Donald Trump ‘committed mortgage fraud’, investigation claims

Mortgages for a person’s primary home often qualify for lower interest rates or more favorable terms than mortgages for a second home or an investment rental property.

The allegations that Trump tried to game the system are the same as those made by New York Attorney General — and frequent Trump critic — Letitia James, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution while securing a mortgage for her spare home.

According to a non-profit organization ProPublicaTrump signed a mortgage for a “primary residence” in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1993. Less than two months later, he reapplied for a mortgage for a separate home, which he again designated as his “main home.”

“In reality, it appears that Trump, a New Yorker at the time, never lived in either home, let alone used them as a primary residence,” the group found. “Instead, the two homes, which are adjacent to his historic Mar-a-Lago estate, were used as investment properties and rented out…exactly the kind of scenario his administration has pointed to as evidence of fraud.”