Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Donald Trump Sued For Cheating His Fans Of $40 Million
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 25, 2013
Modified Aug 25, 2013
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 25, 2013
Modified Aug 25, 2013
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
New York Attorney General Eric Schniederman is suing Donald Trump and his real estate "university" for defrauding more than 5,000 people of $40 million. "Mr. Trump used his celebrity status and personally appeared in commercials making false promises to convince people to spend tens of thousands of dollars they couldn't afford for lessons they never got," Schniederman says in a release. "No one, no matter how rich or popular they are, has a right to scam hard working New Yorkers. Anyone who does should expect to be held accountable."
According to Schneiderman, Trump's scheme involved getting people to sign up for a $1,495 three-day seminar, which was just a springboard for pitching the "Trump Elite Mentorship" programs that cost $10K to $35K.
In the seminar, participants were allegedly "encouraged to call their credit card companies during breaks, to increase their credit limits to have access to funds to do real estate deals." Naturally, "the real reason Trump University asked consumers to request higher credit limits was so they could use the credit to pay for the expensive Elite programs."
All the while, Trump promised "hand-picked" instructors. "We're gonna teach you better than the business schools are gonna teach you," Trump tells a strange, unidentified man in the video below. "We're gonna teach you life."
"In reality, many of the promises made at the free seminars went unfulfilled," Schiederman's release states, bathos dripping off every syllable. "An investigation by Attorney General Schneiderman revealed that Donald Trump did not handpick even a single instructor at these seminars and had little or no role in developing any of the Trump University curricula, or seminar content."
The complaint also alleges that Trump operated unlicensed, and illegally called the school a "University," which in a legal context, defines a much larger, if slightly more useful scam. And then there's this anecdote about Trump's Elite Membership Program:
Instead of a personal appearance from Donald Trump as some consumers were led to expect, some participants got their photographs taken with a life-size photo of Mr. Trump.
"Some" ! Not even all of them got to take a photo with a cardboard cutout.
How can Trump's lawyers spin this? Maybe he actually taught them about the lucrative world of praying on people's hopes and dreams during turbulent economic times with fraudulent universities?
On Saturday evening, Michael Cohen, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, denied the accusations in the lawsuit and said the school had received 11,000 evaluations, 98 percent of which rated students as “extremely satisfied.”
George Sorial, another lawyer for Mr. Trump, called the lawsuit politically motivated. He said that Mr. Schneiderman had asked Mr. Trump and his family for campaign contributions and grew angry when denied.
“This is tantamount to extortion,” Mr. Sorial said.
Turns out Schneiderman actually did take a contribution from Trump. A bridge worth burning.
Tagged
donald trump
for-profit universities
horrible human beings
vulgarians
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Inside the plan to fix the nearly collapsed Pfizer Building, 1/64th of an inch at a time
Construction crews will jack up sagging floors where two key structural columns bent in July.
By
David Brand
Published Oct 16, 2026 at 1:54 p.m. ET
School bus carrying autistic students got lost in Brooklyn for 4 hours last year
A city investigation discovered that when the bus arrived at its destination in Crown Heights, one student was lying in a pool of urine.
By
Jessica Gould
News
School bus carrying autistic students got lost in Brooklyn for 4 hours last year
A city investigation discovered that when the bus arrived at its destination in Crown Heights, one student was lying in a pool of urine.
By
Jessica Gould
NYC’s bridges can last 'forever,' if we take care of them
By
Clayton Guse
Queens mother charged with murder in death of 5-year-old daughter, NYPD says
By
Ryan Kost
NYC’s whiplash weather continues into weekend with heavy winds, chilly temps, NWS says
By
Monica Melton
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .