During Monday’s episode of The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart criticized experts saying that Trump’s civil fraud real estate case had no victims, questioning whether they would react the same to "overvaluations in the real world." Stewart, however, had overvalued his own property.
Stewart played a clip of CNN’s Laura Coates interviewing Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, who said that the ruling in the case "didn’t go over well" with the real estate industry.
Coates responded that Trump had been found liable for falsifying business records in the second degree, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud and conspiracy due to asset inflation.
"Everything that you just listed off is done by every real estate developer everywhere on Earth in every city. This has never been prosecuted," O’Leary responded.
Stewart quipped, "How is he not this mad about overvaluations in the real world? Because they are not victimless crimes," later adding, "money isn’t infinite. A loan that goes to the liar doesn’t go to someone who’s giving a more honest evaluation. So the system becomes incentivized for corruption."
"The Attorney General of New York knew that Trump’s property values were inflated because when it came time to pay taxes, Trump undervalued the very same properties."
"It was all part of a very specific real estate practice known as lying."
It was revealed that Stewart had undertaken the same thing he was criticizing, with his New York City penthouse being overvalued by 829 percent, according to the New York Post.
Stewart sold his 6,280-square-foot Tribeca duplex in 2014 to financier Parag Pande for $17.5 million. The asking price at that time is not available in listing records, the Post reported, but the 2013-2014 assessor records obtained by the outlet showed that the property was market-valued at just $1.882 million. The actual assessor valuation was just $847,174.
Stewart paid significantly lower property taxes because of this assessed valuation, which was what he called Trump out for.
According to the Real Deal, Pande resold the condo in 2021 for $13 million, 26 percent less than what he bought it for.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida had been assessed at only $18 million. Real estate brokers had valued the property at more than 50 times that. Trump’s property in Westchester, New York was valued at between $30 to $56 million, while Trump had valued the property at $261 million.
New York Attorney General Letitia James used these valuations at the center of her case, arguing that he had inflated his assets.
Judge Arthur Engoron relied on these assessed valuations to deliver his ruling in February, ordering Trump at the time to pay $355 million and barring him from doing business in the state for three years.
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