Donald Trump’s niece Mary sued the president and other family members on Thursday, accusing them of defrauding her out of a family inheritance worth tens of millions of dollars.
The complaint accused Donald Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry, and his brother Robert Trump, who died in August, of “rampant fraud and misconduct.”
The complaint stated that “fraud was not just the family business – it was a way of life.”
Trump Barry and a lawyer for the estate of Robert Trump could not or did not respond for comment.
Mary Trump said that when her father Fred Trump Jr. died in 1981 when Mary was 16, there were valuable stakes in the family business that were left to Donald, Maryanne, and Robert to monitor as fiduciaries. But instead the sibling Trumps moved to siphon funds away, deceive her about what she should inherit, and squeeze her out.
Mary Trump says that the fraud did not come to light until the New York Times reported on an investigation into the Trump family tax matters in 2018.
A statement from her lawyer says that the Trumps betrayed her, working in secret to tell lie after lie about her inheritance, and conning her into giving away assets for a fraction of their value.
Robert Trump headed the family’s effort to block the publication of Mary Trump’s book before he died on August 15.
See Reuters.