Donald Trump must pay US$355 million, barred from New York business for 3 years, judge rules
- Justice Engoron had earlier ruled that the ex-US president had engaged in fraud by overstating his net worth to dupe lenders
- The civil fraud case could deal a major blow to Trump’s real estate empire as he seeks to challenge Joe Biden in the US presidential election in November
Donald Trump must pay US$354.9 million in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth to dupe lenders, a New York judge ruled on Friday, handing the former US 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, who is running to regain the presidency this year, from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years. Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba vowed to appeal.
Engoron cancelled his prior ruling from September ordering the “dissolution” of companies that control pillars of Trump’s real estate empire, saying on Friday that this was no longer necessary because he is appointing an independent monitor and compliance director to oversee Trump’s businesses.
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 as US$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.