Donald Trump and his three eldest children, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump, address the press outside Trump International Hotel & Tower in 2007.
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
Jeffrey McConney, a former Trump Organization controller, testified at Trump’s fraud trial. He said Eric Trump directed him to account for unbuilt mansions to inflate the value of a property. McConney detailed other methods he used to make Trump properties appear more valuable.
A former Trump Organization controller testified that Eric Trump asked him to take into account homes not yet built by the company in order to inflate Trump’s property values.
Jeffrey McConney, who took the stand Friday on the fifth day of former President Donald Trump‘s New York fraud trial, told the courtroom some of the properties he misrepresented were the same ones ruled fraudulent by state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron in September, according to CNN.
“You have treated, for the purposes of this valuation, a profit of $23 million per home as if it were realized immediately?” Amer asked, per ABC News.
“Correct,” McConney said on the stand.
McConney, questioned by the NY Attorney General’s special counsel Andrew Amer, testified that when valuing Trump’s Seven Springs development in Westchester County, New York, in 2011, seven mansions not yet built at the property were added to the calculations. McConney said he did this after a phone conversation with Eric Trump, who now serves as Executive Vice President for the Trump Organization.
Attorneys for Eric Trump previously told the court he did not believe that his phone calls with McConney were being used to make decisions about how Trump’s assets should be calculated, per CNN.
Attorneys for Donald Trump and Eric Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
McConney also told the courtroom he used other methods to increase the value of Trump properties, according to CNN, indicating 71 unbuilt units as realized profits when valuing Trump’s Briarcliff golf course, failing to factor rent-stabilized apartments when valuing Trump’s Park Avenue property, and adding the value of the Trump brand in their calculations of some of Trump’s golfing properties — contradicting financial statements explicitly stating the opposite.
McConney, who began working with Trump in 1987 and retired in February of this year, also said he helped former Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg commit financial fraud but said he did so because he feared for his job as Weisselberg’s right-hand man.
Engoron’s September pre-trial ruling gave New York AG Letitia James the ability to revoke and deny Trump’s New York business licenses. The trial, now underway, will determine if Trump intentionally inflated his net worth to secure benefits when applying for loans.