You'll be shocked to hear rotted- out con man Donald "Rump" Trump cheated on his property taxes and business loan documents:
Documents obtained by ProPublica show stark differences in how Donald Trump’s businesses reported some expenses, profits and occupancy figures for two Manhattan buildings, giving a lender different figures than they provided to New York City tax authorities. The discrepancies made the buildings appear more profitable to the lender — and less profitable to the officials who set the buildings’ property tax. [snip]
A dozen real estate professionals told ProPublica they saw no clear explanation for multiple inconsistencies in the documents. The discrepancies are “versions of fraud,” said Nancy Wallace, a professor of finance and real estate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley. “This kind of stuff is not OK.”
New York City’s property tax forms state that the person signing them “affirms the truth of the statements made” and that “false filings are subject to all applicable civil and criminal penalties.” [snip]
ProPublica obtained the property tax documents using New York’s Freedom of Information Law. The documents were public because Trump appealed his property tax bill for the buildings every year for nine years in a row, the extent of the available records. We compared the tax records with loan records that became public when Trump’s lender, Ladder Capital, sold the debt on his properties as part of mortgage-backed securities.
Pro Publica has done an outstanding job getting hold of and researching these property tax and business loan records, so their report is well worth reading. That Trump overvalued properties for loan purposes and undervalued the same ones for tax purposes has been talked about for years, though now the documents proving it are in Pro Publica's possession (and why, ffs, hasn't the city or State been more aggressive in investigating this?). This fits an overwhelming pattern of fraudulent behavior by Trump and his criminal organization covering all aspects of Federal, State and local tax codes. He can't be allowed to get away with this, any more than he should be given a pass on his crimes and misconduct as "president."ProPublica reviewed records for four properties: 40 Wall Street, the Trump International Hotel and Tower, 1290 Avenue of the Americas and Trump Tower. Discrepancies involving two of them — 40 Wall Street and the Trump International Hotel and Tower — stood out.
