Manhattan prosecutors have issued a fresh round of subpoenas in their probe of former President Donald Trump and his company aimed at his Westchester County development in upstate New York known as Seven Springs.
People familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that in recent weeks the Manhattan district attorney’s office has issued the new subpoenas and requested recordings of local government meetings related to the Trump Organization’s failed efforts that spanned years, to obtain the local approvals required to build a subdivision of luxury homes at Seven Springs.
The district attorney’s interest in the local planning could relate to the property’s valuation, and an assessment about whether it was improperly inflated on financial documents.
WSJ previously reported in January that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance had previously requested information relating to the president’s valuation of Seven Springs, which he bought for $7.5 million in 1995 and in 2012 said was worth roughly $291 million as he tried to develop it into a luxury residential community.
According to WSJ, prosecutors in recent weeks have sent subpoenas to land-use lawyer Charles Martabano and engineer Ralph Mastromonaco, who were involved in the planning for Seven Springs.
The district attorney’s office also requested recordings of planning board meetings in one of the towns occupied by Seven Springs known as Bedford, NY. Mastromonaco and Martabano appeared before the board together with Trump’s son, Eric Trump, in 2012 and 2013, according to meeting minutes reviewed by WSJ.
The latest requests for subpoenaed documents related to the property, follows earlier subpoenas made by the district attorney in December.
Vance’s office at that time sent subpoenas to local officials in Bedford in addition to two other Westchester County towns—New Castle and North Castle—where the Seven Springs Estate is located. The subpoenas in December had requested tax assessments, emails, planning-board materials and other documents about the property, WSJ sources said.
The scrutiny of Seven Springs is part of a broader criminal probe into Trump, his company and its officers that also includes financial dealings at other Trump properties in major cities around the country that could include possible tax, insurance and bank fraud.
The office of New York attorney general Letitia James said in a separate probe that involves the Westchester development, that by 2012 Trump had valued Seven Springs at up to $291 million in financial statements that were also given to financial institutions.
According to WSJ, Trump later valued the property at between $25 million and $50 million on financial-disclosure paperwork filed when he was president and local tax-assessment rolls list the market value of the property at about $19 million.
Starting to think/hope the biggest mistake the former president ever made was becoming president. He and his shady practices are never going to withstand a millisecond’s scrutiny now that he doesn’t have the title. Popcorn farmers rejoice.
Westchester County is “upstate New York?”
I’d check, but that would entail asking for directions.
To be fair, the value of the estate could have temporarily jumped $250M+ if Junior’s dealer dropped off a package for him while he was upstate visiting the local bureaucrats.
More, please…