- New York prosecutors are investigating the Trump National Golf Club Westchester.
- Investigators are probing whether former President Donald Trump illegally inflated and deflated his club's value.
- The NY AG and Manhattan DA's office are engaged in similar investigations concerning other Trump properties.
New York prosecutors are investigating the Trump National Golf Club Westchester over whether former President Donald Trump illegally inflated and deflated the value of his suburban New York club.
Both the New York attorney general and the Westchester County district attorney are both probing whether Trump and his real-estate company, the Trump Organization, inflated the club's value to attract large loans and then devalued it to avoid taxes, The Daily Beast reported Wednesday.
Ossining, a town just north of New York City, said it has received two subpoenas in the investigations, The Beast reported. The Washington Post and The New York Times first revealed the Westchester probe in October.
In 2016, the Trump Organization claimed the 140-acre Westchester club was worth $7.5 million — less than half of the town of Ossining's $15.1 million assessed valuation. One year later, in the summer of 2017, Trump claimed the same property was worth $50 million. And a year after that, Donald Trump Jr. signed documents estimating the property's value at $6.5 million.
The Trump Organization maintained that dramatic discrepancy and sued the town in 2020. A settlement reached in August reduced the golf club's value by $24.1 million over six years, and now the town of Ossining, the County, and the village of Briarcliff Manor owe Trump thousands of dollars in refunds, The Daily Beast reported. The club's value is now $9.5 million.
The NY AG and Manhattan DA's office are engaged in far-reaching investigations concerning whether Trump and his company similarly illegally manipulated the value of a slew of his properties across the country. Manhattan prosecutors recently questioned one of Trump's accountants and bankers about whether Trump provided them with faulty financial information to inform statements they compiled about the value of his properties, The Times reported on Tuesday.
A laywer for Trump's Westchester golf club declined to comment to The Daily Beast, and an attorney for Trump and a spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.