Did Trump Cheat On Taxes And Lie On Loan Documents? Report Says Different Numbers Were Given To Lenders, Tax Officials

Tax and loan documents indicate the Trump Organization supplied lenders and tax officials with different valuation figures for Trump Tower in Manhattan, confirming allegations by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, ProPublica reported Wednesday.

ProPublica reported it obtained documents showing the Trump Organization made the property seem more valuable to lenders by claiming nearly 100% occupancy for its commercial space while telling tax authorities the space was only 83% occupied in 2011 and 2012.

The discrepancies were similar to those for two other Trump properties, ProPublica noted.

The report comes amid efforts by the House Oversight Committee and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to obtain President Trump’s financial records. Efforts to quash those efforts are before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not yet said whether it would hear arguments.

A spokesman for the Trump Organization said the numbers differed because reporting requirements differ.

The differences in the occupancy rates could be explained in large part by the amount of space allocated to the Trump Organization itself. On the loan documents, the company is shown to occupy 31% of the available space, compared to just 18% on the tax documents. Also factored in a 2.5% of just-rented space that was counted as occupied on the loan documents but unoccupied on the tax documents.

The pattern was described by Cohen, Trump’s longtime fixer who is serving jail time tax evasion and campaign finance violations, who said Trump inflated the value of assets to secure loans and deflated assets to reduce his tax liability.

ProPublica said the 2012 figures enabled Trump to refinance the $27 million debt on Trump Tower with an interest-only $100 million loan, freeing up $68 million in cash, from Ladder Capital (LADR), a publicly traded real estate investment trust. Jack Weisselberg, a Ladder loan origination executive, is the son of Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.

Last month, ProPublica reported similar discrepancies in documents related to 40 Wall Street and Trump International Hotel and Tower at Columbus Circle.

ProPublica said real estate professionals they contacted could see no clear explanation for the discrepancies, with Nancy Wallace, professor of finance and real estate at Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, calling them “fraud.”