Trump Org's false financial statements cost banks $168M in interest: NY AG financial expert
The Trump Organization's skewed statements of its financial condition may have cost banks more than $168 million in interest, according to an expert witness hired by the New York attorney general's office.
Michiel McCarty, chairman and CEO at the investment bank M.M. Dillon & Co., testified Wednesday to his "lost interest calculations" for banks that handed out loans to the Trump Organization. His calculations determined that across four Trump Organization assets, banks lost out on just over $168 million in interest.
The assets — 40 Wall Street, Trump's Chicago hotel, the Old Post Office-turned-hotel and Trump's golf course in Doral, Fla. — each lost banks tens of millions of dollars in interest across nearly a decade, according to McCarty's assessment.
Judge Arthur Engoron already found Trump, the Trump Organization and several executives — including Trump's adult sons — liable for fraud before the trial began, ruling that New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) had proved the crux of her case.
James's office sued Trump and the others last year, claiming the Trump Organization falsely inflated and deflated the value of its assets to receive lower taxes and better insurance coverage. Her office asked for $250 million in financial penalties and a ban on Trump and his children serving as officers or directors of New York companies.
The decision stripped some of Trump’s business licenses and raised the potential for him to lose control of some of his famed properties, though an appeals court halted the cancellation of Trump’s business licenses until after it hears his case.
McCarty's assessment will likely be subject to a brutal cross-examination Wednesday afternoon, even though his calculation falls short of James's $250 million estimate. The $168,040,168 figure McCarty reached could be used to determine how much money Trump and his co-defendants will be accountable for.
Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is expected to take the stand after McCarty's testimony concludes.