Former US President Donald Trump must pay nearly $355m to New York state for lying about the values of his properties, a judge has ruled.
Judge Arthur Engoron also banned him from serving as a company director or taking out loans from banks in the state for three years.
The New York real estate mogul escaped having some of his companies dissolved, which could have meant bankruptcy.
Speaking from his Florida estate, Mr Trump said he would appeal the ruling.
“A crooked New York state judge just ruled I have to pay a fine for $350m for having built a perfect company,” the former president said from Mar-a-Lago on Friday, calling the ruling a political witch hunt.
“It’s a very sad day for – in my opinion – the country.”
In the ruling on Friday, Judge Engoron referred to previous allegations of wrongdoing in justifying the large amounts he ordered the defendants to pay, writing that they “are likely to continue their fraudulent ways” unless he imposed a “significant” penalty.
He made specific reference to the Trump Organization’s conviction in a criminal tax fraud case in 2022, where a jury found it had enriched its top executives with off-the books benefits for more than a decade.
According to a report, Former President Donald Trump must pay nearly $355m to New York state for lying about the values of his properties, a judge has ruled.
Judge Arthur Engoron also banned him from serving as a company director or taking out loans from banks in the state for three years.
The New York real estate mogul escaped having some of his companies dissolved, which could have meant bankruptcy.
Trump and the other defendants in the case, Engoron wrote in the ruling, “are incapable of admitting the error of their ways” “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron wrote.
“Instead, they adopt a ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ posture that the evidence belies.”
The lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump and his family businesses of overstating his net worth by as much $3.6 billion a year over a decade to fool bankers into giving him better loan terms.
Trump, who faces criminal charges in four other cases, has called the lawsuit a political vendetta by James, a Democrat.
Still, Mr Trump’s empire was spared from one of the worst potential outcomes – the cancellation of its business licences, known as the corporate death penalty. Instead, the judge ordered two tiers of oversight – an independent monitor to report to the court for up to three years and a separate independent director of compliance to be installed.
The judge is also requiring Mr Trump pay interest on the profits he made by committing the fraud (known as “prejudgment interest”), which could bring the final amount penalty total to around $450m.
Along with what Mr Trump has been ordered to pay, his two adult sons and co-defendants, Donald Jr and Eric, must each pay $4m. They are barred for two years from doing business in New York, while another co-defendant, Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has been ordered to pay $1m.
Additionally, Mr Trump, his company, and its affiliates cannot apply for loans in New York for three years.
Mr Trump vehemently denied wrongdoing throughout the trial. In a six-minute speech during closing arguments in January, Mr Trump declared himself an “innocent man” and called the case a “fraud on me”.
And the former president said repeatedly that he paid his lenders, which meant there was no crime. While in his ruling Judge Engoron acknowledged that no banks were hurt, he added that “the next group of lenders to receive bogus statements might not be so lucky”.
Speaking from his Florida estate, Mr Trump said he would appeal the ruling.
“A crooked New York state judge just ruled I have to pay a fine for $350m for having built a perfect company,” the former president said from Mar-a-Lago on Friday, calling the ruling a political witch hunt.
“It’s a very sad day for – in my opinion – the country.” Donald Trump must pay $354.9 million in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth to dupe lenders, handing the former U.S. president another legal setback in a civil case that imperils his real estate empire.
Justice Arthur Engoron, in a sharply worded decision, issued after a contentious three-month trial in Manhattan, also banned Trump from business in New York.
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