Mark Pomerantz, a former senior prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's office who was involved in the investigation of Donald Trump's business dealings, has said the former president ran 'an empire built on lies.'

Speaking to CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday night, Pomerantz revealed how there were 'many bits and pieces of evidence' that could support criminal charges against the former president.  

Pomerantz, who oversaw the investigation into Trump and his businesses until early last year, noted how if similar evidence had been against anyone else, charges would have been brought without hesitation in a 'flat second.'

The former prosecutor pointed to evidence he had access to during the investigation. He claims Trump 'inflated his worth by billions'.

After scouring Trump's life and business, Pomerantz says prosecutors agreed on a case involving allegations that Trump falsified records by inflating the value of assets on financial statements he provided lenders. 

One key charge is how Trump is alleged to have personally signed off on inflating his own net worth in order to obtain more favorable banks loans.

It includes Trump's own signature on a Deutsche Bank loan in which he certified the accuracy of his financial statements.

'There were many bits and pieces of evidence on which we could rely in making that case,' Pomerantz said. 

Pomerantz claims to have documents proving that Trump lied about the size of his Fifth Avenue condominium. 

'He warrants that the financial statements are true and correct in all material respects. Finally of course on the guaranty is his sharpie signature, Donald J. Trump,' Pomerantz said. 

Pomerantz claims he has documents proving Trump knew the size of his 10,996-square-foot Fifth Avenue condominium, but lied claiming in 2015 and 2016 that it was really 30,000 square feet. 

Pomerantz claims Trump lied about his assets to appear wealthier than he was in order to obtain multimillion dollar favorable bank loans to expand his real estate empire. 

He said Trump then used the money to buy the Doral Hotel in Miami, refinance the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago and renovate the Old Post Office property in Washington DC.  

'What the investigation determined was that the financial statements that were submitted to banks for those years were overstated in each case by literally billions of dollars,' Pomerantz told CBS News.

'The financial statements that he prepared were given to the banks, and had to be given to the banks, in order to get the loans that he got. So he got hundreds of millions of dollars of bank financing in connection with many of his properties.'  

CBS reporter Bill Whitaker sought to clarify his remarks: 'It sounds like you're saying that his empire is built on lies?'

'His empire was built on lies. I am saying that.'

Pomerantz then detailed how Trump allegedly dramatically pushed up the valuations of his properties including his Mar-a-Lago country club, 40 Wall Street, Seven Springs in Westchester County, New York together with some of his golf clubs, and his penthouse apartment.

Trump has stated that the case against him is a politically driven witch hunt and has constantly denied any wrongdoing because he has since paid off the loans, but the former prosecutor disagrees. 

'That doesn't mean the banks are okay with false financial statements. The law is crystal clear that you don't have to prove that a loan wasn't repaid or that a bank lost money. It's still a crime to lie to a bank to get a loan.'

Pomerantz explains how Trump allegedly inflated the value of certain assets, in particular his properties. 

'It was easier to "bump up" certain assets than other assets. Seven Springs, Mar-a-Lago, the triplex: his residences, each of which, by the way, he claimed to have a value in that was more than anybody had ever bought or sold a private residence for in the history of the United States, ever,' Pomerantz said.

'The tactics varied from property to property to property. What they had in common was that they were dishonest.'

Accounting spreadsheets valued Florida's Mar-a-Lago at $739 million in 2018; but New York Attorney General James concluded it was only worth about $75 million.  

Trump's Seven Springs property in Westchester was valued at $161 million in 2014 but then the Trump Organization's own appraiser valued the development rights between $29 million and $50 million.

A golf course in Jupiter, Florida, was bought by Trump for $5 million in 2012 but he later valued it at $62 million before filing a lawsuit to claim his taxes were too high. 

Pomerantz's comments have drawn criticism from the DA's Association of the State of New York and his former boss, District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who says more work was needed to make the case against Trump. 

Bragg also stated that Pomerantz's forthcoming tell-all book about his time investigating Trump could cause harm to the case which is still active, and that he won't be drawn to comment on any ongoing investigation.

Bragg's office even asked to review his book before its publication out of concern it might reveal information obtained from a grand jury. 

'After closely reviewing all the evidence from Mr. Pomerantz's investigation, I came to the same conclusion as several senior prosecutors involved in the case, and also those I brought on: more work was needed. Put another way, Mr. Pomerantz's plane wasn't ready for takeoff,' Bragg said in a statement.

Bragg is withholding any comment he might have on what is an 'ongoing investigation because of the harm it could cause to the case. But I do hope there is at least one section where Mr. Pomerantz recognizes his former colleagues for how much they have achieved on the Trump matter over the last year since his departure,' he noted.

"Our skilled and professional legal team continues to follow the facts of this case wherever they may lead, without fear or favor. Mr. Pomerantz decided to quit a year ago and sign a book deal,' Bragg stated. 

The New York Attorney General, Letitia James, a Democrat, has brought a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump and several others, alleging that they participated in a ten-year long scheme involving the use of false financial statements to secure favorable loans, insurance rates, and tax benefits. 

Unlike criminal cases, a lower standard of proof is required in civil lawsuits. 

Trump has dismissed the lawsuit as politically motivated and has denied any wrongdoing.

The allegations come shortly before the release of a book by Pomerantz, who resigned from the DA's office last year in protest. 

The resignation was a result of DA Alvin Bragg's refusal to allow Pomerantz to seek an indictment against Trump. 

Previously, the district attorney's office brought tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, who later pleaded guilty. 

Pomerantz's resignation was accompanied by that of the general counsel, Carey Dunne.

'If you take the exact same conduct – and make it not about Donald Trump and not about a former president of the United States, would the case have been indicted? It would have been indicted in a flat second,' Pomerantz said on 60 Minutes, calling Bragg's decision not to bring the case a 'grave failure of justice.'

In 2022, two Trump entities, The Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp., were convicted of 17 felonies, including tax fraud and falsifying business records. 

In 2021, Pomerantz's team charged Trump's company, the Trump Organization, and its longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, with evading taxes on fringe benefits given to company executives, but it was Bragg and his team who saw the cases through, securing Weisselberg's guilty plea in August and the Trump Organization's conviction in December. 

Weisselberg is serving a five-month jail sentence and the company was fined $1.6 million for running a decade-long tax fraud scheme by giving executives perks such as cars, rent-free apartments and private school tuition fees.

Trump himself has never been charged or convicted.

'His desperate attempt to sell books will cost him everything. Not to mention, it is clear that he was very much in the minority in his position that President Trump committed a crime,' Joe Tacopina stated. 

In the book, People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account, which is due to be published on Tuesday, sees Pomerantz compare Trump to John Gotti, the head of the Gambino organized crime family.

Trump has threatened legal action against Pomerantz and Simon & Schuster for what he contends are 'defamatory statements' and 'groundless falsehoods' about his alleged criminal conduct.

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said the New York investigations are attempts by Democrats to keep him out of the White House.

In a post to his Trump Social platform on Sunday night, Trump stated: 'Crooked Hillary Clinton's lawyer, radically deranged Mark Pomerantz, led the fake investigation into me and my business at the Manhattan D.A.'s Office and quit because D.A. Bragg, rightfully, wanted to drop the 'weak' and 'fatally flawed' case. Now, Pomerantz got himself a book deal, and is obsessively spreading falsehoods about me. With all of this vicious disinformation being revealed by a 'prosecutor,' how can I ever be treated fairly in New York, or anywhere else? End the Witch Hunts!'