MANHATTAN (CN) — The New York attorney general’s office announced Wednesday a $250 million civil complaint against Donald Trump arising from its yearslong investigation into the misleading financial practices of the former president’s real estate empire.
"For too long, powerful, wealthy people in this country have operated as if the rules do not apply to them,” New York Attorney General Letitia James announced at a press conference at her lower Manhattan office Wednesday morning. "Donald Trump stands out as among the most egregious examples of this misconduct."
"With the help of his children and senior executives at the Trump Organization, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system," James' statement reads.
Trump’s three eldest children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump, were also named as defendants, along with two longtime company executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney.
Filed in New York state supreme court, the seven-count civil complaint, charges Trump and his co-defendants with “persistent and repeated fraud,” insurance fraud, falsifying business records and related conspiracy counts.
Among the remedies sought in the complaint, James wants to permanently bar Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump from serving as an officer or director in any New York corporation or similar business entity registered and/or licensed in New York state; and to bar Trump and the Trump Organization from entering into any New York real estate acquisitions for five years.
The complaint also seeks disgorgement of all financial benefits obtained through the persistent fraudulent practices, estimated to total $250 million.
“Claiming you have money that you do not have does not amount to the art of the deal. It’s the art of the steal,” James said at the conclusion of her press conference, riffing on Trump’s 1987 book “The Art of the Deal.”
"There cannot be different rules for different people in this country or in this state,” she added.
Asked how long she expects the case to play out for, James replied, "that’s entirely up to the judge."
Trump condemned the lawsuit on Wednesday afternoon as "Another Witch Hunt by a racist Attorney General."
During the press conference, James said her office was seeking to dissolve Trump's company, but later clarified during the Q&A portion that dissolution of the Trump Organization is not among the relief sought in the complaint.
James' announcement on Wednesday morning was delivered from her 16th floor office in Lower Manhattan, directly across a plaza from Trump’s 40 Wall Street building, one of the properties named in the civil complaint for bogus valuations inflated by hundreds of millions of dollars.
“For example, they received a series of bank-ordered appraisals for the commercial property at 40 Wall Street that calculated a value for the property at $200 million as of August 1, 2010 and $220 million as of November 1, 2012," the complaint states. "Yet in the 2011 statement, they listed 40 Wall Street with a value $524 million and increased the valuation to $527 million in the 2012 statement, and to $530 million in 2013 — more than twice the value calculated by the 'professionals.' Even more egregiously the valuation of more than $500 million was attributed to information obtained from the same professional appraiser who prepared both valuations putting the building’s value at or just over $200 million."
Donald Trump Jr. — who oversees the Trump Organization’s property portfolio and is involved in all aspects of the company’s property development, and is responsible for all of the commercial leasing for the Trump Organization which includes Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street — denounced the attorney general on Twitter as "a Dem activist, who only cares about politics" who is "weaponizing her office to go after her political opponents."