(Bloomberg) — Lawyers for investors who claim they were defrauded by Donald Trump more than a decade ago finally got a chance to depose the former president about his marketing of a failed videophone venture on “Celebrity Apprentice,” according to a person familiar with the matter.
(Bloomberg) — Lawyers for investors who claim they were defrauded by Donald Trump more than a decade ago finally got a chance to depose the former president about his marketing of a failed videophone venture on “Celebrity Apprentice,” according to a person familiar with the matter.
A New York judge had ordered Trump to sit for questions in the videophone case by Oct. 31, after a planned testimony date was derailed by Hurricane Ian and triggered a fierce war of words between lawyers for plaintiffs and Trump. The deposition, which occurred earlier this month, hadn’t been reported.
It’s one of several depositions Trump has had to sit for recently. He was deposed in a separate case Wednesday for a defamation suit brought by New York author E. Jean Carroll. She alleges he raped her in a department store dressing room two decades ago and defamed her when he denied it.
Trump, his company and his three oldest children were sued in 2018 by four investors who claim they were duped by Trump’s promotions into paying thousands of dollars to become independent sellers with ACN Opportunity LLC, which sold a doomed videophone device that the future US president touted as the next big thing. The clunky devices were made obsolete by smartphones.
Read More: Trump’s Doomed Video Phones Loom in Backdrop of Media Foray
“As we complete fact discovery in this important fraud case, we could not be more pleased with the substantial body of evidence we have developed that will prove our clients’ claims,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Roberta Kaplan said in an email. “We are eager to move this case forward to trial as soon as possible.”
Trump has denied wrongdoing, arguing his comments praising ACN as an essentially risk-free investment amounted to mere “puffery” that no “reasonable investor” would have relied on.
A judge will rule next year on a request by the plaintiffs to let them represent potentially thousands of other investors who may have been wronged by the Trumps’ ACN pitches. The trial in Manhattan federal court is expected to last as long as four weeks, though a date hasn’t yet been set.
The investors’ lawyers have said they planned to grill Trump about why he started pitching the company to his viewers around 2008, assuring his fans that they could make easy money selling the phones “without any of the risks most entrepreneurs have to take.”
According to the suit, the Trumps lied about their faith in its products and also failed to disclose that they were being paid to promote the company. Trump himself starred in promotional videos and appeared in person at events for the company.
The case is McKoy v. Trump Corp., 18-cv-9936, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Updates with comment from plaintiffs’ attorney in fifth paragraph.)
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