Donald Trump could be fined $250m (£201.3m) and banned from owning real estate in New York for five years after a judge ruled that he and his associates inflated their assets by as much as $3.6bn (£2.9bn).
The former US president is expected to appear in court today after the pre-trial ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron last week, which came after a civil lawsuit was brought against him by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James.
Trump’s lawyers – who are seeking clarity over the pre-trial ruling – have said that statements about the value of his assets were never relied on by the banks, which had never complained about being misled.
Sky News has gone through the court documents to show the main assets Trump listed – and the most up-to-date claims figure he’s claimed they are worth.
Golf clubs and related real estate
Trump’s total valuation: $1.7bn
This figure relates to 12 golf and social clubs owned or leased by Trump, including his prized Mar-a-Lago estate.
The clubs, 10 of which are in the US and two in Scotland, make up by far the largest percentage of Trump’s net worth.
The district attorney said he lumps their numbers together when listing his assets in order to “conceal” any significant changes in value to individual clubs.
He valued the clubs at their highest in 2018, claiming they were worth nearly $2.4bn.
Mar-a-Lago estate
Trump’s valuation: $739m (no specific date)
The former president uses this huge Florida estate as his personal residence.
It’s also where the Department of Justice said it found boxes of documents containing classified information, which will culminate in a trial next year.
Mar-a-Lago has been at the forefront of this case too, as the court ruled Trump had overvalued the Palm Beach club by as much as 2,300%, and that its actual worth was closer to $75m.
Trump Tower
Trump’s valuation: $806.7m
Trump owns the commercial space in the iconic 58-storey building.
It’s been the headquarters of the Trump Organization since it opened in 1983 and has been a mainstay for Trump himself and some of his family members.
Ms James said the Trump Organization used tactics such as inflating income figures and adding favourable numbers from its projections in order to reach such high valuations.
Triplex apartment in Trump Tower
Trump’s valuation: $131m
That’s his valuation of the three-storey penthouse as of 2021 – but in 2015 and 2016, he had it at $327m.
The prosecutor labelled that valuation as “absurd”, and the court ruled Trump had reached that figure by pretending the property was three times bigger than its actual size.
40 Wall Street
Trump’s valuation: $663.6m
The 72-storey building was completed in 1930 and bought by the Trump Organization 25 years later.
The company claimed the tower was around $796.4m in 2016 – a valuation Ms James said could have been inflated by up to $473.9m.
Trump Park Avenue
Trump’s valuation: $135.8m (2020)
The building near Central Park houses over 120 luxury apartments.
Trump’s valuations, which ranged from $90.9m and $350m between 2011 and 2021, only related to the commercial space and unsold residential units that he owns.
Ms James said the values of the unsold residential units were “false and misleading” because they ignored legal restrictions that would decrease property values.
Trump gave the units a $50m valuation in 2012, but, due to rent-pricing regulations that Ms James said he failed to take into account, they were actually meant to be valued collectively at just $750,000.
Seven Springs
Trump’s valuation: Between $261m and $291m (2011-2014)
He purchased this estate, which consists of two large homes, undeveloped land, and a few other buildings, in 1995 for a total of $7.5m.
The estate spans 212 acres across the towns of Bedford, North Castle and New Castle in New York.
Ms James focused on Trump’s valuations between 2011 and 2014 because from 2015 onwards, he moved the estate into the category ‘other assets’ – which we’ll get to later.
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As for the 2011-2014 valuations, the attorney general said they were in “sharp contrast” to a bank’s $30m valuation in 2006.
This was put down to the Trump Organization factoring in the future sales of mansions it planned to build. “All of these values were a fiction,” she concluded.
1290 Avenue of Americas and 555 California
Trump’s valuation: $645m
Trump has a 30% stake in 1290 Avenue of Americas – a two million square foot skyscraper located in midtown Manhattan – and 555 California, a 52-storey building in San Francisco that is home to many high-profile tenants.
The remaining 70% is owned by the Vornado Realty Trust, which is not run by Trump.
The attorney general said Trump calculated the value of his shares without considering “the nature” of the agreement, causing the figures to be “false and misleading”.
The ‘other assets’
‘Other assets’ is a category Trump has used in all of his declarations, in which he sometimes includes more than a dozen different properties and assets.
Assets in this category include, depending on the year: aircraft, a management company, loans to Trump’s family members, and various homes in Palm Beach, Florida, Beverly Hills, California and the island of St Martin.
Ms James said Trump used ‘other assets’ in a similar way to his ‘golf clubs and related real estate’ category – grouping many items together and presenting a total figure so that he didn’t need to disclose the value of each asset individually.
She said the Triplex and Seven Springs were added to this category intermittently in attempts to “cover-up” when they dropped in value.
Between Trump’s 2014 and 2015 statements, for example, the ‘other assets’ category was reported to have increased in value by $219.6m after the Seven Springs property was grouped into it.
The court document did not share the overall value given for ‘other assets’ on any year.
