number one

These little hand blues
Aren’t melting away
I'm gonna make a brand new start of it
But not New York

And if I can’t make it there
I'm gonna run off anywhere
I hate you too
New York, New York

New York

[somerset]

[Wintermute]

It would be nice if all the workers he stiffed filed for debts owed, even Rudy “tooty.

[AndyinPA]

The song

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Bravo!

[Slim Cognito]

Excellent, as usual!

[RVInit]

Excellent, as usual!

[bill_g]

Start spreadin' the news
I'm leavin' today
I want to have no part of it
New York, New York

Bravo! I can hear ol blue eyes himself singing it. Well done. Excellent parody.

[chancery]

The Appellate Division has denied Trump's motion for a stay of the trial before Judge Engoron in connection with Trump's Article 78 petition for a writ of mandamus.

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef ... MeP1dISw==

A petition having been filed with this Court on September 14, 2023, seeking a writ of mandamus (1) directing that respondent The Honorable Arthur F. Engoron render a determination as to the scope of the claims to be tried in the underlying action entitled People v Trump et al., New York County Index No. 452564/22, and (2) finding that said respondent’s decision to proceed with the trial in said action, without taking certain steps that are alleged to be necessary to comply with the decision and order of this Court entered on June 27, 2023, is in excess of Supreme Court’s jurisdiction,

And petitioners having moved for a stay of the trial in the underlying action, pending the hearing and determination of the aforesaid proceeding,

Now, upon reading and filing the papers with respect to the motion, and due deliberation having been had thereon,

It is ordered that the motion for a stay of trial is denied; the interim relief granted by a Justice of this Court entered on September 14, 2023, is hereby vacated.

ENTERED: September 28, 2023

The Article 78 petition is here: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef ... pxbEAW1Q==

I haven't looked at it. It was always baloney, and I suspect that, even on its own terms, it's moot in light of the order granting partial summary judgment.

[Suranis]

https://www.threads.net/@meidastouch/po ... BiNWFlZA==

MeidasTouch (@meidastouch) on Threads
BREAKING: Donald Trump's attempt to delay his October 2 trial in the NY AG's civil fraud case has been DENIED. The trial will occur as scheduled.

That's next Monday.

[raison de arizona]