Never-before-seen tax and loan documents obtained by ProPublica indicate that Donald Trump may have deliberately lied to both lenders and tax officials, showing inconsistent numbers to make his businesses appear more profitable to the former and less so to the latter, in order to obtain credit and, perhaps, avoid taxes. These inconsistencies clearly suggest potential fraud, according to experts.
Fraudulent activities?
For instance, Trump told lenders that his building in 40 Wall Street had experienced a major rise in occupancy within a few years, which lenders see as a good sign. But he told tax officials a different story. More specifically, Trump’s company declared two different figures: he reported a rise from 51% to 95% occupancy to lenders, and a rise from 51% to 81% to tax officials.
Insurance costs were also different for each group, listing the expense as $744,521 in tax records and $457,414 in loan records. And that’s just two inconsistencies among many others, ProPublica reported.
According to the report, 40 Wall Street had been underperforming, and Trump was having difficulty obtaining a loan due to his companies’ history of bankruptcies and defaults. So, he seems to have resorted to personal connections and number manipulations to fix the issue. At least, that’s what the records suggest.
Nancy Wallace, a professor of finance and real estate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, told ProPublica that the inconsistencies are basically versions of fraud, with no legal justification why they should be there—and with seemingly clear intention to mislead both authorities and investors for Trump’s convenience. This conclusion was backed by several financial and tax law experts, who referred to the numbers as “black and white.”
In short, it appears that Trump had two different sets of books, one for tax officials and the other for lenders. And, of course, lying to either of them is a serious crime—with punishments ranging from fines to prison time under fraud charges.
A long-time suspect
Trump had long been suspected of manipulating numbers on his tax and loan records, but there has so far been little proof given his team’s refusal to release the documents. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, told Congress that Trump had indeed adjusted figures to obtain loans and avoid taxes, and a New York Times investigation concluded a while ago that he participated in fraudulent and criminal tax schemes. However, this is some of the first clear, public evidence that Trump has in fact deceived authorities for economic gain.
ProPublica managed to obtain the property tax documents by appealing to New York’s Freedom of Information Law, all of which had become public due to Trump’s litigations. They then compared them with loan records released after Ladder Capital, Trump’s Lender, sold the debt on his properties.
As Trump finds himself in the midst of legal battles and faces impeachment for asking foreign powers to intervene in U.S. politics on his behalf, more and more evidence of the president’s past dealings come to light—adding even more pressure against him. Only time will tell how the American people will react to these issues, and whether or not they’ll collectively do something about it in the coming presidential elections.
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