Para leer en español, vea esta traducción de Google Translate.
Quick Take
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who won a civil fraud case against former President Donald Trump, has a net worth of about $2.7 million, her most recent financial disclosure statement shows. But social media posts baselessly claim she’s worth $15 million. The claim appears to come from a website that says it “cannot guarantee its accuracy.”
Full Story
Letitia James, New York state’s attorney general, has a personal net worth of about $2.7 million, according to her most recent financial disclosure statement, an accounting required of all state officers and employees whose annual salary exceeds $108,638.
But some partisan social media accounts claim she has a personal net worth of $15 million, which they suggest may indicate that she is guilty of “fraud.”
In February, James won a judgment of more than $450 million in a civil fraud case she had brought against former President Donald Trump and his organization.
“URGENT! Letitia James should be investigated for fraud immediately,” Terrence K. Williams, a conservative comedian we’ve written about before, said in a March 26 post on Facebook. “Her Net Worth Jumped from a 100k to 15 Million in 2023.”
Williams didn’t offer any support for his claim about James’ finances. But a website called the Net Worth Club posted a story in October with the headline, “Letitia James Real Estate Deals and $15 Million Wealth.” The story doesn’t cite the sources of its information, and a disclaimer at the bottom of the page says, in part, “We do our best to ensure that the information is accurate and up-to-date, but we cannot guarantee its accuracy or completeness.”
The website is registered to an owner in India, who did not respond to our email seeking details on the sources for the story, so we don’t know how it arrived at the $15 million figure.
But, as we said, according to the financial disclosure James filed with the state for her 2022 finances, her personal worth was about $2.7 million.
The disclosure form, which asks elected officials to give ranges for the worth of their assets and debts, shows that James earns between $175,000 and $320,000 a year. That includes income from her position as attorney general, her salary as an adjunct professor and income from rental properties.
The value of her real estate — which includes a Brooklyn building that has four rental units and a single family home in Virginia that is described as an investment property — is between $3.4 million and $3.7 million.
And James listed her debts, which appear to be mortgages, as being between $850,000 and $1.3 million.
We also found no support for Williams’ claim that the attorney general’s net worth in 2023 “jumped from $100k,” suggesting that James has profited from her office as the state’s top law enforcement official. Since James was elected in 2018, her financial disclosures indicate that she had had a personal net worth of about $2 million each year.
We emailed James’ office asking if there were any assets she had acquired since her last financial disclosure that may have added to her total net worth, but we didn’t get a response. Her disclosure form for 2023 is due on May 15.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.
Sources
James, Letitia. Financial Disclosure Statement – 2022. 12 May 2023.
New York State Attorney General. Press release. “Attorney General James Wins Landmark Victory in Case Against Donald Trump.” 16 Feb 2024.
Farley, Robert. “Trump Retweets False Attack on Rep. Omar.” FactCheck.org. 18 Sep 2019.
Zinsner, Hadleigh. “Viral Post Uses Altered Audio of Interview with Greta Thunberg.” FactCheck.org. 26 Oct 2023.
Jaffe, Alan. “Romney Not Switching Parties, Contrary to Online Claim.” FactCheck.org. 2 Aug 2023.
Hale Spencer, Saranac. “Bogus Theory Misinterprets FTX Support for Ukraine.” FactCheck.org. Updated 13 Dec 2022.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Domain information: CACLUBINDIA.COM. Accessed 29 Mar 2024.
The post Social Media Posts Inflate Net Worth of N.Y. Attorney General appeared first on FactCheck.org.