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Attorney-General Letitia James said Trump and the Trump Organisation misstated the values of its real estate properties to obtain favourable loans and tax benefits. She said she was referring allegations of criminal wrongdoing to federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the Internal Revenue Service.

“With the help of his children and senior executives at the Trump Organisation,Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system,” James said.

James said she was seeking to have Trump and his children give up all the benefits they obtained from fraud,estimated at $US250 million.

The lawsuit also seeks to bar Trump and his children from running companies in New York and to ban the Trump Organisation from engaging in real estate transactions.

James has been conducting a civil investigation into Trump’s business practices for more than three years.

The Republican former president has denied any wrongdoing and described James’ probe as a politically motivated witch hunt. James is a Democrat. The Trump Organisation has called James’ allegations “baseless”.

Wednesday’s lawsuit followed a contentious investigation in which James accused Trump,his company and some family members of using delay tactics to ignore subpoenas and avoid testifying.

Trump on August 10 declined to answer questions in a lengthy,closed-door deposition at the office of the attorney-general,invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 400 times.

Donald Trump jnr and Ivanka Trump agreed to sit for depositions only after court decisions required it.

Another of Trump’s children,Eric Trump,invoked the right against self-incrimination more than 500 times in a 2020 deposition.

The FBI conducted a court-approved search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on August 8 as part of a criminal investigation into his handling of presidential records including classified material. A federal appeals court on Wednesday freed the Justice Department to resume using documents marked as classified that were seized from Trump,blocking for now a lower court’s order that had strictly limited the investigation into Trump’s handling of government materials.

Trump also facesa criminal investigation in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

He has denied wrongdoing in the various probes.

James’ civil probe is separate from a criminal tax fraud probe against the Trump Organisation by Manhattan’s district attorney,Alvin Bragg.

The company is scheduled to stand trial in October,accused of paying off-the-books benefits to employees. Its former longtime chief financial officer,Allen Weisselberg,has pleaded guilty and will testify against the company.

James is assisting Bragg in his criminal probe.

Reuters

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