Trump Inflated Worth of Scottish Properties on Financial Forms: Report
BIG TALKER
President Trump filed different numbers on financial forms for the United States and the United Kingdom regarding his Scottish golf resorts, effectively inflating their worth, HuffPost reported Tuesday.
In a 2018 U.S. filing, the president claimed that the resorts, Turnberry and Aberdeen, were together worth over $100 million. However, on balance sheets filed with the U.K. for the same period, the resorts are shown to carry a combined debt of $64.8 million. Mismatched figures again appear on his 2018 “public financial disclosure” filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. There Trump claimed the properties earned him $23.8 million in income—in conflict with U.K. filings which show the resorts actually lost $6.3 million that year. Left off the forms altogether was the $199.5 million in loans Trump made to the resorts, pulling from both his trust and personal wealth.
The inconsistencies raise questions about Trump’s culpability in the disclosures. Signing a form that declares inaccurate assets equates to making a false statement, and is punishable by up to five years in prison.