Donald Trump could be fined $250m (£201.3m) and banned from owning real estate in New York for five years after a judge ruled that he and his associates inflated their assets by as much as $3.6bn (£2.9bn).
The former US president is expected to appear in court today after the pre-trial ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron last week, which came after a civil lawsuit was brought against him by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James.
Trump’s lawyers – who are seeking clarity over the pre-trial ruling – have said that statements about the value of his assets were never relied on by the banks, which had never complained about being misled.
Sky News has gone through the court documents to show the main assets Trump listed – and the most up-to-date claims figure he’s claimed they are worth.
Golf clubs and related real estate
Trump’s total valuation: $1.7bn
Image: Donald Trump at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland
This figure relates to 12 golf and social clubs owned or leased by Trump, including his prized Mar-a-Lago estate.
The clubs, 10 of which are in the US and two in Scotland, make up by far the largest percentage of Trump’s net worth.
The district attorney said he lumps their numbers together when listing his assets in order to “conceal” any significant changes in value to individual clubs.
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He valued the clubs at their highest in 2018, claiming they were worth nearly $2.4bn.
Mar-a-Lago has been at the forefront of this case too, as the court ruled Trump had overvalued the Palm Beach club by as much as 2,300%, and that its actual worth was closer to $75m.
Trump Tower
Trump’s valuation: $806.7m
Image: Trump Tower in New York
Trump owns the commercial space in the iconic 58-storey building.
It’s been the headquarters of the Trump Organization since it opened in 1983 and has been a mainstay for Trump himself and some of his family members.
Ms James said the Trump Organization used tactics such as inflating income figures and adding favourable numbers from its projections in order to reach such high valuations.
Triplex apartment in Trump Tower
Trump’s valuation: $131m
That’s his valuation of the three-storey penthouse as of 2021 – but in 2015 and 2016, he had it at $327m.
The prosecutor labelled that valuation as “absurd”, and the court ruled Trump had reached that figure by pretending the property was three times bigger than its actual size.
40 Wall Street
Trump’s valuation: $663.6m
The 72-storey building was completed in 1930 and bought by the Trump Organization 25 years later.
The company claimed the tower was around $796.4m in 2016 – a valuation Ms James said could have been inflated by up to $473.9m.
Trump Park Avenue
Trump’s valuation: $135.8m (2020)
Image: Trump Park Avenue
The building near Central Park houses over 120 luxury apartments.
Trump’s valuations, which ranged from $90.9m and $350m between 2011 and 2021, only related to the commercial space and unsold residential units that he owns.
Ms James said the values of the unsold residential units were “false and misleading” because they ignored legal restrictions that would decrease property values.
Trump gave the units a $50m valuation in 2012, but, due to rent-pricing regulations that Ms James said he failed to take into account, they were actually meant to be valued collectively at just $750,000.
Seven Springs
Trump’s valuation: Between $261m and $291m (2011-2014)
He purchased this estate, which consists of two large homes, undeveloped land, and a few other buildings, in 1995 for a total of $7.5m.
The estate spans 212 acres across the towns of Bedford, North Castle and New Castle in New York.
Ms James focused on Trump’s valuations between 2011 and 2014 because from 2015 onwards, he moved the estate into the category ‘other assets’ – which we’ll get to later.
As for the 2011-2014 valuations, the attorney general said they were in “sharp contrast” to a bank’s $30m valuation in 2006.
This was put down to the Trump Organization factoring in the future sales of mansions it planned to build. “All of these values were a fiction,” she concluded.
1290 Avenue of Americas and 555 California
Trump’s valuation: $645m
Trump has a 30% stake in 1290 Avenue of Americas – a two million square foot skyscraper located in midtown Manhattan – and 555 California, a 52-storey building in San Francisco that is home to many high-profile tenants.
The remaining 70% is owned by the Vornado Realty Trust, which is not run by Trump.
The attorney general said Trump calculated the value of his shares without considering “the nature” of the agreement, causing the figures to be “false and misleading”.
The ‘other assets’
‘Other assets’ is a category Trump has used in all of his declarations, in which he sometimes includes more than a dozen different properties and assets.
Assets in this category include, depending on the year: aircraft, a management company, loans to Trump’s family members, and various homes in Palm Beach, Florida, Beverly Hills, California and the island of St Martin.
Ms James said Trump used ‘other assets’ in a similar way to his ‘golf clubs and related real estate’ category – grouping many items together and presenting a total figure so that he didn’t need to disclose the value of each asset individually.
She said the Triplex and Seven Springs were added to this category intermittently in attempts to “cover-up” when they dropped in value.
Between Trump’s 2014 and 2015 statements, for example, the ‘other assets’ category was reported to have increased in value by $219.6m after the Seven Springs property was grouped into it.
The court document did not share the overall value given for ‘other assets’ on any year.
Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died aged 41.
In a statement to Sky’s US partner network NBC News on Friday, her family said she took her own life in the Perth suburb of Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years.
“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said.
“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.
