New York State’s housing regulator is now “examining” the real estate empire built by President Trump’s father in the wake of a report that the family enriched itself by bilking tenants and cheating on its taxes.
The story published in Wednesday’s The New York Times claims the Trump family used a middle-man corporation — All County Building Supply & Maintenance — to inflate repair and maintenance costs at its Brooklyn and Queens housing developments, which were often built with government subsidies.
In turn, those higher costs were reported to authorities as justification for hiking rents on those properties, allowing the Trumps to profit from both ends of the transaction.
“The New York Times article alleges that the Trump family took advantage of a law designed to maintain rent-regulated apartments as safe, comfortable homes,” a spokesman for the state’s Division of Homes and Community Renewal told The Post. “DHCR and other State agencies are examining these specific allegations and the implications of these allegations on our enforcement of the state rent laws.”New York State and New York City tax authorities announced Tuesday they were probing allegations that Trump and his father, Fred, engaged in a series of tax schemes that potentially defrauded the government of $550 million in tax revenue.
President Trump attacked the story on Wednesday as a “hit piece,” but did not dispute the specifics reported by the broadsheet.