Donald Trump has been accused of inflating the valuation of his Turnberry golf resort as part of legal action filed in the United States.
The former US president — who bought the Carrick retreat in 2014 — has been named in the civil lawsuit alongside his three eldest children: Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric Trump.
It follows a three-year investigation led by Letitia James, the New York attorney-general.
Legal papers claim that the Trump Organisation lied about the value of its real estate assets to secure preferential rates on loans and to limit its tax bill.
US lawyers claim the Trump Organisation did not factor in any depreciation charges to its valuations at Turnberry until recently when it suggested the value of the property had reduced by $16.3 million between 2015 and last year, reports The Times.
The lawsuit argues Trump’s business failed to “use basic rules of valuation to ensure reliable and accurate results”.
Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney, two Trump Organisation executives, are also named in the lawsuit.
Trump has dismissed the process as “another witch-hunt” while his lawyers have said “absolutely no wrongdoing has taken place”.
If found guilty of the charges, Trump could be banned from being a company director or officer in New York and face a fine of up to $250 million.
The lawsuit cites more than 200 instances of property valuations being “manipulated”.
The US legal document also claims the annual valuation of Trump's Balmedie resort in Aberdeen and its adjacent land were calculated using “improper methods and based on facts and assumptions that were materially false and misleading”.
The filing shows the value of the golf course has varied between $37 million and $78 million during a decade of Trump’s ownership starting in 2011.
James, the attorney-general, said: “This investigation revealed that Donald Trump engaged in years of illegal conduct to inflate his net worth, to deceive banks and the people of the great state of New York.”
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