Cushman & Wakefield must turn over 1,000 appraisals to NY Attorney General Letitia James' Trump probe by Monday
- C & W has until Monday to turn over 1,000 valuations by 5 appraisers of Trump properties.
- NY AG Letitia James wants to compare how the 5 valued Trump's properties and comparable properties.
Cushman & Wakefield has until Monday to turn over some 1,000 of its appraisals to New York Attorney General Letitia James' investigation of the Trump Organization.
The June 27 deadline to comply with James' subpoenas for the appraisals was noted in a new court filing.
The real-estate-services giant has fought the AG's subpoeanas in two New York courthouses; earlier this month, an appellate panel denied Cushman's request that the subpoenas be halted pending appeal.
Cushman is arguing that the appraisals James seek go far beyond the company's past work for the Trump Organization and will violate the privacy of as many as 1,000 other clients in New York and California.
James has countered that the appraisals are vital to her probe.
Her office is looking at Cushman valuations of three Trump properties: the Trump National Golf Club near Los Angeles, 40 Wall Street in Manhattan, and Seven Springs, a 212-acre estate in New York's Westchester County.
The appraisals on the golf club and Westchester estate were used by Trump to secure some $5 million in tax breaks, the AG has said.
The Cushman appraisers "crafted a development timeline" for the properties, then "falsely attributed it to somebody else" in order to boost their assessed values, a lawyer for the AG's office, Austin Thompson, said during a May court hearing.
The AG has also alleged Cushman appraisals of Trump's interest in 40 Wall Street, a 70-story building in Manhattan's Financial District, more than doubled between 2012 and 2015. Trump allegedly used the higher appraisal as collateral for a $160 million loan.
Five Cushman appraisers who worked on the three properties "have made repeated misstatements in the documents we've seen so far," Thompson said.
"We're worried about misstatements contained in [the five employees'] appraisals, and whether they have been repeated more often than we've already identified," Thompson said.
James hopes to compare the five appraisers' work on the Trump properties with their work on "comparable" non-Trump properties that Cushman must now turn over.
"As maintained since this inquiry began, Cushman & Wakefield stands by the work of our appraisers who we believe exercised independent judgment," a company spokesperson said in response to a request for comment.
"We continue to work diligently to comply with the Court's decision."