I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand.

It's time for some money rehab. When you filed your taxes for the first time you thought you were going to jail, right?

I think we all felt that way. There are so many complex rules when it comes to our money and we are all anxious about getting it wrong or going to jail or more likely getting slapped with a huge fine.

On the show sometimes I talk about loopholes, perfectly legal ways to save here and there, but even those can be anxiety-provoking because we don't want to cross the line from a loophole to, you know, fraud.

And one person who's had mixed success walking this line is former President Donald Trump.

As you have definitely heard by now, Trump has a bunch of charges against him for all sorts of alleged crimes.

But today I'm going to focus in on just the financial crimes

so that you can hear the mistakes he made

and how you can actually take advantage of the loopholes he has long tried to exploit.

First a little bit of background.

The charges we're talking about are the ones filed in New York.

The allegation is that Trump falsified the values of various properties by between 1.9 billion and 3.6 billion dollars over about a decade starting in 2011.

In the first stage of the trial back in October, the judge found Trump and his corporation guilty of overvaluing his personal apartment in Trump Tower by falsifying the square footage and by overvaluing the price of Marilago.

There are six remaining counts of fraud on the table, including insurance fraud.

The claim is that Trump and his organization manipulated the value of various properties so that he could

get better rates on insurance and more favorable terms on loans. If Trump is found

guilty he would be on the hook for 250250 million in fines.

Plus, Trump and his sons would be banned from operating businesses

in New York, and Trump and the Trump organization

could be banned from engaging

in commercial real estate transactions, period.

Trump has spent much of the case complaining about the judge and his law clerk.

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