Donald Trump

The group of tenants from rent-regulated apartments that late family Fred C. Trump once owned are filing a class-action lawsuit, alleging a long-running scheme in which a Trump-controlled company, All County Building Supply, artificially adjusted the cost of appliances and other materials to justify raising rents at more than 30 buildings previously owned and managed by the Trumps in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

Trump is a named defendant in the lawsuit, along with his siblings Robert S. Trump, now deceased, and Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired federal judge. The companies that own or oversee the properties now are also named in the suit, because they have allegedly benefited from the rent increases that took effect years ago.

The case names 20 plaintiffs who represent a class of victims. The case was filed in New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn.

The allegations stem from a New York Times investigation that exposed a history of alleged malfeasance as the Trump family’s sizeable real estate business ballooned into an empire.

If the plaintiffs are successful, Trump and the other defendants could have to pay out millions in compensation and damages, according to lawyer Jerrold S. Parker, who represents the tenants.

The suit alleges that current and former tenants from at least 14,000 apartments were overcharged, The Washington Post reports.

Mr Parker said: “This is a massive fraud spanning 28 years, victimizing several hundred thousand tenants in Trump regulated apartments and needs to be addressed. These regulated tenants, many of whom struggle just to pay the rent and put food on the table, must be made whole for the money that was unlawfully and unknowingly taken from them by the Trump family for their own personal gain.”

A spokeswoman for the Trump family dismissed the lawsuit as “completely frivolous”.