Judge Arthur Engoron fined former Donald Trump and the Trump Organization on Friday in civil a fraud case for more than $350 million and barred him from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sought to essentially bankrupt Trump by calling for a $370 million fine and a lifetime of from the real estate industry in New York State. James claimed Trump committed financial fraud.
Trump plans to appeal the ruling. “This is a case that should have never been brought, and I think we should be entitled to damages,” Trump said during closing arguments.
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley called the ruling “confiscatory, extreme, and abusive.”
The judgment is the second this year in which Trump was found guilty and required to millions. In writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him, the judge orderedTrump to pay $83.3 million.
NBC News reported specifics of the case:
James contended the defendants used the inflated financial statements to obtain bank loans and insurance policies at rates he otherwise wouldn’t have been entitled to and “reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.”
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Among the examples cited as fraud by the attorney general’s office during the trial was Trump valuing his triplex home in Trump Tower in New York City at three times its actual size and value, as well as including a brand value to increase the valuation of his golf courses on the financial statements, which explicitly said brand values were not included.
Another example pointed to by the attorney general clearly got under his skin — a dispute over the value of Mar-a-Lago, his social club and residence in Florida. Trump’s financial statements between 2011 and 2021 valued Mar-a-Lago at between $426 million and $612 million, while the Palm Beach County assessor appraised the property’s market value to be between $18 million and $27 million during the same timeframe.
The judge fined Donald Trump’s children as well, CNN reported:
Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump’s adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, liable for a host of civil fraud counts in New York, including issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records and conspiracy.
He ordered them each to pay $4 million for their personal profits from the fraud.
In addition, Engoron fined former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg $1 million.
James’ case against Trump is just one of many legal challenges the former president faces. Local and federal prosecutors filed four indictments against the president.
The indictments account for 91 counts: 34 counts in New York, with a maximum penalty of 136 years; 40 counts in Miami, with up to 450 years; four counts in Washington, DC, with up to 55 years; and 13 counts in Georiga, with up to 76.5 years.