“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”
Image: Pic: AP
Police said emergency services received reports of an unresponsive woman at a property in Neergabby on Friday night.
“Police and St John Western Australia attended and provided emergency first aid. Sadly, the 41-year-old woman was declared deceased at the scene,” a police spokeswoman said.
“The death is being investigated by Major Crime detectives; early indication is the death is not suspicious.”
Sexual assault claims
Image: Prince Andrew has denied all claims of wrongdoing. File pic: Reuters
Ms Giuffre sued the Duke of York for sexual abuse in August 2021, saying Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by his friend, the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The duke has repeatedly denied the claims, and he has not been charged with any criminal offences.
In March 2022, it was announced Ms Giuffre and Andrew had reached an out-of-court settlement – believed to include a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”.
She stuck by her version of events until the end
Of the many dozens of victims of Jeffrey Epstein, it was Virginia Giuffre who became the most high-profile.
She was among the loudest and most compelling voices, urging criminal charges to be brought against Epstein, waving her right to anonymity in 2015.
She told how he and Ghislaine Maxwell groomed her and “passed around like a platter of fruit” to be used by rich and powerful men.
But her name and face became known around the world after she accused Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was 17 years old.
The picture of her together with the prince and Maxwell at the top of a staircase, his hand around her waist, is the defining image of the whole scandal.
Prince Andrew said he had no memory of the occasion. But Giuffre stuck by her version of events until the end.
‘An incredible champion’
Sigrid McCawley, Ms Giuffre’s attorney, said in a statement that she “was much more than a client to me; she was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims”.
“Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring,” she said. “The world has lost an amazing human being today.”
“Rest in peace, my sweet angel,” she added.
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Dini von Mueffling, Ms Giuffre’s representative, also said that “Virginia was one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know”.
“Deeply loving, wise, and funny, she was a beacon to other survivors and victims,” she added. “She adored her children and many animals.
“She was always more concerned with me than with herself. I will miss her beyond words.
“It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”
Ms Giuffre said at the end of March she had four days to live after a car accident, posting on social media that “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure”. She was discharged from hospital eight days later.
Raised mainly in Florida, she said she was abused by a family friend early in life, which led to her living on the streets at times as a teenager.
She said that in 2000, she met Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Image: Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Pic: US Department of Justice
Ms Giuffre said Maxwell then introduced her to Epstein and hired her as his masseuse, and said she was sex trafficked and sexually abused by him and associates around the world.
‘A survivor’
After meeting her husband in 2002, while taking massage training in Thailand at what she said was Epstein’s behest, she moved to Australia and had a family.
She founded the sex trafficking victims’ advocacy charity SOAR in 2015, and is quoted on its website as saying: “I do this for victims everywhere.
“I am no longer the young and vulnerable girl who could be bullied. I am now a survivor, and nobody can ever take that away from me.”
:: Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
Donald Trump has met Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of the Pope’s funeral, Vatican sources have told Sky News.
The US and Ukrainian presidents had a “very productive discussion”, according to a White House Official, and have also agreed to hold further talks after the service.
They are among world leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, who are attending the funeral of Pope Francis.
There was applause from some of those gathered in St Peter’s Square when the Ukrainian leader walked out.
The former British ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy.
Image: Trump and Zelenskyy meet for first time since Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine, and is their first face-to-face meeting after a very public row between the presidents at the White House in February.
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The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish Armed Forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening, in a post on X.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Donald Trump has said Russia and Ukraine are “very close to a deal” with “most of the major points agreed” – as he called for the two sides to meet.
Shortly after arriving in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral, the US president said high-level officials should now meet to “finish [the deal] off”.
“A good day in talks and meetings with Russiaand Ukraine,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off’.
“Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!”
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2:26
Ukraine-Russia peace talks explained
Throughout the week, the US president has criticised both Ukraine and Russia for failing to agree to a peace deal.
On Wednesday, he accused Mr Zelenskyy of harming talks on Truth Social, saying “the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE”.
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A day later, after nine people were killed in Kyiv after a Russian missile and drone strike, Mr Trump said: “Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”
The president and other officials have also threatened to withdraw from negotiations if no progress is made toward a deal.
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2:24
Putin-Witkoff meeting
The talks allowed Russia and the United States to “further bring their positions closer together” on “a number of international issues”, a Kremlin aide said.
Speaking earlier on the flight to Italy, Mr Trump said he hadn’t been fully briefed on Mr Witkoff and Mr Putin’s meeting – but added it was a “pretty good meeting”.
Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Ukraine has repeatedly said it would not accept a deal conceding land or handing over sovereignty to Russia.
However, Mr Trump said in an interview with TIME magazine that “Crimea will stay with Russia,” describing the region as a place where Moscow has “had their submarines” and “the people speak largely Russian”.
“Zelenskyy understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time,” he added. “It’s been with them long before Trump came along.”
When asked on Friday about Mr Trump’s comments, Mr Zelenskyy did not want to comment but repeated that recognising occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian is a red line.