Trump NY indictment thread

[balloonshark]

Wonder what happens to the people renting/leasing at trump tower and the other properties ?

I guess they will have to go back to Russia.

 

[Charmonium]

I guess they will have to go back to Russia.

I don't know to what extent this true, but a lot of "units or floorspace" have been sold outright. So the only diff is that maybe they pay their condo fees to a diff mangmt company.

 

[soundforbjt]

Just heard that Jr Mint and Eric both live in trump tower...lol

 

[fskimospy]

Do you guys not know how leases work? A change in ownership for the building means nothing for the underlying leases.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I wonder what baron von fraudmiester will do next.....

 

[Charmonium]

The entities that own the leases have been dissolved. There shouldn't be any affect on the lessees since a receiver will replace each individual LLC (limited liability corp).

In terms of what happens next, we have to see what the receivers do. I suspect however that this will slice off a very big chunk of their income.

 

[VRAMdemon]

Trump responds in an epic word salad....

https://twitter.com/x/status/1706811363388272746

Ouch!

I guess Trump’s “worthless clauses” really were worthless…… as a defense.

Trump had argued that the fraudulent income disclosures were accompanied by disclaimers that were drafted in such a heavy-handed way that they made the financial disclosures worthless, and that the companies he did business with should have known that and done their own research.

I’m guessing the “everyone knows I lie so it doesn’t count” defense didn’t sit well with the judge, and he probably didn’t endear himself to the judge when he sued him. A “worthless clauses” was Trump’s actual term for the disclaimers, and he bragged repeatedly about their worthlessness in his deposition. IIRC, at one point he claimed that lawyers everywhere, all the very good lawyers, told him he had the best “worthless clauses” they’d ever seen.

 

[VRAMdemon]

Eric “The Dumb One” Trump speaks out.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1706807447590261106

“We’ll" over a billion indeed... So… In response to the judge finding that Trump Org is guilty of over-valuing its properties, Eric Trump… over-valued a property?

I guess it's always possible Mar-a-Lago could be worth USD1.8bil. Lots of rather valuable classified documents are stored there.

 

[BoomerD]

I do agree that $18-27 million dollars is a ridiculously low valuation for Mara Lago. I suspect it’s MUCH more valuable on the market than that. Is it a billion dollar property as Eric claims? Errrrr….I doubt that, but easily over $100 million.

 

[VRAMdemon]

I wonder? .... How does one undervalue a property for taxation purposes? For my property, the local assessor assigns the value. I can challenge it, but I don’t set it. How does it matter what the owner thinks the property is worth when it comes to taxation? You lowball on that side, and then lie like a cheap rug on the high side to potential lenders/investors?

I guess that's our tax system at work. It’s complicated enough so that it’s easy to hide fraud from most prying eyes (unless someone like Trump is dumb enough to shine a spotlight on it with ridiculous valuations). I assume people with resources can stretch loopholes beyond the breaking point, then bury the details in their accountant’s books. I hate that the tax system is oriented to allow the wealthy to protect and grow their wealth on a bigger scale than I or the average taxpayer. Once in a while one of them will slip, like Leona Helmsley’s famous “Only the little people pay taxes”, and now braggart Trump.

Also, most other tax fraudsters are probably smart enough to know not to steal too much, for fear of being caught. If you were to consistently claim a 5-10% disparity in valuations like this, you’d have a built in profit, but not a large enough profit to draw attention.

But Trump isn’t anywhere near that smart. Just in his rant posted above, he tried to claim a valuation for Mar a Lago 100 times the valuation that the judge suggested. No way do you hide that kind of discrepancy forever.

 

[akugami]

Eric “The Dumb One” Trump speaks out.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1706807447590261106

“We’ll" over a billion indeed... So… In response to the judge finding that Trump Org is guilty of over-valuing its properties, Eric Trump… over-valued a property?

I guess it's always possible Mar-a-Lago could be worth USD1.8bil. Lots of rather valuable classified documents are stored there.

It all makes sense when you understand that when Eric mentions USD, he's not saying United States Dollars, he's saying United Soviet Denominations.

 

[IronWing]

Zillow says $24,000,000 for Mar-a-Lago but Zillow is a bit messed up listing it as 58 bedrooms, 33 baths at 5,061 sq ft. Looking at asking prices for other elephants in the area, $30-50,000,000 would be fitting.

Edit: Seems Zillow applied sq ft when the actual measure was sq meters.

 

[VRAMdemon]

I do agree that $18-27 million dollars is a ridiculously low valuation for Mara Lago. I suspect it’s MUCH more valuable on the market than that. Is it a billion dollar property as Eric claims? Errrrr….I doubt that, but easily over $100 million.

