> He was hauled into court because he overvalued his "properties" to banks to get loans
Like every real estate loan ever ?
Banks use Market valuation, not tax valuation for the purposes of granting loans. I literally just did the same thing with my own house to get some liquidity to renovate.
Bank wanted to actually give me more than what I was asking for, which was already way higher than the tax role.
It's not fraud, it's how real-estate works and the judge in the NY case is playing a dangerous game if he's trying to say it's fraud. It's a Civil suit brought by the state, and the plaintiff should have had the suit dismissed on the pure grounds they have suffered no harm, since the state didn't suffer harm. The bank should have sued if they were harmed, but the loan got reimbursed in full.