Elon Musk, Bill gates, and "kings' would pay $1 Billion for Mar-a-Lago, Trump expert to testify at NY fraud trial

- Trump plans to call Lawrence Moens, Palm Bench real-estate broker, at his NY fraud trial next week.

- Lawrence Moens has sworn Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and 'kings' will pay $1 Billion for the club, where he is a member.

- On Friday, OK'd Moens, the Judge, gave the testimony despite the state saying it will waste "an entire day."

Mar-a-Lago, left. Elon Musk, right. Giorgio Viera, left, Gonzalo Fuentes, right/Reuters
© Giorgio Viera, left, Gonzalo Fuentes, right/Reuters

Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and 'kings' will pay $1 billion dollars for Mar-a-Lago, according to a Palm Beach real-estate broker whom Trump plans to call to testify next week, as an expert defense witness in his NY fraud trial.

Lawrence Moens said "It is like a fantasy list", in a pre-trial deposition over the summer, explaining the dozen billionaires he thinks will spring that high for the property.

He told, "I could dream up anyone from Elon Musk to Bill Gates and everyone in between," to lawyers for the state attorney general's office during the July deposition. Kings, emperors, heads of state."

Moens said, "I wish he would let me sell it, but it is not for sale."

Lawrence Moens will testify on Trump's behalf Tuesday in the ongoing trial, Where lawyers for Letitia James, State Attorney General, are trying to prove the former president overstated his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion dollar a year in a decade's worth of financial statements to banks, tax officials and insurers.

Mar-a-Lago is chief among those exaggerations.

Donald Trump allegedly inflated the value of his Palm Beach resort in financial documents by as much as $714 million. New York attorney general's office
© New York attorney general's office

The AG Letitia James's office allege that as a part of an effort to fool banks into charging him better interest rates, Trump intentionally valued the property at a tremendous levels, saying it was worth as much as $739 million dollar. This is the number he used in 2018, where state officials say it was only $25 million dollar.

The state officials alleges, Trump relied on the false premise that Mar-a-Lago was an unrestricted property. Trump misinterpret that he could develop the 17 waterfront acres even though the former president had personally signed deeds contributing away his residential development rights for tax purposes, the State officials alleges.

Trump is obsessed on the value of Mar-a-Lago during the trial's nine weeks, as a matter of personal pride and as part of his defense that total net-worth statements actually underestimated the value of his total assets or properties.

What is at stake

The trial judge, NY Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, already found that Trump's net-worth statements were frauds.

At issue now, in the non-jury, civil trial, is the over-valuations of Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties fit the legal definition of fraud under NY criminal law, and if so, how many million in ill-gotten gains he must pay back.

The state officials alleges that over the course of a decade, Trump pocketed more than $250 million dollar in interest savings, assets and property sales proceeds that he'd never have had of he had told banks what his assets were really worth. 

The state officials fought hard on Friday against Trump's side calling Lawrence Moens as an expert witness.

The lead lawyer Kevin Wallace on the case of James, called the broker "a friend of Trump" whose valuation of the club can not be tested or recreated.

The judge had already found in his ruling from September that deed restrictions severely limited the club's value, Lead Lawyer Kevin Wallace Noted.

He complained "The defendants now want to spend a whole day arguing that you are wrong."

"And that Mar-a-Lago should be valued at $1 Billion dollar because Musk might want to go to Palm Beach," he added.

The judge responded, "And that's what we are going to do." "I am very reluctant to allow this but it is defense case."

Former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
© Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

An unbiased witness?

Lawrence Moens will be questioned on the witness stand Tuesday about whether he can give a unvarnished view of Mar-a-Lago's worth. Moens and Trump go back a long ways, and a lot of money has passed back and forth between them.

In 2008, Lawrence Moens brokered a record $95 million dollar sale of Trump's starter Palm Beach oceanfront mansion to a Russian fertilizer billionaire.

Lawrence Moens, "And did you receive a commission?" was asked during the July deposition.

"Well, it was a few million dollars," he said. " I do not remember the amount."

The attorney for the AG, Alex Finkelstein, "Do you recall receiving $225,000 dollar for consulting work" asked the broker showing him Trump Organization documents saying that money crossed hands in 2014.

Lawrence Moens said that he would have to check his records.

Moens also said that he's been a broker for Eric Trump, and a member of Mar-a-Lago since 1996, months after it opened. He knows that Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump, who he testified was "a very lovely person."

Moens said, "I have known her since she was a little girl."

He was mot circumspect about Trump, Though.

He said, "He is someone i have known for probably three decades, maybe longer," to the state's lawyers, when asked how he would describe his relationship to the former president.

The state's lawyer then asked, " How do you describe the word 'friend?'"

"I have very few friends, so i would describe them as people that are very close to me. that i see often, that i spend time with, that i have a relationship with, "Moens said.

"Is Donald Trump one of those people?" The broker was then asked.

"I do not see Donald Trump enough or spend enough time with Donald Trump to call him a friend," he answered.

Then asked "What would you call him?" Lawrence Moens added, I would like to think he is my friend, but i would call him someone that i have had an association with for many years."

Lawrence Moens will be the 3rd Trump insider to testify on his behalf as an expert witness.