Trump bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985 for $5 million. Probably the 27 million figure the Trumps are shouting about comes from evidence submitted as the correct valuation sometime in the last 20 years. Despite the right wing media spin, the judge WAS NOT the one that suggested that Mar-A-Lago was worth between 18 million and 27 million dollars. The judge was simply citing the valuation as assessed by the local tax authorities.

I agree that the 18 - 27 million is probably low, but that’s not an indication of impropriety. (But there are many properties in Florida that are worth much more than Mar-a-Lago and NONE worth more than 1.5 Billion). In fact, it goes to the heart of the claim, which was that the valuations were inflated when the Trump Organization was trying to obtain financing based on the value of the property, and deflated when they had to pay taxes based on the value of the property.

 

[BoomerD]

Trump bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985 for $5 million. Probably the 27 million figure the Trumps are shouting about comes from evidence submitted as the correct valuation sometime in the last 20 years. Despite the right wing media spin, the judge WAS NOT the one that suggested that Mar-A-Lago was worth between 18 million and 27 million dollars. The judge was simply citing the valuation as assessed by the local tax authorities.

I agree that the 18 - 27 million is probably low, but that’s not an indication of impropriety. (But there are many properties in Florida that are worth much more than Mar-a-Lago and NONE worth more than 1.5 Billion). In fact, it goes to the heart of the claim, which was that the valuations were inflated when the Trump Organization was trying to obtain financing based on the value of the property, and deflated when they had to pay taxes based on the value of the property.

Agreed. Pick one...either accept the lower valuation when using it as collateral, or pay taxes on the higher valuation...not both.

 

[Lanyap]

According to Zillow it’s worth $24m. Tax assessment is $30m. The tax collector will be calling Eric soon about that $1b+ valuation.



58 bd 33 ba 5,061 sqft

1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL 33480​

Off market
Zestimate®: $24,150,100Rent Zestimate®: $149,761

Public tax history​

Year	Property taxes	Tax assessment
2022	$547,242 +4.9%	$30,360,000 +10%
2021	$521,697 +2%	$27,600,000 +3.8%
2020	$511,673 -1.6%	$26,600,000

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1100-S-Ocean-Blvd-Palm-Beach-FL-33480/306155527_zpid/

 

[sdifox]

There is no way it's only 5k sq ft

 

[pete6032]

The assessed value is not always equal to the market value. Not sure what the assessment process is in FL but guessing perhaps Eric does not understand the difference between assessed and market value.

 

[Lanyap]

Here’s the county property tax record.

Property Appraiser, Palm Beach County, Florida, USA

 

[IronWing]

There is no way it's only 5k sq ft

Zillow said 5061 sq ft when they should have said sq meters. It’s actually bigger than that now because Trump added a ballroom.

 

[pete6032]

Zillow said 5061 sq ft when they should have said sq meters. It’s actually bigger than that now because Trump added a ballroom.

Lanyap in post 518 seems to have the correct parcel.

 

[Jaskalas]

The assessed value is not always equal to the market value. Not sure what the assessment process is in FL but guessing perhaps Eric does not understand the difference between assessed and market value.

Wouldn't that be the Trump Org's defense in this very case?
And how could a Judge argue that they should have been the same?

 

[brycejones]

Wouldn't that be the Trump Org's defense in this very case?
And how could a Judge argue that they should have been the same?

Uhhhhh…

Maybe it has something to do with the Trump org telling a bank a building has a value of x and then arguing with the assessment that the actual value is a number substantially below x.

 

[Jaskalas]

Uhhhhh…

Maybe it has something to do with the Trump org telling a bank a building has a value of x and then arguing with the assessment that the actual value is a number substantially below x.

So they presented the frivolous "market value" for the bank, and are fine with the low assessment value.
Of course you don't pay taxes on what you imagine you can sell your house for.

Are banks only supposed to provide loans on the assessed value?
If so, why ask the Trump Org at all? I assume the assessed value is public record.

Is the bank loan made under some super secret pinky swear that the market value will become the assessment value someday "soon"?

 

[IronWing]

So they presented the frivolous "market value" for the bank, and are fine with the low assessment value.
Of course you don't pay taxes on what you imagine you can sell your house for.

Are banks only supposed to provide loans on the assessed value?
If so, why ask the Trump Org at all? I assume the assessed value is public record.

Is the bank loan made under some super secret pinky swear that the market value will become the assessment value someday "soon"?

Assessed values are generally kept artificially low to cut down on the number of property owners appealing their valuations. Taxing entities make up the difference with higher mil rates.

 

[brycejones]

So they presented the frivolous "market value" for the bank, and are fine with the low assessment value.
Of course you don't pay taxes on what you imagine you can sell your house for.

Are banks only supposed to provide loans on the assessed value?
If so, why ask the Trump Org at all? I assume the assessed value is public record.

Is the bank loan made under some super secret pinky swear that the market value will become the assessment value someday "soon"?

Maybe you should actually read up on the case…..