Michael Cohen puts up $9M Trump Park Avenue apartment as collateral against bank debt
Photo of Michael Cohen via Wikimedia; image of Trump Park Avenue via Google Earth
Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney for President Donald Trump, has put up his family’s Park Avenue apartment as collateral against a bank loan worth millions of dollars. The bank valued Cohen’s condo, fittingly at Trump Park Avenue in Lenox Hill, for $9 million. The financially troubled lawyer is putting his apartment against $12.8 million in loans he took out for his taxi business in 2014. Cohen secured these loans by New York City taxi medallions, which have dropped in value by 80 percent due to the growth of ride-sharing services, according to Bloomberg.
Trump Park Avenue via Wikimedia
The apartment sits on the 10th floor of Trump Park Avenue and contains three combined units. While Cohen’s apartment had a $2 million mortgage against it, his wife, Laura, took out a $500,000 home equity line of credit in 2016 from First Republic Bank.
Cohen has admitted he used a home equity line of credit to make a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress who claims she had an affair with the president. Just three weeks before the 2016 election, Daniels took the money in exchange for not speaking publicly about the affair with Trump.
An investigation is now underway into whether this hush payment violated campaign finance laws. Plus, the FBI raided Cohen’s office and his Park Avenue home last month, seizing records and documents related to the Daniels’ payment, in addition to other topics. New York prosecutors are also investigating possible bank and wire fraud tied to Cohen.
In response to Bloomberg’s request for comment, Cohen said: “With all due respect, you don’t remotely understand my loan.”
[Via Bloomberg]
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