Trump family ’guilty of astounding fraud’

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has been accused of committing “astounding” fraud to “obtain incredible economic benefit … in stark violation of the law” in a civil lawsuit seeking to ban him from business in New York and fine him as much as $US250m.

Letitia James, the New York State Attorney-General, is not only seeking to bar the former president from serving as a company officer or director in the state for life, but also his three eldest children, Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric, as well as two senior staff.

A 280-page lawsuit accuses them of more than 200 instances of manipulating property values involving offices, golf courses and Mr Trump’s New York apartment, and making false financial statements over a 10-year period from 2011.

Ms James, 63, an elected Democrat, said she would share details with authorities who were carrying out a parallel investigation, and also the federal Department of Justice.

That increases the sense of a legal net slowly closing around Mr Trump, 76, the first US president to survive two impeachments in Congress but who faces legal jeopardy on several fronts including the DoJ investigation into the January 6 riot last year, another into his retention of classified government documents, and a 2020 election interference case in Georgia.

EJ Carroll, a woman who accuses Mr Trump of raping her more than two decades ago, said she would bring a case against him under a New York law passed in May giving sexual assault victims a onetime chance to file civil lawsuits, even where the statute of limitations had expired.

Ms James said Mr Trump may have committed criminal acts including falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud, and bank fraud.

“This investigation revealed that Donald Trump engaged in years of illegal conduct to inflate his net worth, to deceive banks and the people of the great state of New York,” Ms James said.

Ms James set out evidence that Mr Trump “falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system” with the help of his three eldest children, the Trump Organisation chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and the company’s comptroller Jeffrey McConney.