Donald Trump faced a significant legal blow this Friday that affected both his finances and his image as a successful real estate magnate. Judge Arthur Engoron, who oversees the New York civil fraud case against the former president and his top business, issued a verdict obligating him to pay more than 350 million dollars. The ruling centers on the finding that Trump and his company inflated property values to secure favorable loans, gain advantages from insurers, and obtain other benefits, while also addressing part of the prosecutor’s requests to curb Trump and his family’s business activities in New York. Trump’s lawyers have indicated they will appeal the decision.
The New York State Attorney General’s office, led by Letitia James, sought a permanent ban on running any New York-based company and asked that Donald Jr. and Eric face a five-year restriction, along with a prohibition on the Trump Organization from obtaining loans from New York banks for the same duration. Engoron ultimately limited the business restrictions to three years for Trump and two years for his two sons. Donald Jr. and Eric were also ordered to pay four million dollars each.
The only silver lining for the former president is that Engoron reversed a prior measure against the Trump Organization, rescinding some corporate certificates to operate in New York and ordering dissolution of certain entities. That action had been put on hold while an appeal proceeded.
El caso
The civil trial, conducted without a jury, lasted two and a half months and concluded in mid-January. Trump himself was one of the 40 witnesses who testified, acknowledging participation in some decisions related to property valuations, while pointing to the responsibility of lawyers and accountants and arguing that banks were responsible for their own appraisals. He also claimed that banks were eager to do business with him, a claim corroborated by other testimonies.
Engoron’s task was to determine penalties. Prosecutors had sought about 370 million dollars, far beyond the 168 million they believe was saved by inflating property values. A 70-year-old statute—used previously in cases against Exxon Mobil, Juul, and the pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli—was invoked to justify tougher penalties by considering market distortions and the harm to corporate integrity caused by fraudulent actions.
Other cases
This Friday’s verdict comes weeks after Trump was penalized in another civil defamation case, ordered to pay 83.3 million dollars to E. Jean Carroll, the columnist who accused him of assault in the 1990s. In an earlier trial he was ordered to pay 5.5 million dollars for the assault. The latest judgments contribute to a broader impact on Trump’s wealth, with Forbes estimating his net worth at 2.6 billion dollars, while the New York prosecutor placed it at about 2.0 billion dollars in 2021.
Trump also faces four other criminal cases with a total of 91 charges. Two of these concern his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, at both the national and Georgia state levels. Another focuses on his handling of classified documents, and a fourth case, set to begin in New York on March 25, centers on falsifying records to conceal hush-money payments made before the 2016 election to Stormy Daniels.
In that last matter, Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, could be called to testify. Weisselberg has been negotiating a plea with prosecutors in exchange for not testifying in the Stormy Daniels case. In Friday’s ruling, Weisselberg was sentenced to pay one million dollars.
Sources note that the broader legal saga continues to unfold across multiple venues, with each decision contributing to a complex financial and reputational landscape for the former president. Credible outlets have reported on the various dimensions of these actions, including court documents and statements from the parties involved (Source: The New York Times; Source: Bloomberg).