Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Meanwhile in New York

The New York attorney general’s office has told a court that its investigators have uncovered evidence that the former US president Donald Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” asset valuations to get loans and tax benefits.

[...]

Investigators, the court papers said, had “developed significant additional evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent or misleading asset valuations to obtain a host of economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions”.

[...]

In a statement late on Tuesday, James’s office said it had not decided whether the evidence outlined in the court papers merited legal action, but the investigation should proceed unimpeded.

[...]

Although James’s civil investigation is separate from the criminal investigation, her office has been involved in both, sending several lawyers to work side by side with prosecutors from the Manhattan DA’s office. One judge has previously sided with James on other matters relating to the investigation, including making another Trump son, the Trump Organization executive Eric Trump, testify after his lawyers abruptly cancelled a scheduled deposition.

[...]

Trump’s legal team has sought to block the subpoenas, calling them “an unprecedented and unconstitutional manoeuvre”. They say James is improperly attempting to obtain testimony that could then be used in the parallel criminal investigation, being overseen by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg.

  Guardian
I hope so.

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

UPDATE:
A court order unsealed in September 2021 revealed that Judge Arthur Engoron was requiring the Trump Organization to submit a report by Oct. 15 detailing its response to subpoenas in a case alleging the company falsified the value of its assets to secure loans and tax breaks. If the attorney general’s office determined those actions were insufficient, the Trump Organization would have to retain, at its own cost, an independent firm to oversee its compliance. Engoron required the office of Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, to make its decision by Dec. 31.

The attorney general had been mum on any decision, and the Trump Organization did not respond to inquiries. But Tuesday night, the office’s decision became public, disclosed in a footnote to a filing: “As the Court is aware, an independent eDiscovery Firm has been retained by the Trump Organization pursuant to this Court’s order dated September 3, 2021.”

[...]

One of Eric Trump’s attorneys, Marc Mukasey of Mukasey Frenchman LLP, quit this case on Sept. 14, just after the judge unsealed his stipulation about third-party compliance. Mukasey’s notice to the court does not include an explanation for his departure, and he would not speak on the record about it.

  Forbes
Hmmmmm. Eric not paying his attorney bills? Or something worse?

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