MANHATTAN (CN) — The latest witness in Donald Trump’s $250 million fraud trial testified Wednesday that a bank broadly believed the former president’s scrutinized claims about his wealth when issuing him a sizable loan in 2011.
Nicholas Haigh was formerly a risk manager at Deutsche Bank, the German lender that issued Trump a $125 million loan 12 years ago. He testified that he allowed Trump to use one of his properties, the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami, as collateral for the loan.
Haigh conceded that it was a rare practice for the bank, but given Trump’s claimed net worth, Deutsche Bank signed off on the loan anyway.
That was a crucial detail for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who presented Haigh’s testimony as proof that Trump’s fraudulent statements of financial condition carried real weight that influenced banks and insurance companies.
In a brief video statement posted to social media Wednesday evening, James tied Haigh’s testimony to that of Allen Weisselberg’s, a co-defendant and former Trump Organization executive who testified Tuesday.
“Yesterday, we asked Mr. Weisselberg to confirm who had final sign-off on the fraudulent statements of financial condition at the center of our case,” James said. “You know what he said? ‘Good question.’ And it was a good question. One of more than 100 that Mr. Weisselberg could not answer.
“But Mr. Weisselberg was able to remember that Donald Trump himself reviewed the statements. And today, our witness Nicholas Haigh, a former risk manager at Deutsche Bank, testified that he relied on those statements of financial condition to approve loans to the Trump Organization; hundreds of millions of dollars in loans with unfairly advantageous terms.”
Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of Trump’s namesake real estate corporation, said on Tuesday that Trump was to review and make suggestions to those statements of financial condition before they were finalized.
When Trump became president in 2016, Weisselberg said that he gave the documents to either Donald Trump Jr. or Eric Trump, but wasn’t able to recall who was the last to approve them.
“I don’t recall if anyone had a final sign-off on the documents,” Weisselberg said.
The defense attorneys have long argued that the statements of financial condition were mere estimations, repeating the mantra of real estate appraisals being “an art, rather than a science.” Trump himself referenced disclaimers on his financial statements that encouraged banks and insurance companies to verify the numbers, themselves.
“It can’t be fraud when you’ve told institutions to do their own work,” Trump said last week.
But Haigh’s testimony implies that Trump’s personal financial statements held at least some weight for Deutsche Bank, the largest lender to the Trump Organization between 2011 and 2021.
Defense lawyer Jesus Suarez rebuked that, however. While cross-examining Haigh, he presented Deutsche Bank’s own valuations of Trump’s assets that proved the bank did, in fact, do its own work before issuing the loan.
The figures showed that Deutsche valued Trump’s properties far more conservatively than Trump did. When applying for the loan, Trump valued Trump Tower in Manhattan at $490 million, while Deutsche put it at just $380.2 million. Trump pegged Niketown as a $263.7 million property, while Deutsche saw it worth $197 million.
Additionally, Suarez reiterated the fact that the bank was paid back, as the property Trump used the $125 million to invest in was ultimately a success.
“If in fact the property is worth over a billion dollars, would you agree with me that Mr. Trump’s firm succeeded?” Suarez asked.
The Attorney General’s Office objected to the question, as there was no proof of the property being worth that much.
The former president echoed the same argument last week when he told reporters that the banks made a lot of money off the back of his business deals.
“To this day, [the banks] have no complaints,” Trump said in the courthouse’s foyer.
James said it's another example of Trump skirting the law to boost his real estate empire.
“For years, Donald Trump evaded justice for his repeated and persistent fraud,” she said Wednesday. “And as we continue to present our case, we will show just how much he unfairly benefitted as a result.”
Haigh is expected to return to the witness stand on Thursday as Suarez wraps up his cross-examination. Weisselberg is slated to resume his testimony on Thursday afternoon.
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