A New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay $355 million over fraud claims and barred him from running firms in the state for three years on Friday, dealing a severe blow to his corporate empire and financial status.
Trump, who is nearly certain to be the Republican presidential nominee in November, was found guilty for illegally exaggerating his wealth and manipulating property values in order to gain advantageous bank loans or insurance rates.
Alina Habba, Trump’s defense lawyer, branded the ruling a “manifest injustice” and pledged to appeal.
Because the matter was civil, not criminal, there was no risk of jail. However, Trump stated before of the verdict that a prohibition on doing business in New York state would be equivalent to a “corporate death penalty.”
Trump, who is facing 91 criminal indictments in other cases, has used his legal troubles to rally fans and criticize his likely opponent, President Joe Biden, alleging that court cases are “just a way of hurting me in the election.”
Judge Arthur Engoron, on the other hand, stated that Trump’s actions justifies the severe punishments.
“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron wrote of the defendants in his harsh decision.
“They are accused of inflating asset values to increase profits…” Donald Trump isn’t Bernard Madoff. However, defendants are incapable of recognizing their mistakes,” he said, alluding to the perpetrator of a huge Ponzi scam.
Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., were also found responsible in the case and sentenced to pay $4,013,024 apiece.
Trump’s public presence was created as a property developer and businessman in New York, which he utilized to launch himself into the entertainment industry and, eventually, the presidency.
The judge’s decision was a victory for New York Attorney General Letitia James. She had demanded $370 million from Trump to compensate for the claimed unfair benefit he had obtained, as well as to prevent him from doing business in the state.
Whirlwind legal week
Trump has repeatedly attacked James, calling her a “lunatic” and painting Engoron, who resolved the case without a jury, as “out of control.”
During very technical testimony, the court learned that in one example, Trump appraised Mar-a-Lago, his luxury Florida club, using “asking prices,” rather than actual sales prices, as a comparison.
“From 2011 to 2015, defendants added a 30% premium because the property was a ‘completed (commercial) facility,'” the prosecution claimed, claiming it unlawfully skewed its genuine value.
According to Trump’s lawyer, Chris Kise, “there is no clear and present evidence establishing intent by Donald Trump.”
Kise agreed that there may be inaccuracies in Trump’s firm financial filings, but none “lead to the conclusion there was fraud.”
The decision follows a hectic legal week for Trump.
Trump appeared in a New York court on Thursday ahead of his criminal trial, where he is accused of illegally concealing hush money payments. This will be the first criminal trial for a former US president.
Trump’s lawyers were also in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is charged with conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden.
The prosecutor in that case responded with hardly veiled indignation Thursday to efforts to have her removed from the case for inappropriate behavior, claiming that her relationship with another lawyer on the case was legal.
A separate trial in Washington, DC, on Trump’s attempts to invalidate the 2020 election is pending as he seeks presidential immunity.
The twice-impeached former president is set to stand trial in Florida in May on allegations of concealing troves of highly classified information in his personal possessions when he left office and obstructing investigators’ efforts to recover them.
Last month, another New York judge ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to compensate writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he was convicted in a civil lawsuit to have sexually abused and then defamed.