Ivanka 'questioned Trump's wealth' over golf deal
As Donald Trump sought to buy a Florida golf course in 2011, his daughter Ivanka expressed concern that he was not wealthy enough to close the deal, according to evidence presented on Wednesday in a civil fraud trial. The emails and other documents were presented as New York state lawyers neared the end of their case, which argues that Trump and his company inflated his net worth by as much as US$2.2 billion to win better financing terms. They are seeking more than US$250 million in penalties and restrictions that could strip Trump of some of his best known trophy properties. Testifying as the state's final witness, Ivanka Trump sought to distance herself from the questionable valuation methods that have already been ruled fraudulent by the judge overseeing the trial. She acknowledged that she worked on real-estate deals for the company but said she was not involved in calculating Trump's net worth. "I generally understood that there was a personal guarantee," she testified. "This level of granularity was not something that I can sit here today and say that I recall." The lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, accuses Trump and his family businesses of manipulating real estate asset values to dupe lenders and insurers and embellish Trump's reputation as a successful businessman. Trump has acknowledged on the witness stand that some of the estimates of golf courses, office towers and other company assets were inaccurate, though he said many were undervalued. Unlike her siblings and father, Ivanka Trump is not a defendant in the case. At the trial, she was shown a 2011 email in which she acknowledged that a requirement by lender Deutsche Bank that her father maintain a net worth of at least US$3 billion was a problem but encouraged company officials to approve it anyway. "We wanted to get a great rate and the only way to get proceeds/term and principal where we want them is to guarantee the deal," she wrote to a Trump Organisation lawyer. The two sides ultimately agreed to set the net-worth requirement at US$2.5 billion, even though her father claimed a net worth of US$4.3 billion that year. (Reuters)