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How Trump’s legal woes are threatening his fortune · Apple News Today

• 0:00
  [INTRO MUSIC BEGINS]
• 0:05
  Yasmeen Khan, Narrating: Good morning. It's Wednesday, January 31st.
• 0:08
  I'm Yasmeen Khan, in for Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
• 0:13
  Coming up, how Trump's legal problems are money problems,
• 0:17
  the billion-dollar link between scammers and Walmart,
• 0:21
  and the practice squads that match up with the best women in college basketball.
• 0:32
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 0:34
  But first, a quick look at a few major stories in the news.
• 0:38
  House Republicans are moving forward with an impeachment
• 0:41
  of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
• 0:44
  The Homeland Security Committee voted after midnight, along party lines,
• 0:49
  to approve articles of impeachment over immigration policy.
• 0:53
  That sets up a vote in the full House.
• 0:55
  If that vote also goes against him,
• 0:57
  Mayorkas will be only the second cabinet secretary in history
• 1:01
  to be impeached.
• 1:02
  He's unlikely to be convicted in the Senate.
• 1:06
  In the Middle East,
• 1:07
  Hamas says it's looking at a new ceasefire proposal
• 1:10
  developed with international mediators, including the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt.
• 1:15
  It would involve a three-stage truce,
• 1:17
  including the release of civilian hostages held in Gaza
• 1:21
  and Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
• 1:23
  "NPR" talked about timing of a potential deal
• 1:26
  with Qatar's prime minister,
• 1:28
  Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.
• 1:31
  [START NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 1:32
  Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani: We cannot predict that it is going to have a breakthrough
• 1:36
  and will move forward very fast or how fast it will go.
• 1:40
  It will all depend on both parties.
• 1:42
  Our aim is to finish this as soon as possible
• 1:46
  and to bring the hostages back, but to put a closure for the war as well.
• 1:49
  [END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 1:50
  Khan, Narrating: It's not clear whether the latest proposal would stop fighting in Gaza.
• 1:54
  Hamas wants a total withdrawal.
• 1:56
  Israel says it won't pull out troops until it wins a total victory over Hamas.
• 2:02
  Also in the region,
• 2:04
  the Iran-backed militia suspected in the recent deadly strike on U.S. troops
• 2:08
  says it's suspending attacks on American forces.
• 2:12
  The Pentagon says that won't change its plans to retaliate for the attack.
• 2:16
  President Biden says he's already decided on the response
• 2:19
  and that he doesn't want a broader conflict with Iran.
• 2:22
  [START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 2:23
  President Joe Biden: I don't think we need a wider war in the Middle East.
• 2:26
  That's not what I'm looking for.
• 2:27
  [END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 2:27
  Khan, Narrating: Elsewhere, the U.N.'s International Court of Justice ruled today
• 2:32
  that Russia violated some parts of a U.N. anti-terror treaty,
• 2:36
  but it did not order compensation as Ukraine had wanted.
• 2:39
  It's one of several cases that started before the current war in Ukraine.
• 2:44
  Kyiv accused Moscow of supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine
• 2:48
  and discriminating against Ukrainians in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
• 2:54
  And a judge is striking down Tesla's multibillion-dollar pay package
• 2:59
  for CEO Elon Musk.
• 3:01
  The stock options and the 2018 pay deal
• 3:03
  are potentially worth more than $50 billion.
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  Shareholders sued, saying it was excessive.
• 3:10
  The case was argued in Delaware,
• 3:12
  where Tesla and many big American companies are incorporated.
• 3:15
  Musk said on his social-media platform, X,
• 3:18
  [MYSTERIOUS MUSIC FADES IN]
• 3:18
  "Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware."
• 3:31
  As soon as today, former President Trump could be ordered to pay
• 3:35
  as much as $370 million in a civil fraud trial in New York.
• 3:40
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 3:40
  Attorney General Letitia James
• 3:42
  has accused him of lying to banks about his finances
• 3:45
  in order to secure better terms on loans.
