The Trump family’s longtime banker and Donald Trump himself are set to take the witness stand in his upcoming civil fraud trial in New York, where the former president is accused of exaggerating the value of his assets by billions of dollars for a decade to dupe lenders and insurers.

Three current and three former employees of Deutsche Bank AG, which arranged hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to Trump, appeared on a list of witnesses filed with the court by New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose lawsuit against Trump heads to trial in Manhattan on Oct. 2.

In a twist, Trump and his two sons who are named in the suit, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, will also testify at some point during the trial, appearing on the witness lists for both sides. Ivanka Trump, who was dismissed from the suit by an appeals court in June, appears on the state’s list.

Deutsche Bank, which was one of Trump’s biggest lenders, has been central to the case filed last year by James, and testimony from its bankers may shed light on the real estate mogul’s long and complicated relationship with financial institutions. The Frankfurt-based lender decided to cut ties with Trump following the deadly riots at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

One banker from Morgan Stanley and Capital One are also slated to take the stand, according to the state’s witness list.

Witnesses include Trump’s family banker Rosemary Vrablic, a former Deutsche Bank managing director who arranged hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to Trump’s company. Also on the list is Deutsche Bank’s Arjun Nagarkatti, who was the lender’s US wealth management head before being tapped earlier this year to run private banking in central Europe and the US.

Former Morgan Stanley employee K. Don Cornwell also appears on New York’s list of witnesses, along with employees from Capital One and Ladder Capital, which employed a son of longtime Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg. Both appear on Trump’s witness list as well.

James also listed Weisselberg and the Trump company’s general counsel Alan Garten. Weisselberg pleaded guilty in a separate criminal case and was called as a prosecution witness at the criminal trial of the Trump Organization, which was later convicted of tax fraud charges.

Employees of the real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, which also severed ties with Trump after the Capitol riot, are set to testify as well. The state has zeroed in on Cushman’s appraisals of three Trump properties: the Seven Springs Estate in Westchester County, the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, and 40 Wall Street in Manhattan.

Trump subpoenaed Vrablic in February and also included her on his witness list, suggesting her testimony is seen as crucial to both sides. Trump has claimed that lenders knew to take the valuations of his assets with a grain of salt and conduct their analyses.

LIABLE FOR FRAUD

The judge overseeing the trial earlier this week held Trump liable for fraud, handing a major win to James on her biggest claim against the former president. The trial will resolve six remaining claims including issuing false financial statements, conspiring to falsify business records, and insurance fraud. James is seeking $250 million in penalties.

James subpoenaed Deutsche Bank in 2019 following explosive congressional testimony by Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, who said that the Trump Organization inflated the value of its assets on financial statements to get loans or better rates on insurance.

The Trumps and their sprawling real estate company have denied wrongdoing and say the state had no right to sue them because no banks lost money as a result of their alleged conduct. They also claim Trump was giving accurate values to his properties based on the Trump “brand premium.”

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