The judge presiding over the court a civil business fraud litigation He made his decision on the case against Donald Trump and his company.
Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the former president and the Trump Organization to pay more than $350 million in restitution and “prohibited Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for a period of three years.”
It also continued the “appointment of an Independent Monitor” and ordered the “appointment of an Independent Compliance Officer” for the company.
The ruling is the second against Trump this year, following a blow to Trump last month 83.3 million dollars verdict in writer E. Jean Carroll’s libel suit against him. The former president could also face four criminal charges this year as part of his campaign for the November election. is set first to start March 25 in New York state court.
The Attorney General of New York was Letitia James He wants 370 million dollars Trump, his company and top executives, including his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump persistent fraud“This included falsified business records and financial statements. James claimed that these financial statements were sometimes inflated by as much as $2.2 billion.
James alleged that the defendants used the inflated financial statements to obtain bank loans and insurance policies at rates he would otherwise not have been entitled to. hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal profits”.
Trump claimed the financial reports were conservative and called the AG’s allegations politically motivated and “fraud against me.”
“This is a case that should never be dismissed, and I think we should be entitled to compensation,” Trump told reporters during the meeting. closing arguments on the case on January 11.
The month–long civil trial Statement from is included Trump and his eldest children. The former president was combative during his days in the stands, calling James a “hack” and calling the referee “extremely hostile.”
Trump repeatedly complained about Engoron before and throughout the trial, and after he also began blasting the judge’s law clerk, the judge slapped him with a partial gag order. Trump’s complaints caused a flood death threats In addition to court officials, court officials and Trump were also against Engoron He was fined $15,000 for violating the order twice.
Examples of fraud cited by the attorney general’s office during the trial included Trump appraising his triplex home in Trump Tower in New York at three times its actual size and value, as well as including brand value to inflate the price of his golf course. Brand values are not clearly stated in financial reporting courses.
Another example the attorney general pointed to got under his skin – a dispute over the value of Mar-a-Lago, his social club, and his residence in Florida. Trump’s financial statements between 2011 and 2021 valued Mar-a-Lago at between $426 million and $612 million, while a Palm Beach County assessor estimated the property’s market value between $18 million and $27 million during the same period. Trump fraudulently inflated the property’s value by saying it was a private residence, despite signing a deed that it could only be used as a social club to reduce the tax burden.
Trump said during the trial that the property was valuable much, much more.
“The judge had 18 million dollars, and this is, for example, 50-100 times more expensive than that. I don’t know how you get those numbers,” Trump testified, later adding that he actually thought it was worth “a billion to a billion and five.”
James’ investigation into the former president’s business dealings began in 2019 as a result of his former personal attorney’s testimony to Congress. Michael Cohenhe told the House Oversight Committee that Trump would appropriately expand and shrink values regardless of business needs.
James sued Trump for $250 million in 2022, and the judge appointed supervisor overseeing the company’s finances that November.
In a short sentence judgment A week before the start of the trial, Engoron revealed that Trump and his executives had repeatedly engaged in fraud. Here, the “documents clearly contain false prices that defendants used in their business [the attorney general’s] the defendants have the burden of establishing liability as a matter of law,” the judge wrote in denying Trump’s motion to dismiss the case.
Engoron summed up Trump’s defense: “The documents don’t say what they say; there is no such thing as “objective” value; and essentially, the Court should not believe its own eyes.”
Trump order attractiveIt decided to revoke Trump’s business certificates in New York.
Trump complained about this decision on the witness stand. “He said I was a fraud before he knew anything about me,” Trump said. “That’s a terrible thing you did.”