'Leave value as is': Witness says Trump's son ordered him to record $75M spike in golf course worth
A Trump Organization executive told a court Friday that he inflated the value of a Trump golf course by $75 million under the orders of the former president’s son.
Jeffrey McConney, the company’s former controller, said he listed Trump’s Briarcliff Manor golf club in New York at $101 million in 2013, up from $25.1 million the year earlier.
He told the court he recorded the increase after a phone call with Eric Trump in which he was told 71 housing units were about to be developed on the site.
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But a valuation made by real estate broker Cushman and Wakefield that factored in the potential developments valued it at $43.3 million, The Messenger reported.
“Leave value as is,” Eric Trump said, according to The Messenger.
McConney was being asked about years of valuations he recorded for the company. He was giving testimony Friday, but is also a defendant in the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
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She has accused Donald Trump and his associates of defrauding banks, insurers and others by inflating the value of his real estate empire.
McConney also said that he had valued Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as though it could be sold as a private home, despite him knowing that Trump had given up the right to “develop the property for any usage other than club usage” under an agreement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, The Messenger reported.