Donald Trump's likely EU ambassador Ted Malloch 'made false statements' to banks to obtain millions in loans

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Ted Malloch, a professor tipped to become Donald Trump’s ambassador to the EU, reportedly made false statements to deceive two US banks into giving him multimillion-dollar loans, then later declared himself bankrupt.

Mr Malloch and his wife Beth falsely stated they had £36.3m in assets in order to take out the loans, according to court documents seen by the Financial Times.

When the couple filed for bankruptcy in 2013, the couple said they had just $152,000 and therefore could not repay the outstanding debt of $5.9m.

The US court ruled in favour of the banks and said that the couple had acted with the intent to deceive when making their applications.

The bank reportedly said in court documents that the couple had “failed to explain satisfactorily the loss of assets or deficiency of assets”. They had “falsely represented . . . the nature and value of their assets and did so for the purpose of deceiving [the bank] and/or obtaining loan approval and subsequent modifications thereof”.

In February, Oxford University accused Mr Malloch of falsely claiming to be a fellow at two of its colleges. Mr Malloch’s autobiography also contains a number of misleading claims, including that he was called a “genius” by Margaret Thatcher and “knighted” by the Queen.

Mr Malloch also said last month that Greece is contemplating leaving the euro in favour of the US dollar.

According to the transcript of a translated interview with Greek local online news site ekathimerini.com, Mr Malloch claimed Greek economists are looking into taking on the US banknotes in a move that he said would “freak out” Germany.

He said: “I know some Greek economists who have even gone to leading think tanks in the US to discuss this topic and the question of dollarisation.

Mr Malloch, a strident Brexiteer, has indicated he is no fan of Brussels on several occasions.

In February, on BBC One's This Week, when asked why he wanted to be US ambassador to the EU, he said: "I had in a previous career a diplomatic post where I helped bring down the Soviet Union. So maybe there's another union that needs a little taming."