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Former President Donald Trump (left) lost a legal battle on Friday, and will need to pay over $350 million in damages for his illicit business practices after a lawsuit by Attorney General Letitia James (right).
Photos by AP/Mary Altaffer and Lloyd Mitchell
A New York judge on Friday ordered former President Donald Trump to cough up more than $350 million in damages and has barred him from operating a business in the Empire state for the next three years, concluding a years-long civil fraud trial over his company’s business practices.
The Feb. 16 ruling from New York County Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron capped off the past few months of chaotic legal proceedings, triggered by a suit brought by state Attorney General Letitia James in 2022.
“Today we proved that no one is above the law — no matter how rich,” James said following the ruling. “Donald Trump may have written The Art of the Deal, but he perfected the art of the steal.”
The trial, which did not have a jury, ran from last October through December.
The judge found that Trump had inflated his net worth and the value of his assets to attain more favorable treatment from financial institutions.
“In order to borrow more and at lower rates, defendants submitted blatantly false financial data to the accountants, resulting in fraudulent financial statements,” Engoron’s ruling reads. “When confronted at trial with the statements, defendants’ fact and expert witnesses simply denied reality, and defendants failed to accept responsibility or to impose internal controls to prevent future recurrences.”
Engoron’s decision will see Trump fined $354 million and blocked from running any business in New York for the next three years. It also prevents him from being able to apply for loans from banks “chartered by or registered with” the state Department of Financial Services for the same period.
Two of Trump’s sons — Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — who are both top executives at the Trump organization, were both fined over $4 million and are blocked from being able to hold an executive position at a New York-based company for the next two years.
The judge also ordered that Trump Organization executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney be permanently barred from serving in a “financial control function” at a New York-based company.
James, in a Friday statement, said “justice has been served” with Engoron’s ruling.
“This is a tremendous victory for this state, this nation, and for everyone who believes that we all must play by the same rules — even former presidents,” James said. “For years, Donald Trump engaged in massive fraud to falsely inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family, and his organization … Now, Donald Trump is finally facing accountability for his lying, cheating, and staggering fraud.”
“No matter how big, rich, or powerful you think you are — no one is above the law,” she added.
Trump, who has maintained he did nothing wrong throughout the trial, lashed out at the attorney general and judge in a post on his social media site Truth Social.
“A Crooked New York State Judge, working with a totally Corrupt Attorney General who ran on the basis of ‘I will get Trump,’ before knowing anything about me or my company, has just fined me $355 Million based on nothing other than having built a GREAT COMPANY,” Trump wrote. “ELECTION INTERFERENCE. WITCH HUNT (more to follow!).”
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