Deutsche Bank executive David Williams testified in Manhattan on Tuesday, arguing that net worth can be elevated on self-reported financial statements for “high-wealth clients,” massively undermining New York Attorney General Letitia James‘ lawsuit against former President Donald J. Trump.
The lawsuit argues that Trump inflated his assets to obtain favorable terms from banks and insurers, portraying Deutsche Bank as Trump’s biggest victim. Williams, however, drew attention to the bank’s standard practice of independently reducing a client’s stated asset values before loan approval, which was the case with Trump.
Deutsche Bank lent hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump for properties in Miami, Chicago, and Washington. In the years 2011 and 2012, the bank cut Trump’s stated net worth from roughly $4.2 billion to $2.3 billion, but approved the loans based on Trump’s history of successful developments and other criteria. “It’s not unusual or atypical for any client’s provide financial statements to be adjusted to this level to this extent,” Williams explained.
“We expect clients provided information to be accurate,” he continued, but “at the same time, it’s not an industry standard that these financial statements are audited they [are] largely reliant on the use of estimate…”
In defense, Trump, who denies any wrongdoing and claims the case is politically motivated, will call four current and former Deutsche Bank employees to testify. This includes Rosemary Vrablic, the family’s former private banker.
Trump, alongside his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, has testified that no banks have been victimized by the alleged inflated valuation and asserts that the banks have made a considerable profit from interest on the loans.