• 3:48
  This could be a second big hit to Trump's personal finances
• 3:51
  in a matter of weeks.
• 3:52
  Just last Friday, a jury ordered Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll
• 3:57
  more than $83 million for defaming her.
• 4:00
  That's on top of the 5 million
• 4:01
  he was ordered to pay for sexually abusing her.
• 4:04
  Trump's attorneys are fighting the rulings.
• 4:07
  "Bloomberg" reports on how the total financial penalties
• 4:10
  could impact Trump personally and politically.
• 4:14
  All told, Trump could owe up to $458 million.
• 4:18
  The "Bloomberg Billionaires Index"
• 4:20
  estimates he has around 600 million in liquid assets
• 4:23
  and a net worth of around 3.1 billion.
• 4:27
  The exact number isn't known because his finances are so murky.
• 4:31
  Legal reporter Eric Larson talked to us
• 4:34
  about just how risky these cases are for Trump's wealth.
• 4:37
  Erik Larson: If you add on significant interest potentially in the New York fraud case,
• 4:41
  you could be getting closer to $500 million.
• 4:45
  So for any billionaire, you know, that's a big hit, no matter what.
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  It would come out to about, without interest,
• 4:51
  about 15% of Trump's total assets.
• 4:55
  Khan, Narrating: Trump has used his legal issues
• 4:57
  to raise money for his presidential campaign.
• 4:59
  Those funds can be used to pay some legal bills,
• 5:02
  but not personal expenses like paying damages.
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  He's using a lot of donated money to pay fees for now, Larson says.
• 5:10
  And Trump might sell assets to get more cash.
• 5:13
  His money, as you may know, is largely tied up in real estate.
• 5:18
  The upcoming civil fraud decision could also strike at the heart
• 5:22
  of Trump's carefully cultivated image as an entrepreneur.
• 5:26
  Larson: He's built his persona around his wealth
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  and being a successful businessman here in New York.
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  If he gets hit in two weeks with damage awards that eat away his cash
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  just at this moment that he wants to show voters how successful he is,
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  that he's invincible, it does chip away potentially at that persona.
• 5:46
  Khan, Narrating: And one thing is certain: Trump's legal bills are growing.
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  [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC FADES IN]
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  He also faces 91 criminal charges.
• 6:04
  You probably know about the danger of financial fraud schemes,
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  but you may not know just how much money
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  scammers are moving through America's biggest retailer.
• 6:14
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 6:14
  [START PROPUBLICA ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 6:15
  Craig Silverman: Walmart became a place that,
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  you know, more than a billion dollars' worth of consumer fraud losses
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  flowed through over just a period of about a decade.
• 6:24
  [END PROPUBLICA ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 6:24
  Khan, Narrating: "ProPublica"'s Craig Silverman has been investigating
• 6:28
  what some federal prosecutors call "The Walmart Scheme."
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  Now, Walmart isn't accused of direct involvement with the criminals,
• 6:35
  but "ProPublica" found that scammers like to use Walmart's gift cards
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  and financial services because of lax security.
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  In a typical scam,
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  fraudsters will call someone with a fake emergency,
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  maybe that they owe the IRS money and have to pay immediately or go to jail.
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  They'll demand payment
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  in thousands of dollars' worth of gift cards bought at a Walmart.
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  The con artist then uses the gift cards to buy more gift cards at Walmart.
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  This launders the money so the victim can't get it back
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  when they realize they've been scammed.
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  And then the scammer ultimately resells the gift cards online.
• 7:13
  Walmart tells "ProPublica" that it has strong anti-fraud efforts in place,
• 7:18
  and it has blocked millions of dollars' worth of suspicious money transfers.
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  But "ProPublica"'s reporting
• 7:25
  finds that criminals consistently use Walmart stores in their schemes.
• 7:29
  [START PROPUBLICA ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 7:30
  Silverman: Walmart became a focus of a huge amount of consumer fraud for a few reasons.
