Donald Trump Fraud Trial: Ex-POTUS Knew He Was Faking the Size of His Properties as Court Documents Show
During the fraud trial of former President Donald Trump in New York City on Tuesday, prosecutors revealed documents that showed that Donald Trump knowingly inflated the size of his assets, particularly his penthouse in Trump Tower.
In official bank statements, Donald Trump claimed his triplex was around 30,000 square feet. However, during the questioning of former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, prosecutors showed a document saying otherwise, and it was signed by the former president himself.
The 1994 document showed that the Trump Tower penthouse was not 30,000 square feet but was only at 10,996 square feet. Vanity Fair noted that while Trump has fervently denied any wrongdoing, he was not in court to answer that damning piece of evidence which bore his own signature.
However, Allen Weisselberg was there, and the former Trump Organization CFO told prosecutors that he remembered seeing the email that the Trump-signed document was attached, though he admitted he did not see the actual document itself.
Weisselberg, known to many as "Trump's Moneyman," insisted that it would not matter either way as the penthouse was not important relative to the former president's overall net worth.
"I never even thought about the apartment. It was de minimis, in my mind," said the former Trump Organization executive. "It was not something that was that important to me when looking at a $6 billion, $5 billion net worth."
Trump has been accused of inflating his assets to gain favorable loans from banks, thus defrauding them, while also lying about how his properties were actually worth to the government so he would not pay as much taxes.
Trump Organization CFO Does Not Recall Much Else Regarding Shady Donald Trump Dealings
Much of Tuesday's hearing featured Allen Weisselberg being grilled by prosecutors. However, the former Trump Organization CFO answered "I don't recall" to dozens of questions asked by government lawyers.
According to CBS News, he testified that he does not recall having any conversations with Donald Trump and his two adult sons and co-defendants, Eric and Don Jr., regarding several documents deemed crucial to the company's efforts to make deals with banks and insurers.
The former CFO stated he does not recall the phrase "estimated current value," nor can he recall details of "generally accepted accounting principles." He did admit that he is not a certified public accountant despite being the man who handles most of the Trump family's financial dealings.
Trump Organization CFO Claims Trump Tower Penthouse Only Around 1% of Donald Trump's Net Worth
Prosecutors singled out 23 Trump properties that they claimed have inflated assets. During the hearing, they singled out the Trump Tower penthouse, which was a triplex apartment.
When it came out that Trump lied about it, Weisselberg claimed that the property only made up 1% of Trump's overall net worth.
He added that the ex-POTUS and other executives did not care about properties that represented less than 5% of his net worth, with Weisselberg repeatedly claiming that the penthouse apartment was a smaller asset than others under Trump. However, according to The Guardian, prosecutors then pointed out that there is a discrepancy with this claim. If the former president's net worth was around $6 billion, the triplex apartment would have been over 5% of his net worth.
This was when Weisselberg started saying he "does not recall" details.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Rick Martin
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