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MANHATTAN DA PROBE INTO TRUMP TAXES HEATS UP
- By The Financial District
- Mar 18, 2021
- 2 min read
With former President Donald Trump’s tax returns finally in hand, a team of New York prosecutors led by a newly-hired former mob-buster is sending out fresh subpoenas and meeting face-to-face with key witnesses, scrutinizing Trump’s business practices in granular detail, Jim Mustian and Michael R. Sisak reported for the Associated Press (AP).
Amid the swirl of activity, the Manhattan district attorney’s office is scheduled Friday to meet again with Trump’s longtime former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
It would be the eighth time he has spoken with investigators working for District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., dating to Cohen’s time in federal prison for tax evasion and campaign finance violations. The person familiar with the inquiry wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the interview and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
In a recent interview with Cohen, investigators asked questions about Trump’s Seven Springs estate as part of an inquiry into whether the value of the 213-acre Westchester County property was improperly inflated to reduce his taxes. Investigators asked Cohen about individuals involved in the appraisal of the estate and benefits derived from its valuation, including a $21 million income tax deduction.
Vance’s focus on Seven Springs involves an environmental conservation arrangement Trump made in return for a tax deduction at the end of 2015, following failed attempts to turn the property into a golf course and luxury homes.
Trump granted an easement to a conservation land trust to preserve 158 acres (60 hectares) and received a $21 million income tax deduction, equal to the value of the conserved land, according to records.
The amount was based on a professional appraisal that valued the full Seven Springs property at $56.5 million as of Dec. 1, 2015. That was a much higher amount than the evaluation by local government assessors, who said the entire estate was worth $20 million. Trump bought the property, including a palatial Georgian-style mansion that once belonged to the family of newspaper publisher Katharine Graham, for $7.5 million in 1995.
