New York's attorney-general is suing Donald Trump for $US40 million ($A44.63 million), saying the real estate mogul helped run a phony "Trump University" that promised to make students rich but instead steered them into expensive and mostly useless seminars.
Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman says many of the 5000 students who paid up to $US35,000 thought they would at least meet Trump.
Instead, Schneiderman says all they got was their picture taken in front of a life-size picture of Trump.
Schneiderman is suing the program, Trump as the university chairman, and the former president of the university in a case to be handled in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
He filed the suit on Saturday against the program and Trump, accusing them of engaging in persistent fraud, illegal and deceptive conduct and violating federal consumer protection law.
Schneiderman seeks the $US40 million mostly to pay restitution to consumers.
There was no immediate comment from Trump's spokeswoman on Saturday.
The lawsuit says many of the wannabe moguls were unable to land even one real estate deal and were left far worse off than before the lessons, facing thousands of dollars in debt for the seminar program billed as a top quality university with Trump's "hand-picked" instructors.
