cnn
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The former comptroller of the Trump Organization says Eric Trump directed him to make certain decisions, which led to increased valuations of many of Trump’s properties.
Jeff McConkey, who is also a co-defendant of former President Donald Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., testified Friday as the civil fraud trial concluded its first week.
Internal Trump Organization. A spreadsheet shown in court Friday shows McConkey’s notations that Eric Trump instructed McConkey in a phone conversation about certain property valuations that would later appear on financial statements, in this case. The judge has ruled for fraud.
McConkey testified that in those phone calls Eric Trump instructed him to include certain things in the calculations, which ultimately resulted in what the New York Attorney General says were inflated valuations of properties including Seven Springs and Trump National Golf Club Westchester. Was.
(Eric Trump’s attorneys have argued that he was not aware that any phone conversations with McConkey were used to prepare the value of assets in the financial statements of Trump properties.)
The testimony came at the end of a dramatic week in New York. The former president attended the trial for three days and turned the trial into a media circus. A banning order was also issued against him after he made false allegations about a clerk to Judge Arthur Angoron.
“I can tell you that this lawsuit, in all my 33 years, has been chaos,” Trump’s lawyer Christopher Keese said during a separate appeals court hearing Friday afternoon.
Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s longtime chief financial officer who served a 5-month prison sentence for his role in a decade-long tax fraud scheme, is expected to testify when the trial resumes Tuesday.
During his testimony McConkey testified about the methods he used to calculate asset valuations like Mar-a-Lago, which the Attorney General’s office said were unfair in court.
Under questioning by special counsel to New York Attorney General Andrew Amer, McConkey said he calculated Mar-a-Lago’s valuation as if it could be sold as a private residence.
McConkey testified that he did not know at the time that Trump had taken away his right to develop the property beyond its use as a social club in 2005.
McConkey also said that he and Weisselberg knowingly agreed to calculate the value of the apartments at Trump Park Avenue without taking into account that the units were rent stabilized, which significantly overstates the value of the real estate because They cannot be rented at market price.
The former comptroller said he and Weisselberg increased the value of several Trump golf clubs by adding the value of Trump’s name to the properties, called a brand premium.
Amer prepared an annual statement of financial position that contained a note stating, “The goodwill associated with the Trump name has significant financial value that has not been reflected in the preparation of this financial statement.”
McConkey confirmed that he was aware that the disclaimer was on the annual financial statements.
He also testified that when appraising Trump’s Seven Springs development, which began in 2011, he included the value of seven not-yet-built homes on the property. He said he did so on the instructions of Eric Trump, who oversaw the project.
A spreadsheet shown in court shows McConkey’s phone conversation detailing the Seven Springs evaluation methodology.
McConkey similarly included 71 unbuilt units as a real gain in his valuation of Trump’s Briarcliff, New York golf course. They did so on more than one financial statement, even when development approvals for those units were withheld, he testified.
Amer also echoed McConkey’s testimony in the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial last year when the former comptroller said he committed fraud on Weisselberg’s orders because he feared he would lose his job.
Over the defense’s objections, Amer reminded the judge that McConkey had admitted that he knew it was illegal to help Weisselberg commit fraud when he helped him not only cheat on taxes, but also Weisselberg’s wife. Also forged payroll checks so he could illegally receive Social Security benefits.