Judge Arthur Engoron made the finding as part of James’s attempt to force Cushman & Wakefield, the appraiser, to respond to his summonses. The summonses were issued in September 2021 and February 2022 as part of the Trump Attorney General’s political inquiry. Earlier this month, the attorney general’s office said his investigation had been expanded to include Cushman and whether he was “involved in fraudulent or misleading practices in issuing assessments.” In a three-page order, the judge said, after reviewing numerous private documents, he found that Cushman and Wakefield “were not consistent in adhering to internal quality control practices when conducting assessments on behalf of the Trump Agency. Therefore, it is within its jurisdiction. OAG to investigate C&W ratings to determine whether C&W has properly and accurately disclosed to regulators and other government authorities whether its internal quality controls have been complied with. The judge rejected Cushman’s proposal to cancel the calls and ordered him to comply fully by May 27. Cushman’s representative could not be reached for comment. Earlier, a spokesman said: “Any suggestion that Cushman & Wakefield did not respond in good faith to the Attorney General’s investigation is fundamentally untrue” and that the Attorney General’s records do not accurately reflect Cushman & Wakefield’s responses to previous calls and inquiries. We stand behind the appraisers and our work “. James’s office had previously claimed that there were multiple inaccuracies in the company’s financial statements. The findings are part of an ongoing policy inquiry into the Trump administration and whether it deceived borrowers, lenders and tax authorities based on those statements. Cushman was Trump’s top appraiser, helping him value many properties, including the Seven Springs family complex, the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles and 40 Wall Street, according to court records. Civil summonses are seeking Cushman’s working papers on these properties and more, information on payments to the Trump organization and his decision to stop working for Trump in January 2021. In addition, authorities are seeking information on a Cushman appraiser who went at work for the Trump Organization. Cushman regularly provided the Trump Administration with real estate data that, according to the attorney general’s office, was eventually used to prepare the financial statements. There have been “hundreds” of cases where the figures, according to the attorney general’s office, were cited as “support for inflated valuations” contained in Trump’s financial statements. Attorneys at Attorney General’s Office said Cushman did not comply with a summons sent in February and that he had recently stopped producing documents related to the September summons. In addition, the attorney general’s office said Cushman had instructed four of his staff not to answer questions during the deposition, citing privileges. The attorney general’s office notes that Cushman’s estimates for 40 Wall Street, incorporated into two different securities covered by mortgages, differed substantially from previous estimates. The rest of the information about these loans was given in the court statement. The investigators said they were trying to find out what Trump’s request was, “whether the appraisers were pressured by the client in any way and whether Cushman’s substantial cooperation with the Trump agency in any way affected the estimates made or other information related to the valuation provided, or Cushman’s objectivity was jeopardized. “ In a statement Thursday, the company disagreed with Engoron’s decision and said it was evaluating its next steps. “We essentially reject the Court’s ruling that our appraisers used inconsistent internal quality control practices that had any impact on the appraised values of the Trump Organization,” said a Cushman spokesman. “Over the last two years, we have worked in good faith with the Attorney General’s investigation. We have responded to four calls for documents, eight calls for testimony, and produced tens of thousands of documents at the request of the Attorney General’s Office. from the Court, which seeks information about our work with hundreds of clients who have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump organization, is absurd and too broad. “ This story has been updated with comments from Cushman & Wakefield.
