Tenants sue Trump family criminal enterprise

Leonie Green of the Westminster Apartments in Brooklyn] is among a group of tenants in rent-regulated apartments once owned by Mr. Trump’s father who have filed a lawsuit against the president and his siblings, accusing the Trumps of a decade-long fraud to win artificially high rent increases through an invoice-padding scheme.[

[...]

New York laws governing rent-regulated apartments allow owners to increase rents based on the costs of major capital improvements. The Trumps based their applications for rent hikes on the artificially increased invoices, so a boiler that actually cost $50,000 would generate a rent increase as if it had cost $60,000.

[...]

The invoice-padding scheme ran from 1992 until the Trumps sold their father’s buildings in 2004, but the artificially increased rents remained in place.

[...]

The new lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, seeks the extra rent paid, plus interest and triple damages, for current and former tenants in more than 30 apartment complexes.

[...]

The scheme, first revealed in a 2018 investigation by The New York Times, involved tacking at least 20 percent onto the cost of materials purchased for the apartments, with Mr. Trump, his siblings and a cousin splitting the extra proceeds. The maneuver generated millions of dollars for each sibling, with no work required. While the siblings were still liable for income taxes, the maneuver allowed them to evade far-higher gift and estate taxes on part of the fortune they received from their father.

[...]

Jerrold S. Parker, a founding partner of Parker Waichman, a national law firm based in Port Washington, N.Y., said his firm began considering a legal remedy for the tenants after the article in The Times. The firm sought tenants this year through television and internet advertisements. The amended complaint lists 20 plaintiffs.

[...]

The lawsuit could pose a significant financial threat to Mr. Trump and his family. If the plaintiffs’ lawyers win approval of class-action status, any potential judgment would encompass every person who paid rent in more than 14,000 rent-regulated apartments since 1992.

[...]

Mr. Trump is already facing two New York investigations into his business activities and related tax issues — a criminal inquiry by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., and a civil one by the state attorney general, Letitia James.

At least two significant civil lawsuits also remain active. The writer E. Jean Carroll claims that Mr. Trump defamed her in denying that he had raped her. And a class-action lawsuit asserts Mr. Trump’s promotion of a company that promised people they could get rich selling video conference phones led them to lose money peddling an obsolete product.

  NYT

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.