New York City is the way it is today (which is to say way too wealthy) in part because of Donald Trump. In his younger days, long before his brain stopped working, he scooped up dilapidated properties and moneyed them up. Among his treasures today are the tall, black property that looms over 5th Avenue, as well 40 Wall Street, the skyscraper that juts out of Lower Manhattan. Alas, they might not be his much longer, should he neglect to pay some of his mounting bills.
On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James spoke to ABC News about the bombshell outcome of the civil fraud case she brought to trial against the former president. That ended with him ordered to pony up $354.8 million, plus interest, after being found liable of inflating his net worth to score better loans. But what if Trump simply doesn’t pay? James had an answer for that.
“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James explained. “We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers, and yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day.”
Trump and his team have denied any wrongdoing, and besides, they’ve claimed, it’s not like their alleged crimes had any victims. Not so, said James.
“Financial frauds are not victimless crimes. He engaged in this massive amount of fraud. It wasn’t just a simple mistake, a slight oversight, the variations are wildly exaggerated, and the extent of the fraud was staggering,” she explained. “If average New Yorkers went into a bank and submitted false documents, the government would throw the book at them, and the same should be true for former presidents.”
James also shot down claims that holding Trump accountable in court would inspire a mass exodus of businesses from the nation’s finest city.
“Last I checked tourism is up,” she said. “Wall Street is doing just fine.”
So how much longer will the ugly building on Fifth Avenue bear the magnet understander‘s name? Perhaps that sad GoFundMe will collect enough from his sometimes cash-strapped fans to bail the poor guy out.
(Via ABC News)
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/letitia-james-trump-doesnt-pay-take-buildings/