The Trump Arrest thread

Quote: rxwine

Former President Donald Trump submitted "fraudulent valuations" for assets that were then used by himself, his eldest sons and his business to obtain better loan and insurance terms, a judge in New York decided Tuesday.

The judge's determination came as he granted partial summary judgment in New York Attorney General Letitia James' multimillion-dollar civil fraud lawsuit.

The judge cites "false and misleading square footage" of Trump's Fifth Avenue apartment among other faulty valuations.

The decision on any case brought against Trump in New York is baked in. So is the appeal decision. They could convict him of killing JFK if they wanted to.

Have you ever bought or sold property?

The banks don't pay any attention at all to what you believe is the size or fair market value of a property. They send in their own appraisers to make that determination.

If Trump claimed his apartment was 10,000 square feet, do you think any bank would simply take his word for it without sending a team of appraisers?

Quote: Tanko

The decision on any case brought against Trump in New York is baked in. So is the appeal decision. They could convict him of killing JFK if they wanted to.

Have you ever bought or sold property?

The banks don't pay any attention at all to what you believe is the size or fair market value of a property. They send in their own appraisers to make that determination.

If Trump claimed his apartment was 10,000 square feet, do you think any bank would simply take his word for it without sending a team of appraisers?

Do you mean, do I know if banks might treat a billionaire and famous person different than average, which would have been the case? Now every bank would look carefully at him. But that wouldn't necessarily have been the case until recently.

Based on what i've been hearing Trump is probably having one of the worst days of his life. He's not technically lost a good portion of his business until the appeals are exhausted, but he's got good reasons for some poor sleep at night.

Quote: rxwine

Based on what i've been hearing Trump is probably having one of the worst days of his life.

One of the worst days of his life SO FAR.

:)

Quote: Tanko

The decision on any case brought against Trump in New York is baked in. So is the appeal decision. They could convict him of killing JFK if they wanted to.

Have you ever bought or sold property?

The banks don't pay any attention at all to what you believe is the size or fair market value of a property. They send in their own appraisers to make that determination.

If Trump claimed his apartment was 10,000 square feet, do you think any bank would simply take his word for it without sending a team of appraisers?

The judge's decision is based on much more alleged conduct than a single alleged erroneous real estate appraisal.

That same judge also claims Maralago is only worth $18 million.

Rush Limbaugh's 16,000 sq ft Palm Beach estate sold for $155 million two weeks ago.

Maralago is 62,500 sq ft. Real estate experts value the property at $300 million.

Quote: Tanko

That same judge also claims Maralago is only worth $18 million.

The judge just cited those figures:

Quote:

It's not the judge's valuation. It's the Palm Beach County assessor's. And while $27 million is obviously an undervaluation, Mar-A-Lago can't be developed or turned into a single-family estate. Its deed requires it to remain a club, which radically reduces its re-sale value.

So what are the righties arguing here? That the trumps committed no fraud and should not have been found guilty? Or are they going to just keep whining over this one figure?

Let's start with that this is only happening because it's Trump. Of course, that's the same reason that they're going after Hunter Biden (though that one is criminal) for something that is not normally prosecuted. Anyway, here's the decision on the Summary Judgment:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991865-trump-ny-fraud-ruling

For those of you not inclined to read it, which I assume is everyone but me, here is how I would summarize it:

The problem with Mar-A-Lago is that Trump agreed, in 2002 (and earlier) to a number of land use restrictions on the property. These land use restrictions were agreed to in order to ensure that the property would appraise at a lower value, and therefore, be taxed at a lower rate. Essentially, it was to save money. Good enough. It gets taxed as a social club rather than a business or private home.

The fraudulent aspect of the declared values---and again---I imagine they wouldn't go after most people for this, but the fraudulent aspect was that not only did it use an assumed value as if it would be sold, but it also used an assumed value as if the Mar-A-Lago property did not have these restrictions on it.

The defense (Trump) attempted to argue that it would be a trivial matter for those restrictions to be lifted, which may or may not be true, but the use restrictions still remain to this day. Therefore, a property assessment of the property's value would be based on the property having those restrictions.

Anyway, that's why the judge (probably correctly) decided that was what declared was fraudulent. Should this lawsuit exist in the first place? Probably not. As it sits, the property cannot be used as anything other than a social club, nor can it be sub-divided and, it would appear, cannot be sold for any other purpose than the purpose of remaining as a social club. Ergo, the appraised values (in the 20 millions range) can be assumed correct because of the property's restrictions.

Quote: Tanko

That same judge also claims Maralago is only worth $18 million.

Rush Limbaugh's 16,000 sq ft Palm Beach estate sold for $155 million two weeks ago.

Maralago is 62,500 sq ft. Real estate experts value the property at $300 million.

I wish Trump would disappear from the stage.

I did read the posts about use restrictions on Maralago but the difference in valuation between $18 million and $300 million is huge. I think that the value is somewhere in the huge gap between the two numbers.

I do know appraisals for tax purposes are often lower than market values here. Not sure how it plays out in Florida or with use restrictions, but the difference between tax appraisals and actual sales figures is as much as 50% here. Not for the new owner, though...they get a huge jump in the tax appraisal in the first tax year of ownership.

Quote: Mission146

Let's start with that this is only happening because it's Trump. Of course, that's the same reason that they're going after Hunter Biden (though that one is criminal) for something that is not normally prosecuted. Anyway, here's the decision on the Summary Judgment:

I'm fine with the idea. Just like a traffic cop couldn't possibly stop everyone he sees for speeding, our justice system couldn't process every crime that is detected.

Do high profile people get the impression that they are treated special in many cases? Specially good that is? Probably. "Do you know who I am" is not a bad thing to dismantle once in awhile if you do have a violation.

I prefer our political class doesn't get too comfortable with being able to bend legal rules or break them and not be touched until they're voted out of office. As yet, I don't see a parade of politicians heading to jail, so not too worried about legal abuse.