Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Thanks. Wondering why Ivanka wasn't charged with the two sons. Lack of documented evidence maybe.

Ivanka Trump Helped Her Dad Lie About His Net Worth

Dan Alexander
Forbes Staff
Senior editor at Forbes, covering Donald Trump's business.

[...]

Ivanka then noted that a different Forbes writer had said Doral’s land alone was worth at least $1 billion. That was pretty much true. Another journalist, with a knack for golf coverage, had indeed authored a feature in the lifestyle spinoff of Forbes that said the land at Doral was “worth close to $1 billion.” But that reporter apparently fell for a classic trick of the Trumps, who had a habit of noting the per-acre price of a smaller parcel and throwing out a puffed-up number of acres, thus leaving the impression that the property must have been more valuable than it actually was.

The three journalists inside Trump Tower that day, all specialists in investigating the fortunes of billionaires, were not about to fall for the same ruse. Trump had spent $150 million in 2012 buying Doral, which is less than 700 acres, according to property records—not the 800 that Ivanka and her father like to claim. Trump dumped more than $100 million into it, but his renovation did not seem to boost performance much. By 2015, Doral was earning only 13% more than it had in 2012, according to lending records, justifying the preliminary estimate of $225 million that Forbes’ number crunchers had calculated after consulting more than a half dozen golf and leisure experts.

“We have, like, no debt on it,” Ivanka said, ignoring the $125 million of Deutsche Bank debt that encumbered the property.

[...]

Later in the conversation, one of the Forbes journalists pointed out that there was a $106 million mortgage against the property, contradicting Ivanka’s earlier claim. “That might be right,” her father conceded, failing to mention the fact that there was a second tranche of $19 million in debt that made the total liabilities against the property $125 million.

“You know what we’re paying in interest on that mortgage?” Donald Trump said. “Two percent.”

Weisselberg chimed in: “Less.”

“1.75%,” Ivanka said.

Her father confirmed: “Yeah, 1.75%.”

In fact, the mortgage rate on the property was 1.75% plus LIBOR, a benchmark that brought the total interest rate to 2.1% in 2015, according to a Trump Organization income statement later obtained by Forbes.

Why twist such small details? Because real estate valuations are composed of a million tiny inputs—square footage, acreage, mortgage balances and so on—that collectively determine what someone like Donald Trump is worth. Ivanka Trump, a devoted daughter, surely knew her father cared to his core about how much money other people thought he had.

Contacted for comment, a lawyer for Ivanka did not respond. An attorney for the Trump Organization did not provide answers to a list of questions.

Ivanka Trump will have to speak soon enough, though.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2023/10/30/ivanka-trump-helped-her-dad-lie-about-his-net-worth/?sh=6135294e109b

Good idea about cookies. All new to me.