A $250 million fraud suit has been filed against Eric and Donald Trump after they allegedly spent weeks avoiding the NY AG. In a lawsuit filed last month, New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Donald Trump, his three eldest children, and the Trump Organization last month of engaging in “staggering” fraud for over a decade and amassing hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten riches. As with typical, minor cases that do not include a past president of the United States, the parties in this one needed to be “served.” James accused Trump of being a con man in every sense of the word; it appears that he believed he could evade the long arm of the law by ignoring the individuals attempting to serve him. Which was successful for him until it wasn’t.
According to a filing by James’s office on Monday, Trump and his son Eric were served with the 220-page complaint on Thursday, as reported by Business Insider. According to the attorney general, the ex-attorney president Alina Habba and Eric’s attorney Clifford Robert did not respond to emails received on September 21; the lawsuit was filed, requesting confirmation that they were the proper individuals to serve. And if you’re asking whether it’s typical for legal professionals to defend their clients from lawsuits, the answer is no. According to Insider, lawyers representing the remaining defendants, including Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., promptly accepted service.
The AG’s office accused the Trump camp of “court gamesmanship” due to the father and son’s attempt to avoid the litigation. On Thursday, Judge Arthur Engoron granted James’ request for a court order, stating that the Attorney General only needed to email the documents to the attorneys for service to be complete, which she did later that day.
In related news, the attorney general’s office filed a motion for a preliminary injunction last week to prevent the Trump Organization from transferring assets to a new Delaware-based corporation it neatly formed days before the fraud complaint was disclosed. While attorneys for the Trump Organization insisted to James that the company did not do so to avoid the consequences of her lawsuit, James was not persuaded. If Trump loses the suit, it could result in Trump and the Trump Organization being barred from acquiring commercial real estate in New York for five years. Trump and his three children would also be prohibited from operating businesses in the state.
According to their investigation, they found that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization engaged in massive deception to inflate Trump’s net worth by billions of dollars to enrich himself unlawfully and defraud the system, James said in a statement. She added that since we filed this comprehensive case a month ago, Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have maintained the same fraudulent actions and have taken steps to avoid culpability. Today, we request an immediate halt to these measures because it is unfair to allow Donald Trump to play by a different set of rules. The injunction seeks to stop the transfer of money or properties to the Delaware Corporation.