Priya PatelTLDR:
- A court-appointed monitor has found that Donald Trump overinflated the value of his golf courses to a financial company, even while under court scrutiny.
- The monitor’s report states that Trump put zero depreciation on equipment at his golf courses, giving his properties an inflated value.
A retired federal judge, Barbara Jones, submitted her findings to the judge in Trump’s New York fraud trial, which accuses Trump and top executives at the Trump Organization of committing fraud by inflating the value of assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers. The judge will decide how much in penalties Trump will have to pay, as well as ruling on other accusations. New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking the return of $370 million in profits Trump made.
Among the monitor’s findings were that income statements provided to a finance company for certain golf course properties did not include depreciation or presented depreciation as $0. The Trump Organization acknowledged that this information could be relevant and stated that it would consider including it on future internal financial statements.
The monitor also had difficulty obtaining information from the Trump Organization regarding the sale of the license to operate the Ferry Point golf resort in the Bronx. She found that certain financial information provided to the purchaser, Bally’s, was not received until August 2023, and that monthly trial balances provided to Bally’s were “improperly prepared” and not in line with balances shown for other months.
Trump’s lawyer, Chris Kise, disputed the monitor’s findings and accused her of exaggerating the importance of machinery and equipment in maintaining golf courses. He argued that the depreciation line had no impact on the finance company and that there was no issue with sending them statements with zero depreciation. Kise also claimed that the Trump Organization did not inform the monitor that trial balances were improperly prepared, stating that they were only provided to Bally’s as a sample.