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  One is the scale.
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  There is a Walmart close to almost everybody in the United States.
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  And so if I'm a scammer and I need to get somebody somewhere
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  to get money out of them, a Walmart becomes convenient.
• 7:47
  [END PROPUBLICA ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 7:48
  Khan, Narrating: As Walmart continued to expand its financial offerings,
• 7:51
  that scale only grew.
• 7:53
  Gift cards have been used by fraudsters for years, not just at Walmart.
• 7:57
  In 2018, several states worked with Target, Best Buy and Walmart
• 8:02
  to tighten up security.
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  But Walmart was slower than the other retailers.
• 8:07
  Silverman also says
• 8:08
  Walmart's anti-fraud training program for its employees isn't adequate.
• 8:12
  Silverman: If you're working, say, the customer service desk at a Walmart,
• 8:15
  [START PROPUBLICA ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 8:16
  you need to be trained in not only how to have somebody return a pair of boots,
• 8:20
  you also now need to know about money laundering.
• 8:22
  Walmart is supposed to be training its associates who are running a cash
• 8:26
  to sort of spot the signs of somebody buying gift cards in a state of duress
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  or somebody buying a large number of gift cards.
• 8:33
  We found examples in court cases where people were buying,
• 8:37
  you know, more than 10,000 dollars' worth of gift cards in one store
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  or spread out over just a couple of stores.
• 8:44
  [END PROPUBLICA ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 8:44
  Khan, Narrating: There's much more detail in this "ProPublica" investigation,
• 8:48
  including how a Virginia man spearheaded an operation
• 8:52
  to launder millions in gift cards.
• 8:54
  [UPBEAT MUSIC FADES IN]
• 8:54
  You can check out the full story on the Apple News app.
• 9:06
  Now to the world of college sports.
• 9:09
  Imagine every time you stepped onto a basketball court,
• 9:12
  you were there purely to get run over.
• 9:15
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 9:16
  "The Athletic" recently took a look at a group of players who do just that.
• 9:20
  They are the men who volunteer to practice with some of the best women on the court.
• 9:25
  These guys are skilled, but not as skilled as the players they're practicing with,
• 9:29
  like Stanford's Cameron Brink,
• 9:31
  Southern Cal's Juju Watkins, and Iowa's Katelyn Clark.
• 9:35
  The practice players study the opposing team's offense and defense,
• 9:39
  helping to prepare these college stars for what they might see in the real game.
• 9:43
  There's a whole lot of cardio and checked egos involved.
• 9:47
  Isaac Pruitt, a member of the Iowa practice squad,
• 9:50
  said that he was once guarding Clark so close
• 9:53
  that their fingers interlocked when she took a three-point shot.
• 9:57
  She made it anyway.
• 9:59
  He described playing against her to the local publication "Hawk Central."
• 10:03
  [START HAWK CENTRAL ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 10:03
  Isaac Pruitt: She'll hit two shots that you're just like, "Wow."
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  The stuff that she hits in games, it's, like, it's incredible.
• 10:09
  But I'm like, "No, yeah, she's hit that on me before too."
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  So, that's the same way with all of us practice players and managers.
• 10:15
  [END HAWK CENTRAL ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 10:15
  Khan, Narrating: Kaitlin Clark is currently chasing the all-time scoring record
• 10:19
  for NCAA Division I basketball and has a chance
• 10:23
  [LAID-BACK MUSIC FADES IN]
• 10:23
  to rack up some more points tonight against Northwestern.
• 10:28
  You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
• 10:32
  And if you're already listening in the News app right now,
• 10:34
  we've got a narrated article coming up next.
• 10:37
  "Bloomberg Businessweek" looks at how Eli Lilly's new obesity treatment
• 10:41
  could become the best-selling drug of all time.
• 10:44
  If you're listening in the Podcasts app,
• 10:46
  follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
• 10:50
  And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
• 10:55
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]