Two years after New York AG Letitia James brought the civil suit, and after five weeks of trial, Judge Engoron handed down one of the largest business-related sanctions on record.
Read the Trump civil business fraud judgement for yourself here:
Trump Civil Business Fraud JudgementFormer President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization must pay $354 million in fines and are barred from seeking loans from financial institutions in New York for a period of three years, a judge ruled Friday, issuing his long-awaited judgment in the state’s civil fraud case.
Judge Arthur Engoron handed down his judgment in a 92-page decision on Friday. The ruling is one of the largest corporate sanctions in New York history.
Trump is expected to appeal.
The judge’s decision comes five weeks after the trial in the case concluded.
New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the civil suit in 2022, asked the judge to bar Trump from doing business in the state and sought a penalty of $250 million, a figure her office increased to $370 million by the end of the trial. Trump, the Trump Organization and several executives, including his two eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, were named as co-defendants in the suit.
Trump and his legal team long expected a defeat, with the former president decrying the case as “rigged” and a “sham” and his lawyers laying the groundwork for an appeal before the judgment was even issued.
Even before Friday’s ruling, the judge had largely affirmed James’ allegations that Trump and others at his company inflated valuations of his properties by hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of a decade, and misrepresented his wealth by billions. The scheme, the state said, was meant to trick banks and insurers into offering more favorable deal terms.
Engoron ruled in September that Trump and the other defendants were liable for fraud, based on the evidence presented through pretrial filings.
The trial, which began in October, focused on other aspects of the lawsuit related to alleged falsification of business records, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud and conspiracy.
The financial penalty James sought, known as disgorgement, is meant to claw back the amount Trump and his company benefited from the scheme. (Under New York law, disgorgement cases are decided by a judge, not a jury.)
Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter and once an executive at the Trump Organization, was originally named as a defendant in the suit, but an appellate court later dismissed allegations against her, citing the state’s statute of limitations.
Fascinating that he’s barred from seeking loans, but his organization is intact and not barred from doing business in New York. Aside from the appeal, one wonders how soon he will file for bankruptcy . . .Report
After the election I would think.
Another likely option is to flee to Florida.
The real question is how much of his assets he needs to fork over to pay the judgement. Forbes thought he was worth $2.6B in 2023, so in theory this isn’t fatal to his empire.Report
Given the structure of the Trump Organization — more than 500 interlocking LLCs — how are the “running the business” terms going to apply? Is being the managing member of an LLC an executive? What about single-member LLCs? What about LLCs whose rules require a Trump to be the managing member? What about LLCs that own a property, where the money was put up by other people and Trump put up his brand?Report
Trump having to scrape together the superseas bond while he appeals may be pretty interesting. I don’t think he can just hand wave at the bonding companies and say “my business structure is complicated” and expect them to just pony up the cash.Report
There is already a monitor in the civil fraud case and nope. New York law also makes him pony up before he can appeal.Report
I’m thinking the Saudis go to a bonding company and guarantee the $355M. IANAL, but my understanding is this happens regularly on a smaller scale.
I admit that my only experience with bails/bonds was long ago in graduate school. My gay roommate was caught in a Friday night sweep the Travis County sheriff ran on a gay nightclub. He called me about 2:00 am and told me briefly the situation, and that the choices were post bail or he spent the weekend in (crowded) county lockup. Bail was $300. My bank had a 24/7 walk-up teller*. I got $300 out of my emergency fund** and bailed him out. On Monday morning the county judge waived all the charges and the clerk gave me my money back.
* Access was from the sidewalk along one side of the bank. I asked the guy about whether people tried to rob him. He said the bulletproof laminate between us was 1.5″ thick, and he just stuck his tongue out at them.
** Asked about it once, I replied that at that time (1977) $500 was enough for me to disappear for at least a couple of weeks should that ever be necessary.Report
I agree they could. I wonder if they would?
That is a fascinating story! Just a different world from my own (born in ’79)Report
Where else is there a wealthy country of 330M+ people, who own 200M+ automobiles, who routinely fly long distances, who depend on trucking for internal transport of goods, where there is a top court that seems willing to kill environmental regulation, and the possibility of a strong president who would kill electric cars?Report
Our deal with Saudi Arabia is we serve as their army.
That our oil tech is at war with their oil tech is annoying to them but irrelevant.Report
If he wins the election or looks like he’ll win? Yes, they would.Report
Yeah may be a bit of a chicken egg situation there but I don’t disagree.Report
It will be interesting to see the emerging talking points from MAGA land.
I’m thinking some combination of “liberal judge” and “Biden Deep State conspiracy”.
Anything other than “Yeah, he’s a crook”.Report
He’s a smart savvy businessman who just outsmarts the system Chip.Report