Jon Stewart is back to part-time hosting duties on The Daily Show. Like Bill Maher, he has his hits and misses, and this week’s episode was a strikeout for the comedian/commentator. Former President Donald Trump got good news in his ongoing civil fraud case in New York: an appellate court dropped his bond to $175 million.
Stewart argued that despite having no victims in this matter, it’s still not a victimless crime. Trump is alleged to have overvalued his assets to secure loans. One ludicrous allegation made by prosecutors is that Mar-a-Lago is only worth $18 million while the actual value remains in the hundreds of millions.
Every real estate company does this, a point argued by Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary. And guess who else has done this? Jon Stewart (via NY Post):
“Because they are not victimless crimes,” he [Stewart] said.
To further his point, Stewart argued that “money isn’t infinite. A loan that goes to the liar doesn’t go to someone who’s giving a more honest evaluation. So the system becomes incentivized for corruption.”
Stewart also contended that failing to declare a higher market value on a property, while paying taxes based on a lower assessed value, constitutes fraudulent behavior.
“The attorney general of New York knew that Trump’s property values were inflated because when it came time to pay taxes, Trump undervalued the very same properties,” Stewart added. “It was all part of a very specific real estate practice known as lying.”
But it didn’t take long for internet sleuths to look into Stewart’s own property history, which shows his New York City penthouse sold for 829% more than its assessed value, records confirmed by The Post reveal.
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In 2014, Stewart sold his 6,280-square-foot Tribeca duplex to financier Parag Pande for $17.5 million. The property’s asking price at that time is not available in listing records.
But according to 2013-2014 assessor records obtained by The Post, the property had the estimated market-value at only $1.882 million.
The actual assessor valuation was even lower, at $847,174.