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Why New York state is suing Trump instead of charging him with crimes

 1 year ago
source link: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-new-york-state-is-suing-trump-instead-of-charging-him-with-crimes-140720431.html
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Trump fraud lawsuit: What to know about the case from the New York AG
 James sued him, his company, 
 and three of his children, 
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Why New York state is suing Trump instead of charging him with crimes

Rick Newman
·Senior Columnist
Fri, September 23, 2022, 11:07 PM·6 min read

After a three-year investigation, New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump, three of his children and his real-estate company, claiming they “engaged in numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” for at least a decade. The suit claims the Trumps knowingly and consistently overstated the value of at least 23 commercial properties, for the purpose of getting lower interest rates and cheaper insurance. James wants the family and the company to disgorge $250 million, the amount they supposedly saved by duping banks and insurers.

Um, okay? If Trump’s business practices were crooked, it’s appropriate for the correct authorities to hold him accountable. And there’s widespread evidence Trump has pushed the bounds of legality in his long career as a showman and real-estate developer. A 2018 New York Times exposé, aided by leaks of family documents, claimed that Trump participated in a variety of “dubious tax schemes… including instances of outright fraud.” Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has likewise accused Trump of criminal activity, including some crimes Cohen participated in and went to prison for.

And yet, the New York AG’s suit seems …underwhelming? The presumed victims in James’s suit aren’t customers Trump defrauded, contractors he stiffed, or shareholders he lied to. The victims are banks and insurance companies that supposedly undercharged Trump for loans and insurance policies, because Trump told them his properties were more expansive and valuable than they actually were.

The government doesn’t usually sue on behalf of big businesses that have their own well-staffed legal departments. Financial firms rely to some extent on customers telling the truth. But they also do their own underwriting, for the explicit purpose of assuring they don’t commit money based on bogus information. When ordinary people apply for a mortgage, the bank doesn’t write a blank check with no questions asked. Instead, it does a thorough credit check, values the property and prices the loan according to the risk it believes it is taking.


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