KUALA LUMPUR – A New York judge has ordered Donald Trump to pay more than US$350 million (RM1.67 billion) in penalties for “blatant” fraud committed by the real estate empire that brought the former United States president fame and fortune.
According to a report by the Financial Times, justice Arthur Engoron also banned Trump from conducting further business in the state for three years.
He and his businesses are prohibited from applying for loans from financial institutions registered with the New York regulator during the same period.
However, Engoron reversed an earlier decision that had ordered the dissolution of the former president’s existing businesses.
Trump and his company, The Trump Organisation, were ordered to pay about US$355 million – the vast bulk of a total of US$364 million in penalties in the case. His adult sons, Donald Jr and Eric, were ordered to pay more than US$4 million each and individually barred from doing business in New York state for two years.
Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organisation’s former chief financial officer, who served jail time for tax fraud, was ordered to pay a further US$1 million.
With interest, the total amount of penalties handed down could exceed US$450 million, New York attorney-general Letitia James said in a statement after the decision.
The decision delivers another costly blow to Trump, who is mounting another run for the White House while fighting numerous legal cases.
In addition to the civil trial, which cut to the heart of his business holdings, he is also under indictment in four separate criminal cases.
In remarks delivered outside of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump denounced the decision.
“It all comes down to (Joe) Biden,” he said, referring to the US president he will probably face once again in the 2024 election.
“It’s a witch hunt against his political opponent, the likes of which our country has never seen before. You see it in third-world countries – banana republics.” Trump said.
Engoron’s ruling came following the conclusion of a heated, weeks-long civil fraud trial in which lawyers for the New York attorney-general detailed how the Trumps vastly overstated the value of their residential and office buildings, hotels, and golf courses by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Doing so had allowed them to obtain loans on more favourable terms from the likes of Deutsche Bank, among other benefits, the court found.
The attorney-general’s suit was a direct assault on the reputation Trump cultivated over decades as a billionaire businessman with a Midas touch.
Instead, James’ lawyers claimed he would press underlings to puff up valuations for his properties in order to push him up the ranks of the annual Forbes billionaires list.
Engoron added Trump “severely compromised his credibility” by often refusing to answer questions directly.
Rather than express regret for the overvaluation of his properties, Trump testified that he believed his accountants had “underestimated” their worth, insisting that Mar-a-Lago was worth up to US$1.5 billion, Engoron wrote.
This, he added, would value his Florida home higher “than the most expensive private residence listed in the country by approximately 400%”.
Engoron also dismissed Trump’s claim that there was no fraud as the loans had been repaid in full and there was no injured party.
James said in response to the judgement: “Everyday Americans cannot lie to a bank to get a mortgage to buy a home, and if they did, our government would throw the book at them. There simply cannot be different rules for different people.”
Chris Kise, a lawyer representing Trump, said: “The court today ignored the law, ignored the facts, and simply signed off on the attorney-general’s manifestly unjust political crusade against the front-running candidate for president of the United States.”
He confirmed Trump would appeal against the decision. – February 17, 2024