Manhattan prosecutors are advancing the probe toward Trump’s Seven Springs estate

Trump has valued the property at up to $ 291 million in financial statements that the New York Attorney General’s office, which also investigates Seven Springs, said were handed over to financial institutions. Asset inflation to help obtain loans or other financial benefits can be a criminal offense for the state, legal experts said.

The Seven Springs scrutiny is part of a broader criminal investigation into Trump, his company and his officers, which also includes financial deals on properties such as Trump’s flagship Trump Tower in Manhattan, the Wall Street Journal. Outside of New York, prosecutors are also considering a loan for Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago, according to people familiar with the matter, which CNN previously reported.

Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Cyrus Vance has said he is investigating possible tax, insurance and banking fraud in court records. Investigators now have tax returns and other Trump financial records after an 18-month court battle, allowing prosecutors to compare Trump’s statement with lenders with their representations to tax authorities.

Prosecutors in recent weeks have sent subpoenas to land use attorney Charles Martabano and engineer Ralph Mastromonaco, both involved in planning the Trump Organization’s proposal for Seven Springs, people said .

Mr. Mastromonaco confirmed that he had received a subpoena and said he had delivered it to the district material prosecutor’s office, including communications with other people involved in the project.

The district attorney’s office also requested recordings of planning council meetings in Bedford, New York, one of three cities where the Seven Springs estate is located, people familiar with the matter said. Messrs. Mastromonaco and Martabano appeared before the board of directors with Mr. Trump’s son, Eric Trump, in 2012 and 2013, in which the minutes of the meeting appear.

Mr. Trump’s and the Trump Organization’s attorneys did not respond to requests for comment. Last month, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Mr. Trump’s efforts to prevent Vance, a Democrat, from obtaining his tax return, Trump, in a written statement, described the investigation as “a continuation of the greatest political witch hunt in the history of our country “.

Prosecutors ’interest in the local planning process could be related to the valuation of the property and whether it was incorrectly inflated in financial documents, lawyers said. Trump valued the property at $ 291 million in 2012, in what he called his “financial statement,” a collection of financial information compiled but not audited by his accountants. Trump valued the property at between $ 25 million and $ 50 million in financial disclosure proceedings filed when he was president.

Local tax assessment records indicate the market value of the property at about $ 19 million.

The new citations add to the image of what is known about Mr. Vance’s investigation. Prosecutors have previously sent subpoenas to some of Trump’s lenders and to a longtime insurance broker.

The district attorney’s office has hired Mark Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor who was now on leave from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, to work on the investigation, according to people familiar with the matter. A spokesman for Mr Vance said last month Pomerantz was appointed special deputy district juror.

The office has also hired FTI Consulting Inc.

to do forensic accounting tasks on the case, they said people familiar with the matter. An FTI spokesman declined to comment.

Manhattan prosecutors’ interest in Seven Springs dates back at least to December, when they sent a different batch of subpoenas to the three cities, the newspaper reported. The citations asked Bedford, North Castle and New Castle officials to provide information on tax assessments, city communications and planning council minutes, local officials said.

Cities have since delivered the materials, local officials said.

The information requested by prosecutors focuses on a many-year effort to obtain the local approvals needed to build a subdivision of luxury homes after Trump’s original plan to build a golf course in Seven Springs fell to early 2000s. The subdivision effort dates back to at least 2004 and continued until 2013, according to planning and zoning board documents.

In 2015, the Trump Organization had rejected development plans, instead of choosing to place 158 acres of land on a conservation easement, or land that an owner has agreed not to develop.

The final appraisal, sent to Trump in 2016, values ​​the property at $ 56.5 million and the conservation easement portion at $ 21.1 million. Seven Springs LLC, which is part of the Trump Organization, claimed a $ 21.1 million tax deduction for the 2015 fiscal year bond, a attorney general’s attorney has reported in court.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who in 2019 opened a civil fraud investigation against Trump and his company, has said her office is investigating conservation easement in Seven Springs. The Trump Organization has convened the investigation of politically motivated Mrs. James, a Democrat.

Write to Corinne Ramey to [email protected]