Several viral social media posts and web pages make claims that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg owns a multitude of high-end sports cars, luxury yachts, and lucrative investment properties.
One post on Facebook with more than 6,200 shares claims that Bragg, who prosecuted Donald Trump for falsifying records related to his hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, has a net worth of $42 million, which represents a growth of 300 percent in the past five years. The post also asserts that Bragg owns 12 properties, eight cars, and three luxury yachts. “How did DA Bragg Become so Wealthy?” it asks.
Similar information about Bragg began circulating online as early as July 2022, but its spread appears to have accelerated on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) in April 2023, when Trump was indicted, and gained attention again last week after a New York jury found Trump guilty on charges brought by Bragg. Many newer versions of the claim originate from a May 31, 2024, X post by A Man of Memes.
While there is not enough public information about Bragg’s finances to determine precisely how wealthy he is, the post’s estimated net worth of $42 million appears to be completely made up, and there is no evidence that Bragg owns 12 properties, eight cars, or three luxury yachts.
Most of the posts provide no sourcing to their claims about Bragg’s wealth, but the few that do link to several fishy websites that appear to publish both clickbait and AI-generated content. One page, originally published in October 2023, even provides a specific list of the luxury car models owned by Bragg, how much cash he has on hand, and how many stocks are in his portfolio.
None of this information can be found in reliable publications, however, and the public information that is available on Bragg casts doubt on the claims.
Bragg’s 2022 financial disclosures, the most recent available, report that he held interests in only two properties, not 12: A townhome in West Harlem originally belonging to his mother, Sadie Bragg, and a home in Petersburg, Virginia, that belonged to his grandmother. As of 2022, the Virginia property, which was most recently valued at $95,000, was held jointly by Bragg’s uncle and Bragg’s mother’s estate, of which Bragg is the beneficiary. Following her death in 2018, Bragg’s mother’s estate also assumed control of her Harlem property, which was sold on April 5, 2022, for $2,250,000.
According to the disclosures, Bragg received a salary of between $100,000 and $249,000 from his position as district attorney in 2022, supplemental income of $5,000 to $54,999 in distributions and dividends from a Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association account, and an additional $5,000 to $54,999 in retirement plan distributions from the City University of New York. He also held several retirement accounts valued between $60,000 and $499,999 each, a Charles Schwab managed account worth between $5,000 and $54,999, and some amount greater than $500,000 in the bank account of his mother’s estate.
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