The Trump Organization and a GOP political action committee associated with Trump paid about $1 million to a New York University accounting professor who testified at Trump’s fraud trial that there was “no evidence of accounting fraud.”
Eli Bartov testified during two days of trial that the complaint against Trump and associates was “absurd.”
He said he went through the allegations against Trump “allegation by allegation” and found “no evidence of accounting fraud.”
https://news.yahoo.com/expert-witnesses-trumps-defense-billed-030243236.html
There was a slight issue with Bartov’s million-dollar conclusion.
Judge Arthur F. Engoron ruled before the trial that Trump and other defendants had committed fraud. In addition, Judge Engoron concluded that examples of fraud were apparent in the annual financial statements, the New York Times reported.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump and other defendants, including his companies and sons Donald Jr. and Eric “of fraudulently inflating the value of assets to obtain favorable loans and insurance deals,” The Times said.
The attorney general’s office argued during the trial that “Trump employees arbitrarily assigned values to individual assets to arrive at the former president’s desired net worth,” the newspaper reported.
James asked the court to order that Trump pay $250 million and that he and his sons be permanently barred from running a business in New York.
Judge Engoron will decide whether Trump must pay that fine or face any penalties.
“Justice Arthur F. Engoron already determined in September before the trial ever started that Trump did indeed commit bank fraud by routinely faking the value of his properties,” the Daily Beast reported.
“Second, AG Letitia James’ investigators keep asserting in court that it doesn’t even have to prove the banks were truly tricked, only that Trump broke the law by lying — an idea the judge keeps endorsing. And third, even Trump’s own star expert had to acknowledge that any lying by Trump didn’t exist in a vacuum.”
When attorneys for the state of New York asked Bartov who was paying him for his testimony, the accounting professor said he was being paid about $520,000 from both the Trump Organization and from the PAC, Save America, which is the primary campaign fundraising arm for Trump, the British newspaper, The Independent, reported.
Judge Engoron was not convinced by Bartov’s testimony.
“All that his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say,” Engoron responded.
“By doggedly attempting to justify every misstatement, Professor Bartov lost all credibility.”
It is not known whether Bartov received his money from the Trump Organization.
If history is any indication, Bartov may not receive what he was promised from Trump, given the billionaire’s long and sordid history of stiffing those he owed.
https://theweek.com/articles/783976/brief-history-trumps-smalltime-swindles
