Was Donald Trump's Company Accused Of A Major Insurance Scam?

Aside from being known as the 45th and 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump is also known as a savvy businessman to some people. According to CBS News, in 2016, Trump disclosed that he had approximately 500 businesses, most of which are shells to "set up to hold stakes in other companies, possibly to provide legal and tax protection." "What he has done is truly remarkable," Ivanka Trump said about her father to ABC News. "There is no businessman who is a brand in and of himself in the same way that he is, and it is such a unique thing and it's very beneficial for everything that we do."

Even though some people think Trump knows what he is doing when it comes down to business, the law feels very differently. In February 2019, Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen told Congress that Trump "inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed amongst the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes," per The Washington Post. According to NPR, Trump had to pay out $25 million in a settlement deal for the 6,000 students who paid for Trump University real-estate seminars that were proven to be worthless.

Later, in 2021, the Trump Organization faced a criminal investigation from the district attorney's office in Westchester County, New York, per Vanity Fair. This criminal investigation of the Trump Organization involved insurance fraud, the town of Ossining, and the Trump National Golf Club.

After a deluge flooded the Trump National Golf Club in the Village of Briarcliff Manor and Ossining in 2011, Donald Trump decided to make an insurance claim for $1.3 million to fix the golf course, per Rolling Stone. In 2021, the organization was investigated for claiming that the value of its golf-course property was "less than one tenth of what local officials said it was actually worth," per Vanity Fair. The $1.3 million was far more than what it actually cost to repair the golf course, which was actually around $130,000 to $150,000 in damages, a source told Rolling Stone. "The work was never completed," the former employee claimed. "They basically Band-Aided it." 

The Trump Organization even tried to ask for an insurance claim for more than $1.3 million, but was ultimately denied because they failed to give the receipts needed for that big payout, another source told Rolling Stone. This is not the first time the Trump organization has been investigated. Trump's organization and his chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, faced a tax fraud case in New York City, and a court trial was expected in 2022, per NPR. 

"We have strong reason to believe there could be other indictments coming," said Bryan Skarlatos, one of Weisselberg's attorneys, at the time. Weisselberg was ultimately sentenced to five months in prison.