Former president Donald Trump is facing a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit in New York.
State Attorney General Letitia James alleges the Trump Organization inflated and deflated various assets to defraud insurance companies and obtain favorable loans from banks as it built its real estate empire.
The trial is also shedding more light on Trump’s failed bid to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2024.
Former Deutsche Bank executive Nicholas Heigh testified this week that the Trump Organization bid $1 billion for the Bills, but need a bank to fully fund the acquisition.
Haigh testified that Deutsche Bank declined to extend Trump that line of credit.
“Deutsche Bank was not willing to increase its credit exposure to Donald Trump at that time,” Haigh said, according to ABC News.
Instead, Deutsche Bank issued a “letter of support” for the bid, according to Haigh. The one condition was that Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney had to certify the company was still in compliance with covenants of the three outstanding loans the bank had already issued to Trump.
McConney verified that Trump had “over $300 million in liquid assets in 2014,” according to ABC News. Deutsche Bank wrote in the letter of support that Trump had the “financial wherewithal” to finance the bid.
Trump’s bid, however, ultimately proved unsuccessful as the franchise instead sold to Terry and Kim Pegula.
[ABC News]
