From 2022:
New York state is suing Donald Trump and his business for engaging in financial fraud. Forbes has documents and a recording of Trump talking about 40 Wall Street, the first property cited in the attorney general’s press conference, which seem to back up her claims.
www.forbes.com
For decades, Trump and his lieutenants lied to Forbes about his finances, as we have duly noted over the years in the annual Forbes 400 issue listing the richest Americans. In the 1982 inaugural edition, the real estate scion appeared alongside his father with a combined estimated net worth of $200 million—and even then insisted on a higher valuation: “Donald claims $500 million,” we noted. By 2000, the boasts were bolder: “In The Donald’s world, worth more than $5 billion—back on Earth, worth considerably less.” When he was running for office, we explained how his net-worth obsession “opens windows into Trump the entrepreneur, the candidate and the person.” Two Forbes journalists received subpoenas last year from the Manhattan district attorney and had to testify before a grand jury to confirm information in two articles detailing Trump’s shenanigans.
Forbes dug into our archives to see just how far the Trump Organization was willing to go. In 2013, a Forbes reporter noted that he had seen evidence that the Trump Organization was generating massive profits at 40 Wall Street. “Allen”—presumably chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg—“showed me total rent of $48.39M and expenses of $20.68M, with [a net operating income] of $27.7128M,” the reporter wrote in his notes. Other documents that Forbes now has, but did not possess at the time, suggest operating income was closer to $10 million. “Hi,” someone named Jeff—likely Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney—wrote the next year. “Our stabilized [net operating income] for 40 Wall Street is approximately $24mil.” The actual net operating income that year was $11 million, according to a bond prospectus.
Even though he had just reworked his mortgage at 40 Wall Street, Trump couldn’t resist another chance to boast about it. “It’s a 78-story building,” Trump said, even though his firm had previously marketed it as a 72-story building—and it’s actually just 63 stories, according to documents filed with the city. “It’s going to throw off, would you say, $50 million maybe this year?” he asked, turning to Allen Weisselberg. “Fifty million at least,” Trump concluded, faster than his CFO could get out the words, “Yeah, by the end of the year.”