Mayor de Blasio vows to go after Trump for unpaid taxes after bombshell report

Oct. 03--New York City wants its money, Mr. President.

After The New York Times reported President Trump had amassed his wealth in part by setting up sham companies to help him take tax breaks and undervalue his New York City real estate properties, Mayor de Blasio said the conduct could subject to criminal or civil penalties.

"The City of New York is looking to recoup any money that Donald Trump owes the people of New York City, period," de Blasio said Wednesday. "And we will work with the state and we're going to look under every stone because I said earlier this morning, you know, that's money that could be going to veterans, could be going to seniors, could be going to kids that he should've paid in taxes and didn't. So we're going to go pursue that with all vigor."

The state Tax Department has already launched an investigation into the allegations in the Times story, which was based on a trove of tax returns and other financial records. It alleged that the Trumps set up fake companies in order to disguise millions of dollars of gifts from Trump's dad, Fred Trump, so that they would be taxed at a lower rate.

"It's also an indictment of the culture of New York City and New York State going back decades -- there was a good old boy network that obviously Donald Trump played like a fiddle and evaded the kind of regulation and investigation and prosecution he should have received many times over," de Blasio argued.

The story also outlined how Trump gamed the state's notoriously toothless rent regulation laws -- falsely claiming to make "major capital improvements," or MCIs, so he could hike rents.

"I don't think MCI regulation is being handled properly right now. But I think it's because the law is too weak and we have a chance in Albany to go strengthen that law," de Blasio said. "The MCIs are not only being assessed inappropriately in many cases, but the law allows permanent rent change based on a MCI that should only merit a temporary rent change."

Asked whether the city could try to roll back some of those rent hikes -- which are decades old -- de Blasio said he was unsure.

"With MCIs, there's a state regulatory role so we have to figure out what they do and what we do," he said. "Is it conceivable? I think it is, but I don't know enough about the facts yet to say if we can definitely do it. If we can do it, we should."

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