Judge Arthur Engoron, of New York, has sentenced Donald Trump to pay $354.9 million for having defrauded banks and insurance companies for a decade through the Trump Organization. In addition, it prohibits him and his children Donald jr. and Eric – who will also have to pay 4 million each – to hold high positions in any company in the state, including his real estate empire. The financial penalty could amount to $400 million if interest is added.
The tycoon's lawyer, Alina Habba, has announced in a statement that she will appeal against the decision, which she has described as "manifest injustice, simply and plainly". "It is the culmination of a witch hunt of several years, fueled politically, which was designed to bring down Donald Trump, before Letitia James - who presented the case - set foot in the attorney general's office", he says .
Engoron already ruled in September, in a summary judgment, that Trump and his sons fraudulently and drastically inflated, between 2011 and 2021, the valuations of the company's assets to obtain favorable credits from banks and insurance companies . In that ruling, he also issued an order to cancel his business licenses in New York, but the decision was put on hold after Trump appealed. In this Friday's ruling, Engoron has lifted this ban.
"In order to obtain more loans and at lower rates, the defendants presented blatantly false financial data to the accountants, which resulted in fraudulent financial statements," the magistrate emphasized in the 92-page ruling. "When confronted at trial with the statements, the defendants' witnesses and experts simply denied the reality and did not accept responsibility or impose internal controls to prevent future recurrences."
Among the more than 200 false valuations found by prosecutor James, which Trump inflated his net worth by nearly $3.6 billion, include his Trump Tower triplex, his private Mar-a club - Lago, Trump Park Avenue and some of its golf courses.
This is the second civil judgment against the former president in recent months, after a New York civil jury last month ordered him to pay $83.3 million in damages to columnist E. Jean Carroll for repeatedly defaming her over the years . And it comes on top of another conviction from last May for sexual abuse in Carroll. In addition, the ex-president faces 91 criminal charges imputed in four different judicial processes. And the ban on running for office in Colorado, a case that is already in the hands of the Supreme Court and whose initial arguments began on February 8.
Friday's conviction is not only a blow to his real estate empire, but also to the image of a successful businessman that catapulted him to celebrity status. Engoron's decision ruled that part of his fortune was non-existent, the product of a falsification of the assets in the accounting statements. That is to say, that he is not the self-made entrepreneur he says he is, but a hardened con artist, in view of the verdict.
The civil suit was filed in September 2022 by the New York attorney general, which initially sought $250 million, but eventually increased it to $370 million for Trump and the other defendants. This figure represents, James alleged, the profits made during ten years of fraudulent practices.
"For years, Trump falsely inflated his net worth to enrich himself and cheat the system," the prosecutor wrote in a statement on October 2, when the trial began. "His alleged net worth has been based for a long time on an incredible fraud", he assured. "In this country there are consequences for fraud. No matter how rich or powerful you are, there are no two different levels of law. Justice must be applied equally to everyone and it is my responsibility to ensure that it is so", he concluded.
