A New York judge ruled that Donald Trump’s company lied about the size and value of his real estate holdings in order to obtain loans fraudulently.
Believe Me, Not Your Lying Real Estate Eyes
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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I pause to picture in my mind: Donald Trump, filling out a loan application, tape measure in one hand, pacing out lengths and widths by walking heel to toe across a floor. Oh, wait, that’s right. Trump wouldn’t fill this out himself; he’d have his accountant or business manager or lawyer do it, then he’d sign the finished forms.
And then … the banks, having learned their lesson from 2009 and how they wiped out the economy, would have verified the figures and asked for the necessary documentation.
Why is NO ONE talking about how Trump’s people, all of whom have ethical obligations to be honest about these sorts of financial things, are almost certainly not the only ones exaggerating. How many other lawyers, accountants, business managers, etc., are doing this? How much fabricated square footage exists on the isle of Manhattan?
Don’t the banks, especially ones from whom are requested YUGE loans, have the good sense (wasn’t that “due diligence”?) to require “independent” appraisers to confirm the size and value of the loan collateral?
Has/have the bank(s) involved made any claims of loss as a result of the transaction(s) under scrutiny?
> Has/have the bank(s) involved made any claims of loss as a result of the transaction(s) under scrutiny?
Borrowers lying to get a better interest rate only sometimes hurts the banks. Mostly these loans don’t default and it turns out okay. It is the occasional times that the loans default that has the potential to wipe out the profit from the other times. So, banks charge more for bad credit to cover those occasional, large losses. That these liar loans to Trump didn’t go belly up is not retroactive proof that the lower interest rates were reasonable.
Trump has a reputation for stiffing investors. I take it that he didn’t also regularly stiff the lenders. See, there is some good in the fellow.
It’s an ownership society.
When you take from a property owner: if you steal a loaf of bread and it’s your third time then you could go to prison for life.
When you are a property owner: if you inflate the value of your property by hundreds of millions of dollars and it’s your twentieth-plus time then … yawn … nothing to see here … ignore it … this stuff happens … who cares?